Do you think it is unreasonable for a boss to ask his Secretary to make a cup of tea?

[Pepperypig]

My boss asked his Secretary to do this for him and a client the other day. It used to be commonplace but I would have thought that it wasn't part of her duties?

Depends entirely what is in their job description. The secretaries and PA’s in my team arrange hospitality for big meetings and make individual drinks for 1-2-1 meetings etc but they don’t make drinks on demand for the director they support individually. e.g the director makes their own drinks unless they are actually meeting a client/colleague formally.

It wasn't just for the boss but for the client too which woukd be perfectly normal.anywhere I have ever worked.

Perfectly normal in the UK. We have a round. We always include the directors because they are our superiors and as many have already said: their time is more valuable. I quite like being paid to make tea.

Standard. I did it when a secretary, my secretary did it for me.

I share an office with the kettle. I've offered to make my manager's manager a drink, and he's asked me to make him one, when he's been busy. Likewise, he'll offer to make me one.

On busy days, when he's going form one mtg to another, If I don't make it then He won't get one. I'm also a manager, not a secretary or a PA. Doesn't bother me, it's just something I do as one human to another. Wouldn't like to see someone go without a drink just cos I'm female or subordinate to him. I don't feel patronised or put upon.

If you were the external client
would you want your meeting time wasted waiting for the kettle to boil ??

It was a meeting with a client - nothing unusual about a secretary being asked to make a drink. It would be rude to keep the client waiting while the boss pottered around in the kitchen.

Totally different if the boss was alone and expected drinks to be made.

No one is too busy to make themselves a cup of tea, and people who think that someone should be at their beck and call need to get over themselves.

It's not unusual for an EA to nip out to Pret to get their boss some lunch, because otherwise they often wouldn't eat all day

If you're in back to back meetings all day with barely time to have a pee, it's not uncommon to not have any time to make a tea or coffee!

Most EAs see it as a standard part of the job to ask their boss if they'd like them to nip out and get them a sandwich - they manage their diary, so they can see if their boss isn't going to be able to get themselves anything to eat or drink.

My PA offers visiting clients tea/coffee when she is sorting them out as they arrive/sit down (she keeps 'our' cups/cutlery at her desk as she had views about the office kitchen/dishwasher).

I bring her a coffee every morning on the way in.

When I was a secretary I always made the drinks for clients. Is part of the job in my opinion. Not demeaning in any way.

I think this is normal. As long as it is accompanied by please and thanks!

What's not normal - I joined a large media agency as an account exec (so junior) a good few years ago. Client walks in to a meeting, knowing I'm on the client team and not catering, and just says to me, "coffee." No please. No thank you. I wouldn't have minded if it was a "can I have a coffee please?". He wasn't even that arrogant, he just was to junior people like me. That's not normal.

I used to be a legal secretary and we had an office junior who used to make the drinks... but every morning and every lunchtime I always made my fee-earner his milky coffee! He was a great boss though!

I once made a coffee for one of the partners and he chucked it out of the window! Cheeky bastard then informed me he now only drank green-tree... so rude!

I’m an executive assistant and my female boss never expects me to make her tea!

In my first job we had a tea lady. Mid 90s merchant back. She was marvellous.

Oh, tea ladies. Tea ladies were brilliant. Are they completely extinct now?

This sort of thing is why I've never successfully worked in an office. I do not see my superiors' time at work as more valuable than mine. My current boss is great: I respect his judgement and knowledge but I'm also relieved that I'm never expected to run round after him.

Dione, I think so. They were kind of worth the money when tea breaks were the only way to skive so it saves money by keeping them working. I think the internet killed them off coz if you weren’t in the kitchen making tea you’d only be on Mumsnet or Reddit of the Daily Mail instead.

But if you make $25 an hour and your boss makes $50 an hour, his/her time is literally more valuable than yours, at least to the employer.

Why would it be unreasonable ?
I mean, I don't work in an industry where there are secretaries, but, in my innocence, I'd have thought it would be part of the job description to provide a cuppa for a meeting (unless in some vast organisation that has separate catering teams, but assuming not).

However, I think it's the whole being asked to make tea which seems a bit demeaning.

Eh? How is it demeaning to make someone a cup of tea?? I'd call it hospitable. Maybe friendly, or welcoming.

I doubt they would ask a man to do this.

Well, one place I go in to has a Receptionist who is a man, who always makes me a drink when I get there. Oddly, the only one the his equivalents (no I think about it) who does. The other 2 - who happen to be female - never offer. I know Receptionist and secretary and admin and PA can all be different roles, but equally what a person is called in one organisation can be different from what the same person is called elsewhere.

In the world in which I work, a partner's time is typically charged out at £600 per hour, whereas a secretary or member of the admin team is not charged to clients. I would be seriously hacked off if I received a bill as a client including £60 for the partner's time making two cups of tea, let alone the time I would have wasted sitting in a meeting room waiting for him/her to get on with what I was actually paying them for.

I do not see my superiors' time at work as more valuable than mine.

Office or not, public or private sector, that is a really shitty attitude. Some people get paid more than others because they have more skills. If you get paid ten pounds an hour and your boss gets paid £50 but you can’t see why you refusing to acknowledge that and help free in their time for more valuable work, either for profit or for the benefit of tax payers who fund you, then you are a shitty employee and bad at maths.

If you’re a teacher you don’t ask the head to do registration. If you’re a nurse you don’t ask a doctor to do obs. Not expecting an M.D. to do the tea for a meeting is exactly the same thing in for a PA.

It’s a cup of tea to ensure the client has a refreshment, she’s not being asked to wipe somebodies arse. Of course it’s perfectly reasonable

I do not see my superiors' time at work as more valuable than mine.

Except that it is literally more valuable

It's perfectly possible for him or her to manage their own diary, book their own travel, book meeting rooms etc. But the EA takes those responsibilities on to enable their boss to focus their time on activities that are literally more financially valuable to the company.

Mind you, we also used to have a tea lady. Her job was to give partner's 2 hot drinks in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. If you were a lesser mortal you only got 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. She also had to make tea or coffee for all client meetings between 9-5. She was made redundant and drinks for client meetings became part of the PA's roles.

I dont cause hes never in the office and if he is its very fleeting BUT if he ever brought someone in for a meeting I absolutely would. Its not demeaning in my opinion at all you are only making a drink not wiping his arse.

Which by the way some people do do in their employent as a cater for other people and thats not demeaning either.