Any NHS Executive Assistants out there?

[Pebbledashery]

Starting a new EA role soon.. Just wondering what advice anyone can give me.. I can imagine it's very fast paced which is fine, my current employer gives me a colossal workload.. Just wondering what to expect :) thank you.

@Pebbledashery are you still in a EA role. just wondering how you are finding this now and what career path options it opens up for you?

I am. To be honest, I didn't want to rain on your parade but its incredibly hard work and little reward. I'm EA to one of the members of the Board and I do a lot outside the scope of my original job description. It's also incredibly hard to get any kind of pay rise.
I joined mid pandemic and wasn't able to take any annual leave in my first year because I was flat out, then I was redeployed a few times. I've gone back to my EA role and nothing has changed.
Sorry I can't lie to you and tell you it's fabulous. I work with some lovely people, but it's a bit of a dead end job, you can't really progress from EA to anything. The best you can do is side step.

@Pebbledashery thank you for your honesty. really thank you. id rather you said it how it is.

tbh in my current role it is a dead end job. finding it hard to move upwards and sidewards. so was super happy when offered EA role which i am yet to start and is a step up.

my current role is making me demotivated and deskilled to the point im feeling fatigued. im ready for the challenege of a fast paced role. i will be joining a team that is small and expanding so theres some hope. is there any positives to you starting the EA role? ive made a promise to myself to not get comfortable and to aim higher once experienced enough

I think what you need to understand is every Trust is different. My role in my Trust will be completely different to yours.
It's good you see this as a step up. I took this role after many years working in the City as a Corporate EA in Private Sector firms, I needed to find a role closer to home with no 3 hour commute to London each day so this job isn't a career move for me.
I like my actual Trust and my colleagues. The role itself is labour intensive and you have to deal with a lot of difficult people. One of the main things is I'm on a substantive contract meaning I'm permanent so I have job security if I want to be seconded elsewhere and I also can work flexibly, two days at home which means I can do the school runs etc.

I’m an EA in the NHS but work in primary care. I had to take a step down in my career due to the lack of flexibility from my previous employer and started this role.

it’s ok, but. I’m absolutely bored to death. My immediate colleagues are lovely and the work life balance is amazing as I’m lucky enough to work from home. But honestly I’m bored to death, I’ve been nearly reduced to tears by how mind numbing my role is. I won’t lie, I’ve thought to myself on more than one occasion “is this the level I’ve sunk to?” and I really struggle with that.

and also, people have zero respect for admin - they can’t cope without us, but have zero respect for us. Admin is the “wife work” of the workplace and just gets taken for granted with absolutely no value placed on it whatsoever. And again, I find that so hard

@MabelMoo23 @Pebbledashery ahh thank you all so much for the honesty. I really appreciate it. Please dont feel like your raining on my parade or anything as im just interested on hearing other peoples experiences. I am really sorry you feel like this, nothing worse than being unhappy in the role that you afe in! but theres always a way out if your willing to take the leap.

Im joining a new team soon where i have been told there will be plenty of opportunties as this team is new, small and will be expanding/developing. My main reasons for leaving my current role was to find a good work life balance, new experiences/challenges and hopefully future opportunities.

where I am currently, the managers have promoted their family and friends into the opportunties so theres no room for growth for a very longgg time. worklife balance isnt great and staff moral is really low due to the unfairness of opportunities and other things so everyone is just miserable on a daily basis and this has an effect on your mood outside of work. the turnover is staff is quite bad atm.

therefore im seeing my next step as a EA a positive one. if its not ill give it 12 months and start seeking other opportunities x