At the beggining of this year a position became vacant for a PA in a small department of a very large company.
The reception area is covered by 2 members of staff on a shared basis & one member of that team applied for the PA role bit wasn't successful & the other member of the staff wanted to apply but didn't think she had the right skills so she didn't apply (worked on reception for years)
The PA position was given to someone who decided she didn't want the job on the day she was meant to start so the position was left vacant whilst they looked for someone to fill the role (receptionist still didn't apply & manager didn't ask her to put herself foward)
Whilst this is going on I'm none the wiser to all this & a sahm with no PA experience but I have had a long & successful career in a different field & fully capable of doing the role & learning along the way.
My DH found out about the position being vacant again as he works at a different branch of the same company so he spoke to the manager about it who basically said they were desperate to fill the position as one PA was now trying to run both departments & it was to much work for one person.
I decided to send in my CV, got an interview which went really well & I was offered the job with an immediate start.
That was a few months ago & I am doing really well apart from the fact that both receptionists are highly pissed off that I have been hired.
One of the first areas I was asked to get involved in was to help sort out some issues the receptionists had with each other about covering holidays, it became apparent very quickly that they were working on different contracts & job descriptions so I suggested, after speaking with HR, giving them both a performance review & getting the job descriptions changed so the matched. The PA would be responsible for doing these reviews but as I have only been there a very short time I asked a different line manager to carry out the reviews, with an interesting outcome!
Basically one of the receptionists (the one who didn't apply) has decided that she wants my job, she has also now decided she is more than capable to do the role now I have been hired & wants to take more responsibity of the role to "help" me out & has asked for the manager to speak to HR to do some PA, HR & Payroll training courses!
This manager is not the general manager, whom I am PA for so I am not sure how far it will all go, I suppose I'm worried because she has many years experience with the company where I have none & if she decides to make my job difficult I will not reach my targets by the end of my probation period, contract terminated & the position made free for the receptionist. She is well liked & very good at her job, I think she is very proffesional & friendly but I really don't think I can trust her to "help" which I am meant to do during the learning period.
Just a bit of a long rant really as I can't talk to anyone at work about it, I'm taking the unaware of the atmosphere approach at the minute but I'm willing to do what ever it takes to keep my job.