How to handle an EA challenging my role and reporting me to HR

[BettyBlue74]

I work with this woman at work. She is an EA to the MD. She snitched on me at work to HR because I was 'short' with her - i.e. I tried to shut down a conversation with something that had nothing to do with her. My boss and also HR manager whom I suspect doesn't like her either - told me to apologise to keep the peace even though I had legit reasons to wind that up very quickly. I also told them she has rolled her eyes at me a number of times and has been rather curt with me. I don't mean it to be tit for tat but she needs to be careful what she wishes for.

I'm the office manager, and she challenged me on which dept looked after what, which is something that has NOTHING to do with her - and then she proceeded to give me a direction on what to do next. She isn't my manager. I don't report to her. The only time it's appropriate is when her boss is hosting something such as the Xmas party, end of quarter morning teas etc. Not the day to day running of things. I've been in this job for 12 months - so I now know the lay of the land.

She once a couple of months ago tried to reach into my drawer where I keep security passes and told me to give this random (whom was signed in as a visitor) to give him a pass (these are expensive and I don't want too many floating around in case you forget to switch them off). This wasn't her visitor; he was a contractor who was on-site during the day. I told her is was all under control and she got upset. She also told me that putting something in my back mailroom would crowd it out. Again, nothing to do with her. She also CC my boss with a pre drafted email message to send to people when parcels arrived in the office - I hand deliver parcels and parcels are not getting lost - this was prompted by the fact that someone had to chase up if a parcel had been delivered or not - she told the person it had...but she didn't leave it at that - she then drafted that email message I should send to people when they have parcels arrive.

I'm worried that she has legit grounds to tell me what to do - that hides behind powerful people to give her snitching legitimacy. So...what are your thoughts? I know I have to suck it up, but I how do I deal with this person?

TBH, I don't think you do have a handle on things, keeping the EAs on side is an important part of many roles, no matter how difficult they are, and it seems like you want to challenge her for the sake of it.

Apologise, one of those I sorry you saw it that way ones, if you like, and start working with her rather than against her.

This really sums up why youre having these difficulties TBH.

Running the office and running the diary of the MD are 2 completely different jobs, with different goals and objectives why would the holder of one of those roles feel it is appropriate to tell the holder of the other role how to do their job- l get the sense that you are an EA who is padding her role in this way-totally inappropriate.

Really weird question. You can accept that the EA may be strategic if they are male, but not if they are female?

Interesting interpretation of what I said.😂

I was reflecting that as EA is a predominantly female role - AI suggests it's anywhere between 86.9% to 94% female they have been given a job title that makes them sound like a jumped up PA.

There's an element of confusion about what they do which as suggested in this thread goes well beyond admin & diary work - I'm guessing (and it's entirely possible I'm wrong - I don't have evidence) that this title persists because it's a female dominated role - if it were more evenly split between the sexes, I think it would be likely that the role would have a job title that better reflected its significance - like Chief of Staff or operations manager.

I don't think it helps EAs do their jobs by being confused with PAs.

I'm not sure who you are addressing with this comment, but an EA is NOT a PA. Running the MD's diary may be part of their job, but an EA typically does much more. If the MD asks their EA to look at how the office could be run more efficiently or makes that one of their responsibilities, it is entirely appropriate for the EA to suggest improvements to the office manager. And, on the off chance that your comment was aimed at me, I am not an EA.

@remotecontrolledphone oh right I see what you mean. I am an EA, but my company has given me a dual title of Operations Manager / EA and I use either one depending on what I’m doing. Irritates me a bit tbh as I think the EA title should have enough respect that it should stand on its own.

All I can say is that is a stupid way to run a business, but that is their choice.Having an office manager but not giving them the power to manage the office is simply a waste of money.

But if the EA title does not have enough respect on its own - that's a another needless battle you have to fight - our senior management just wouldn't see the point. When we give a job title to someone it's meant to help them do their job, or at least not get in the way - it should indicate clearly without need for further explanation what their seniority is - if there's frequent confusion it's not an appropriate title.

Been there 12 months and know it all!

Leave your attitude at the door or you may not survive working there long enough to get to know it all.

Who says the office manager doesn't have the power to run the office? Of course they do. But the office manager is not the MD. The MD (or the MD's EA if they are acting with the MD's authority) can tell anyone how they can do their job better, or that they need to do their job differently, just as the office manager can tell those below them how to do their job. The MD will have information not available to the office manager about the direction of the business, the changing needs of the business, the way things are done elsewhere, the way others in the business are affected by the office manager's approach and so on. What would be stupid is your approach of not allowing the MD to use that information to get the office manager to do her job in a way that serves the business better.

That’s like saying you don’t need a store manager if you have a regional manager. The store manager has a job to do but the regional manager absolutely can tell them better ways of doing it.

Most MD's in my experience are not really interested in the working of the office- they tend to concentrate their thinking on the bigger picture- if the MD gives his EA the power to decide on the way the office runs, that is just interfering with the job of office manager, and will cause resentment and will not culminate in a more efficent office- too many cooks spoil the broth.

An MD won't be too bothered about it if the office is working well. However, if they are not happy with the way the office is working, they will get involved or ask someone else to take a look at it. And if they are aware of forthcoming changes to the business that will impact the way the office runs, they will get involved or ask someone else to take a look at it. If the office manager can't handle this, they shouldn't be an office manager.

The role of office manager is no different to any other job. No matter how well you think you are doing your job, those above you can insist on changes. If you believe they are wrong, you can make your case but ultimately, if they insist, you must fall into line. The idea that an office manager or any other employee is immune to direction from above is bonkers. If you can't handle direction from above without getting resentful, you will struggle to survive in most businesses.

Most MD's in my experience are not really interested in the working of the office- they tend to concentrate their thinking on the bigger picture- if the MD gives his EA the power to decide on the way the office runs, that is just interfering with the job of office manager, and will cause resentment and will not culminate in a more efficent office- too many cooks spoil the broth.

I sort of agree - the Office Manager should be employed to deal with managing the office facilities but someone needs to manage the office manager - if that’s the EA then the OM needs to deal with that. Also, the office manager is there to provide a service to the team - if there’s feedback that the service being offered could be improved, a good OM would take that feedback on board and improve regardless of who the suggestion came from.

Repeating a post you made several hours ago doesn't make it any more true. I stand by my previous response. To add to that, a successful MD will be interested in both the big picture and day to day operations. If they don't take an interest in the day to day, they are letting the company run out of control.

does any of this really matter though? Emails about parcels and people rolling their eyes. It’s a job, go, do it cheerfully if you can, come home, get paid, live your life.