Is there a Secretary/PA support section on MN? I'm a new PA and could do with some ideas.

[Bohica]

I've returned to work after 3 years at home and started a completly new career as a PA, I've been very lucky jammy being appointed this position as I am now PA to 2 senior managers and 2 department managers as well as HR link for 70 staff members.

I've been there 3 months and really enjoying being back to work and having the responsibility of a demanding role but I sometimes feel out of my depth and I'm sure I could be more organised in some areas.

If you are in a similar career can I ask how you organise your day? Do you do certain tasks once a week or just deal with them then and there.
I've sorted my online calander and have all the meetings I have arranged logged and set reminders for 2 weeks before the meetings so I can check meeting rooms and send invites and maps to staff.

I've been asked to start a newsletter, is this something you would create yourself or is there a secret online designer I can't find?

Feel free to join in with other tips and questions

[Bohica]

They are dealership abbrev's but asking for the notes from the last meeting is a great idea.

Thanks

[wellwisher]

Another thought: do you have access to any minutes/notes from the last meeting of this type (if it's a regular one)? That might help you to make sense of the notes.

[wellwisher]

Have you tried googling the abbreviations? or do you want to post some of them on here? I think you may otherwise have to sit down with the minute-taker tomorrow morning and ask them to clarify. Other people's notes are always a bit tricky :)

[Bohica]

Aghh I'm pulling my hair out over here! I've been asked to type up the notes from a meeting, no problem there, apart from the fact that I wasn't present at the meeting and the meeting wasn't recorded on to dictaphone and the minutes were taken by someone else.

I don't understand what half the abriviations mean and the subject matter isn't one I am familiar with so the minutes are making no sense at all!!

[Bohica]

I now know why I was feeling a bit precious yesterday, I have been throwing up since 4am and have got DD's stomach bug. It's not like me to get ill, last time was 4 years ago so I must be a bit rundown. I did get ready for work but I couldn't even mae lunchboxes with out being sick so I begrudgingly phoned in sick and have just woken up on the sofa feeling a little bit better than this morning.

Welcome WellWisher I like your idea of doing it all at once, I have booked a meeting for October and now still need to send out invites and maps, for the next one I'm going to try your way.

Magic your email system would work well with the senior staff but the workshop staff do not have access to email so it's face to face all the way. I have given him a deadline of Friday and hopefully I'll feel better, I'm going back in tomorrow as I've stopped being sick although I have had nothing more than a cup of tea!

Aghh I hate being ill!! Hope you have all had a good day

[wellwisher]

I have tons of tips but will just post one now to mark my place: there's absolutely no point faffing about with setting reminders to invite people/book rooms 2 weeks before a meeting. Do that as soon as you schedule the meeting, attaching maps etc to the meeting invitation, and send out a reminder email a day or 2 before if it's an important meeting (at least to external people).

[magicmarvin]

Oh yeah, managing the appraisal process... Another PA delight!

The best way to get people to do things is to tell them what you want and when you need it by. In this case, I'd probably give a minimum of 7 days to complete the questions. So, email would read like this...

Dear Bill

Please find attached a copy of the pre-review questions in advance of your annual appraisal.

It would be appreciated if you could complete and return the questions to me no later than Monday 26 September.

Many thanks

Bohica

If you don't receive a response then forward the email (a day or so later, depending on the urgency), saying something along the lines of, "Bill, would you be able to come back to me on this please?". If you still have no response, do it again and again and again until you get it in. You need to stay polite and professional - easier on email.

Kicking people up the backside is par for the course I'm afraid. You need to be consistent so they understand that when you ask for something you're going to keep nagging them until they produce the goods. The good thing about chasing on email is that you have evidence so if you've chased someone five or six times. Every now and again I will forward emails to my boss who will turn the thumbscrews... he he!

[Bohica]

I have to support the managers in carrying out staff reviews, I have a HR dept that nag ask for updated reviews on a daily basis and one of the managers isn't very pro active in doing them and most of his staff arn't very iInterested in doing them.

I asked one staff member who has had his 3 pre review questions for over a week if he had completed them and he flew of the handle! I tried my best to difuse the situation whilst resisiting the urge to tell him to fuck off speaking to me in that manner and in the end I walked away without telling him to fuck off I spoke to the manager straight after and was told "yeah he is a bit like that"

Then all the little things went wrong and I had a shit day!

I need a thicker skin and to stop feeling sorry or myself.

[magicmarvin]

Oh dear, what happened?

[Bohica]

Agh what a horrible day at work, Why is it when one thing goes wrong then everything else goes wromg?

I had my first confrontation at work today and I didn't handle it as well as I hoped I would, it came at a stressful point in my day and I was completly unprepared for it. like it happens any other way

I didn't even get time to swollow any frogs

[Bohica]

Wahh, glad to see I'm not the only one that types unreadable dribble every now and then! I had the excuse of a trainee toddler hairdresser though

I do indeed swollow frogs first thing in the morning!

[hatebeingmummy]

Clearly though my typing is so shite I wouldn't take my PA advice at all!

[hatebeingmummy]

Teehee no. It's a hackneyed old training course where they say something along the lines of, if you knew that you had to swollow a frog every day you should get it down you first thing so you can get on with your day rather thasn spend alld ay knowing oyu have to swollow a frog.
Basically - difficult or awkward jobs first, then the easy stuff is, well, easy!

[Bohica]

Swollow my frogs? Do I need a seperate qua;ification for that one hbm?

I need to support one of my managers in getting his staff reviews up to date as HR are leaning on me to revise the shared drive information and I can't do that until her has had hsi staff reviews. I'm thinking of just booking them into his diary, a couple a week until they are all up to date?

I have some staff on holidays now and one staff member off sick so I will need to organize cover until they return.
We have a large HR department and I then manage our staff HR with their support so I have some work to do with them this week as well.

It's going to be a busy week!

[hatebeingmummy]

Swollow your frogs!

[magicmarvin]

Bohica, I am the opposite! I do the easy little jobs first and gradually move on to the hardier chunkier jobs. I feel like I've done more that way!

Another way I deal with difficult chunky projects is to work on them little and often so I'll get the folder out and do as much as I can stand on one particular day. I then get the folder out the next day and do the same again. If you keep chipping away at things it's surprising how quickly you can get things done.

[thenightsky]

Some fabulous tips on here.

[Bohica]

Very good tip there magic

I do the jobs I hate the most first so I don't spend the day dreading them, for some reason I hate authorizing the invoices so I do them in the morning to get them out of the way and have delegated stationary ordering to our receptionist, she is lovely and a great help at times.

[magicmarvin]

I log virtually every contact detail I come across in my Outlook contacts. I also keep notes on people (i.e. if they're a veggie, a smoker, etc.). That way I don't have too keep asking the same thing over and over. My boss also thinks I have a marvellous memory!

[Bohica]

Thanks for all the advice, I was suprised MN didn't already have a PA section afterall the must be a few of us!

I bring work home because I have been lucky enough to find a boss who appreciates I'm also a mum to 3 young children so I am currently working 9.30 - 2.30 with one long day in the middle of the week.

I've got a really busy week this week but I'm definatlygoing to take some time out to sort out contacts and outlook as I struggle to remember who the accountants are and who the senior accountants are as weill as parts and repair centre staff.

[magicmarvin]

Good advice from Cheryl.

Agree that it is a good idea to set up recurring meetings as far in advance as possible. I have been known to have meetings in the diary for two years in advance (much to the amusement of managers). It does stop them from saying they can't attend because they need to 'take the cat to the vet', 'wash their hair', etc.

I also agree that private sector management can be difficult. Becoming a PA was a steep learning curve for me and in the beginning I was very intimidated by some of the people I worked for. I have found that it is far easier if you manage them. Be assertive. I do tell directors and managers off but do it in a quite lighthearted/cheeky way. If something makes my blood boil I never react immediately. I always sleep on things and if it's still an issue the next morning I raise it when I am calm, in control and have worked out what I'm going to say.

Also agree that you shouldn't take work home. There is very little appreciation for how long some admin tasks take. Some companies are overly optimistic about how much work PAs can handle. I can always remember attending an interview for a PA job. I spoke to the current PA who worked for the MD and 'assisted' two other directors. She said she was flat out from the moment she came in until the moment she went home - sounded very stressed. When I spoke to the MD he said she didn't have a lot to do so helped out the others (ha!). I didn't get the job thankfully.

[Cheryl0967]

Dear all - it has been interesteing reading all you comments. I have worked in the private sector for many years and currently in the public sector for 5 years. Although most managers can be extremely difficult beacuase they think they are better than you, I find the public sector a lot easier to work for. Private sector managers are more demanding/frustrating and damn right awkward. I certainly refuse to take work home, once you start you'll never stop, unless they agree to pay you extra or give you time in lieu. I have a 3yr old and a 2yr old, life is hectic enough as it is.
Bohica - I would be really interested to learn how the last PA got on?
With regard to diary management, I use Outlook and have to set up very difficult consultant meetings. I keep a log of who can do what & when. I arrange my meetings by setting them up yearly using the re-occurence button, this makes it easier for them to accept/decline or to change a meeting. I set up meeting groups in my conatacts list. When I'm given work I tend to ask when they would like it back. If I have too much I do say 'no', it's hard at first, but believe me people get used to you and end to back off a bit.
Good luck with the new job, it sounds very hectic, but I'm sure once you settle down things will drop into place.

[magicmarvin]

You are a PA by title but to be honest, it's really hard to be a PA in the truest sense of the word to several people. In reality, you should be someone's right hand man planning every last detail of their life. Everything goes into my boss' calendar. I block out travelling time for him. If he needs to get on the tube, I work out which line he needs to get on, which direction he needs to travel, how long it will take him to walk from the station to the meeting. I find out who is going to be at the meeting, what their job title is, any background info, agenda, papers, the list goes on. It's nigh on impossible to do this if you're working for several people as your volume of work is probably going to be higher and through no fault of your own you end up being more reactive which is a much harder way to work. I see so many jobs being advertised now to work for two, three, four or more directors and it just makes my heart sink.

You must push back on people though. For some reason, there is always a large grey area around a PA and more than any other role you end up being the catch all for picking up all the crap jobs that other people don't want to do. Believe me, I have done this job a long time. I too always wanted to be seen as keen and helpful but I almost killed myself in the process!

[Learning2Knit]

TNS - private sector, American company, HQ in California. Have worked in public sector and PA'd myself but was also working very closely with some top notch PA's who I personally thought were underpaid and undervalued for the sterling work they did.

Could we ask Mumsnet to set up a PA/Admin/Sec thread under the work category if anyone is interested?????

[thenightsky]

can I join this thread? PA to Consultant Psychiatrist in NHS. reading your posts is interesting. are you all in private sector? I am interested in differences between public and private.