To want a PA?

[MargeGoesBowling]

I’m busy, much like everyone else. I don’t have a particularly unusual amount on my plate, but I constantly seem to spend my evenings and weekends doing life admin. Friends and family seem to experience this too.

I work full time. We’re ib in the middle of buying a house/organising movers/dealing with solicitors/life assurance etc. Also in the middle of another legal issue dealing with a legacy problem linked to a previous inheritance. DH is looking after that one, but still needs me to speak to the solicitor (we need to show we’ve both had legal advice), search for and provide documents that only I have access to (personal bank statements going back a number of years), my car insurance is due for renewal so trying to get quotes but everyone insists on a phone call during office hours rather than just letting me do it all online at the weekend, our dog is very ill so there’s regular vet appointments (shared between me and DH), also trying to organise home help for my parent but proving problematic. Then the usual life stuff- shopping, cleaning, trying to book doctors appointments, needing to get the oven cleaned etc.

I outsource what I can- shopping online, had a cleaner up until Covid, DH does his fair share (he has a similar list as the one I’ve given above, and he also works full time and household tasks are 50/50) but it’s just constant.

I’m not saying “oooh, I’m soooo much busier than everyone else”, I’m just saying I would happily pay for someone to take on some of this shit for me, especially the stuff that involves endless phone calls during the day. Or even just the small things like someone to buy birthday cards and gifts for my nieces and nephews and actually post them on time would be very handsomely rewarded. Or someone who will come to my house and just take over the phone when I’m on hold so I can get something else done while I’m waiting?

And this is lighthearted, before the barrage of “you have as many hours in the day as Beyoncé” posts start. Yes, I have the time, I just don’t want to spend it doing shitty, boring life admin. I’m competent, I’m organised, I’m just bored of constantly having to deal with STUFF.

Am I being unreasonable to think that a lot of people would pay to have a PA in the same way as they’d pay for a cleaner or takeaway?

If you're happy to pay for it, I'm sure that somebody would be happy to do it!

YANBU and if anyone says you are then throw something at them. It’s relentless and tbf you sound like you have a lot on your plate.

Not sure why you don't just pay for one instead of creating a thread and moaning about it. No judgement for actually wanting a PA! Just do it if you can afford it.

I have been a PA for a wealthy couple and did things like this. I would organise things like: online shopping returns, the other staff like dog groomers and cleaners, open their letters, organise bill payments, buy tickets for events, organise their holiday. Super well paid too.

Right there with you, OP! Also you don’t have as many hours in the day as Beyoncé, precisely because she has staff to take care of all this stuff. Lots of life admin is “once and done”, like setting up bills on direct debit, but the emotional stuff like cards, and the one-offs like moving or similar, always seem to land at once and you find yourself drowning in extras and to-do lists. And it’s not just the time the tasks take, it’s the remembering and ticking off and thinking.

If I had the cash I’d 100% have a PA. If I had super cash (and wouldn’t feel horrible middle-class guilt about it all) I’d also like a round-faced friendly cook, a stern yet playful nanny, a gruff housekeeper, a few quirky maids and a coal boy or similar, in the manner of a children’s story book.

Having a PA for this shit one day is my dream

You're not alone OP!

For car insurance use confused and go compare
Input your details and it saves them, so when it comes to renewal you literally click new quote and done. Takes maybe 5 minutes and if you go via Quidco you can get cash back of around £30-50 too

You can get a few hours a week/month from a virtual PA service like Pink Spaghetti. They'd deal with the car insurance thing, for instance, and the gifts and cards.

Also, get your cleaner back

There are loads of virtual assistants out there. I'm sure you can find one to help you out.

And people do pay for this, if they have the spare cash. My parents do!

I'm setting up my own business and when it is bigger my first employee will be an admin/pa role.

Pressed post too soon.
That's to say you are absolutely not unreasonable. Admin and life tasks take up so much space on your brain!

You could get a VA perhaps, might that help?

I have a virtual PA that does exactly this. She manages my calendar, buys gifts for the kids' party, books flights and holidays and even recently helped me find a solicitor to deal with an issue I had been putting off for three years! She is amazing and worth her weight in gold and I can't be without her now. To me, it is an investment I am making in my mental health and wellbeing

@anewdispensation do you mind saying where you found someone? Is it a website?

[quote limpingparrot]@anewdispensation do you mind saying where you found someone? Is it a website?[/quote]
@limpingparrot my friend was already using her and recommended her so we both share her. However I have used this service previously and they have some very good PAs.
web.timeetc.co.uk/2021/

Thank you!

Gosh, I’m a PA/EA and this thread makes me think I need to diversify. I mainly work short stints for those I have worked for before.

@TokyoSushi

If you're happy to pay for it, I'm sure that somebody would be happy to do it!

I would.

And I'd happily volunteer DP for paid employment, too.

I do this for my customers, as well as housekeeping/cleaning, I do gardening, and one off or general administration, organising messy houses, entertaining visiting MIL's with local tours and naice coffee shops, you name it! One of my customers refers to me as her 'hired wife'

I'd love a job doing this. I love organising.

Pretty sure Beyoncé doesn’t do any of her own boring life admin!!

Google virtual assistants

Well it's completely up to you. But you are making tasks that take a little amount of time, sound like insurmountable chores.

@FrankButchersDickieBow

Well it's completely up to you. But you are making tasks that take a little amount of time, sound like insurmountable chores.

Well maybe they feel insurmountable on top of working full-time?

Life isn't one size fits all.