PA boundaries and 'admin support'

[stressedoutpa]

I started a new job before Christmas as PA to three directors. It's early days and I am still finding my feet but since starting I have found out that I am also expected to provide admin support to the three teams.

Without going into much detail, I am already busy with the three and various events/exhibitions and I am also being asked to complete random unrelated tasks for the teams which are often last minute; flights, hotels, car hire, taxis, po requests, couriers, post, etc. etc.

I could honestly scream..... I feel so frustrated. I left a 1:2 PA role for this job but this is more 1:25.

Clearly, I need to discuss this with my line manager but having spoken to one of the other directors and one of the PAs, the expectation is that you need to do what ever is asked.

At which point did five people's jobs become one PA job?

Or an OP who's shown up for a meeting and is immediately asked where the tea and coffee are or given tea and coffee orders. Fuck that.

exactly.

I'm seen a couple of really shitty examples of this in previous jobs. First job, the woman had taken over an administrator role from a man. Said man was never expected, or asked to do admin support. She was eventually forced to be an EA - which she didn't want to do - under the guise of "other duties as required". She knew full well they would never have asked, or expected, the previous guy to do that. This is the kind of shite women are expected to put up with.

Second example was when the company was 'between receptionists'. They made all the non-tech staff who were women do shifts to cover the desk, including women who'd never done admin before and weren't remotely cut out for it. They did not require this of the non-tech staff men, however.

It's totally sexist.

Oh don't, I can give a million and one examples of being 'abused' by other members of staff.

A great one was, "But I don't know how to do that as I've never been on a course....". No, neither have I because the company doesn't deem me worthy of personal development so I normally Google stuff and work things out myself. Of course, I'm 'only the PA' and you are are supposedly the 'brains of the outfit'.

'Second example was when the company was 'between receptionists'.

Possibly the world's shittiest job in an office, aside from the 'receptionist/secretary' role in which you're expected to do all fucking admin and get the phone, too, and magically be at the front whilst doing the copying, fetching tea and coffee, fixing the printer, picking up printing, etc.

So funny.... No one has a clue why the lovely lady they employed soon became a grumpy cow. Perhaps you should try doing that job and see how hard it is to 'do it all' and keep smiling. Only a psychopath could manage it!

It’s just so dull and repetitive isn’t it? How can one be motivated with the “challenges” of finding meeting rooms last minute, printing and binding 500 page documents and trying to get a dozen senior people in the same room for a meeting?

I once managed to organise a last minute meeting with several senior people, got the CEO’s EA to lend me a meeting room etc. Lots of talking to other assistants to negotiate a time. Then my boss turned around and said he didn’t even need the meeting.

A few years ago, I interviewed for an office manager job thinking it would be a step up. It was for the parent company of a very large coffee chain, office in Piccadilly as I recall.

Anyway, it transpired that I would be regularly covering the part time receptionist every day, covering the CEO’s PA, emptying the dishwasher, wiping down surfaces and re-stocking the free coffee machine and tidying up. None of that was in the job description. I was offered the job but declined, I bet that was a real dogsbody role!

I once managed to organise a last minute meeting with several senior people, got the CEO’s EA to lend me a meeting room etc. Lots of talking to other assistants to negotiate a time. Then my boss turned around and said he didn’t even need the meeting.

Once?!

I thought this was fairly standard operating procedure....

Ha ha yes but this was a meeting of really senior people with a day’s notice. Took up half a day of time, all for nothing.

www.cosmopolitan.com/career/news/a43995/things-i-learned-from-being-an-assistant/ This article made me laugh so much!

“When you are stressed, know your hard work will be worth it. Assisting is stressful and exhausting and blah, blah, blah. It's also the best way to get your foot in the door toward your dream career.”

Load of crap 😂

Oh good grief, I pretty much organised a five day trip to the european offices with the loose brief of, "I want to go to Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Blah, Blah and I want to meet the sales team in each office and want two meetings with a couple of our biggest clients. I don't care which order. Just get me there and tell them I'm coming".

I did I don't know how much work only to be told that he actually didn't want to go in the order I had planned but something completely different. No appreciation for how much work I had done or how everyone had reorganised their diaries to accommodate him because he was a new promoted VP and self entitled shit.

Polar It's such BS isn't it? "Step towards your dream career" don't make me laugh. I honestly wish the media wouldn't spin admin as a way to get into a company. It's a flat-out ghetto. Women/girls should know the truth - while moving up CAN happen, it's very rare and only happens to those who've actively pursued other qualifications etc at the same time ime. Best not to go into admin and wait for a proper role. Speaking from experience. x 90 if you are a female.

And you are right about office manager jobs. I briefly had one (NEVER AGAIN).

I describe PA/admin work as the 'road to nowhere'.

Urgh that’s crap. What a dick.

Funny that people say they don’t want to do their own admin as it’s time-consuming yet expect PAs to look after several people at once and do said admin tasks in a matter of minutes!

My last job was meant to be a 1:1 ended up being 5:1. Three EAs have left within a year and we gave honest feedback in the exit interviews but nothing ever changes. As EAs we are meant to have emotional awareness and be considerate to others but these qualities are almost never demonstrated by others to EAs.

Has anybody read the Kindle book “The PA” by Victoria Knowles? It’s really good!

I used to use secsinthecity.co.uk for job hunting. The descriptions for jobs make me laugh!
“A once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“An amazing job”
“Looking for a sparky, social and highly organised candidate”
“This role is not only an EA but it a project manager.”
“This role is not for the faint hearted, you will be on call 24/7...only the BEST need apply.”
“Utterly charming boss”

🤢

yes, and I'd add "For really intelligent, capable women who could do so much more". I dislike seeing women's talent wasted on this bs because they're women.

I once heard a story of how a senior exec lured really smart people into being his assistant. He would claim that the role was going to lead to greater things, exposure to the industry etc and then when the offers never eventuated he'd have landed himself a great PA who he kept dangling.

Someone else I know was an EA to a CEO who promised he'd train her in the industry so there'd be no need for her to do any further training/quals. Usual story - her ideas got pinched etc with no reward. Then when a role came up that she wanted, and she put her name forward, he turned around and said she couldn't have it because she didn't have the quals. The quals he had told her not to bother getting.

Thank fuck she quit, took a side step, sucked it up, got the quals and is now doing her dream job.

If anyone is reading this DON"T FALL FOR IT unless you know for sure there's a get out plan or a proven track of admins moving onwards & upwards.

Me too polar

“A once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“An amazing job”
“Looking for a sparky, social and highly organised candidate”
“This role is not only an EA but it a project manager.”
“This role is not for the faint hearted, you will be on call 24/7...only the BEST need apply.”
“Utterly charming boss”

=nightmare job RUN RUN RUN

Charming boss = code for complete dick

As EAs we are meant to have emotional awareness and be considerate to others but these qualities are almost never demonstrated by others to EAs.

^ this and the old chestnut of being a 'team player'. Okay for everyone else to not give a shit about anyone but themselves.

Yes, yes and yes again to those fantastic job descriptions, complete inability to understand why they have a high PA turnover and telling you what you want to hear to keep you where they want you...

YES YES YES to both of you.

Polarbear hahaha to complete dick. You know it! RED FLAG RED FLAG

Maybe we should start our own list of red flag euphemisms for PA work

I have laughed so much at this thread.

Could kick myself for following this career when I could have achieved so much more. Mind you, has toughened me up and made me realise I am worth much more.

Multi-tasker. Goes over and beyond the call of duty. Flexible.

LOL expat

What it means: do everything at the same time perfectly while smiling and being calm as fuck. Have no life. Exist only to serve. Appear grateful AT ALL TIMES

Could kick myself for following this career when I could have achieved so much more. Mind you, has toughened me up and made me realise I am worth much more. aww stressed I don't think it's all on you. I think we've all acknowledged being sold a load of cobblers about how great the career prospects are. You weren't to know, when you started, how it would go.

Glad you're getting out though

So how did we end up in admin purgatory?

I was doing NHS admin bank work as a student. Figured it paid better than retail/hospitality/care assistant with no weekend work. Started out doing filing then my obvious talent was recognised, I was handed a pair of crusty headphones and instructed to audio type from tapes of doctor’s dictation! It’s not rocket science and after a few days I realised I could offer audio typing to my CV. That skill that isn’t really used any more outside of the legal/medical world. Oh well. I then became a medical secretary. The lofty heights of my career goal!

The other med secs had been there twenty plus years and were miserable and bitchy. The pay was not great with limited promotion prospects. The doctors were patronising. Not the life I wanted for myself.

I’ve never known what I wanted to do though. Blah blah blah ended up doing some temping work in London as a PA. At one very large bank HQ, the very senior boss could barely use computer. My audio typing came in useful as he dictates all his emails! His EA was batshit crazy though! That was a weird place to work.

Worked for a couple of decent bosses and with some lovely PAs when I did some contracting PA work - I never like to stay in one place for too long and feel trapped though.

Saw a way out into compliance admin which paid the same but I thought being a compliance administrator would be a better career move. WRONG! Ended up booking loads of meeting rooms but at least I wasn’t treated as a PA. Turns out compliance is really boring (IMO) and is basically spreadsheets.

Blah blah blah more stuff happened. Found myself back as an EA...oh the glamour in the Civil Service. Which is old-fashioned, full of old grey men empire building, systems that don’t work etc. I think they call PAs EAs there to make them feel better and make them think the job is better than it is. It’s a PA job consisting of all the usual nonsense. There are also PAs which is a pay grade below working for less senior people and that’s basically just diaries, meeting room bookings and printing all day.

ANYWAY, decided that was crap, new job as a project co-ordinator. I made sure the Civil Service gave me all the courses I could go on for free...like the APMP to help me move away and into something better.

Hoping I won’t have to be a PA again but if we move back to London and I can’t get a project-y job to start with...