Anyone work in Administration/Reception/Secretarial roles? Is it unbearable or do you like it?

[UpsyDaisies52]

Looking at other jobs possibly, qualified in Office Administration.

Not looking for something I would love and be passionate about. Just looking for something to pay the bills and that I don’t dread going to everyday, so your opinions are so helpful!

If you like dealing with people, receptionist jobs are good. I've done them and enjoyed them. But it depends where. I wouldn't fancy being a gp receptionist or a receptionist in a&e for instance where you're likely to get a hard time from the public.

I tried many secretarial/admin roles before realising that it just didn’t suit me, and then I went on to gain further qualifications and ended up doing something entirely different which (in principle) did suit me for a long while.

But I also realised that secretarial/reception/admin did suit many people, especially those who liked to be actively organised. So I think it depends on your brain type. And as @usernother said, it also depends on where you work. That will vary enormously, as with any other role.

I am admin/operations is a very specific area. There's so much variety out there. I've been in not for profit for over 20 years

Unless you really love organising other people’s schedules, i would not recommend an admin role its beyond dull and can be stressful which is the worst combination. Well that‘s my experience. And given the WFH set up(which i admit is hugely beneficial for me) you just find yourself always being available. I find it hard to switch off. But could be very unique to my role/company. I just don‘t find its a role ‚to just pay the bills’ although it does nicely i would much rather do a job i actually really enjoyed doing and also pay the bills. And actually i am in the process of making a switch.

Those sort of jobs are very varied but if you find yourself in the office mother role or your line manager is a psychopath you won’t enjoy it.

There is a lot more to admin roles than just being a PA/diary manager. Have you looked at Civil Service AO/EO roles? There are some that involve diary management / arranging meetings but many more are phone based; some are more 'casework' based where you're trained in the specific departmental processes and are responsible for the admin work relating to a particular geographical location / area of work; some are more generalised and give you the opportunity to get involved in things like health & safety, procurement etc.

I used to be a medical secretary in NHS
Beyond stressful!

I work in administration - it's a specific role within local government . It doesn't involve reception or managing other people's diaries. I really enjoy my job - even more so now I am mainly WFH and don't have to do the long commute every day .

I love my NHS medical secretary job. It is very busy and can be stressful but I work with a great team and enjoy helping patients. I find I can really make a difference and that makes my job very worthwhile.

I used to be a PA / EA, it was an industry I was interested in, I learnt a lot and the pay was decent. I ended up in a different role after mat leave in the same industry otherwise I would still be doing it.

The number of business support staff has been seriously culled since then though as fee earners do a lot of their own admin now.

I'm not suited to diary management. But i like admin roles that I can see directly benefit the user. So i have been doing admin in a school and I can see how it makes the childrens school experience better.
I was very unmotivated by admin that wss about moving paper around to make rich people richer.

I've always done admin roles across a variety of companies and picked up different add on skills at them all, local authority, home improvement company, fashion retailer to name a couple, I would get asked to help with different departments and picked up a lot about accounts in two of the places and it's always another thing to have on your CV.

I do admin/ customer service. Work from home. It’s more customer service based work, I don’t arrange diaries or do admin for internal or specific people. I like it, the hours suit my family life and I work with nice people.

NHS- but you need the right trust and the right team !

exactly!

Mine was a nightmare, I would never go back

I work in admin. I like dealing directly with customers but diary and waiting list management literally makes me cry. Luckily I've been able to discuss this with my very supportive boss and we're trying to find ways to make it easier for me

Admin definitely doesn't suit everyone

Hi I'm unemployed at the moment. Is this sort of work easy to get into ? I've only got basic computer skills but I'm very organised.

I worked in laboratory admin, I didn't have to manage diaries or customer service, it was mainly archiving laboratory trial data, some data checking, checking that files were complete, ordering supplies so I pretty much just got on with it, I quite enjoyed it and I could also work part time as it was quite flexible.

Admin jobs vary so much you cannot generalise. I have been a PA/EA in multinational companies and done a range of roles in the NHS. These jobs are completely different.
I think most jobs where you are office based and using a computer are admin, just some pay more or less and have fancier job titles.

Well I like organising stuff and people, so i quite like my admin job.

I like it, I work for the local council and the money is far superior to working for a private company and the career progression opportunities are great. There is a lot of problem solving in my role, which I'm good at.

Thanks all!

I’d be interested in doing what others consider “boring”. Scheduling, filing, showing people where to go, ordering supplies, answering basic calls/emails.

I suffer with anxiety so goals and targets are a bit meh - not impossible just not the best fit for me. I like the idea of doing the basic things no one really wants to do in an office setting. With anxiety, I don’t really get bored so mundane activities wouldn’t be a problem 😂

My anxiety isn’t social either so dealing with people isn’t an issue

I think admin type roles are a great place to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. I discovered I really don't respond well to colleagues who refuse to answer their phone to certain clients despite knowing that client will then ring the main phone number for the rest of the day and have a go at me about my colleague not answering them 🙄 but I do love a spreadsheet so now I work in data analysis and don't have to deal with shouty clients at all. It's not necessarily that you take one admin job and stay doing that type of work forever, it can lead you into all kinds of different areas that you might never have thought of.

The 15 year old me is horrified at how much joy I get from writing excel formulas that actually work..