Managing Expectations

A good Admin will always ask for a deadline for when a task or project is due.  That way we can prioritize what we have on our plates.

Sometimes, one person's deadline must fall secondary to another high priority deadline due to management seniority or urgency of the project.

Woe be unto the person who submits a project and says, "I know you'll have this done in 5 mins, so I'm just going to send out an email saying its done!" As they scuttle out the door.

Just because you say it will be done and run, doesn't mean it will happen.  Sending out a preemptive email only makes YOU look unaware.

We Admins will manage our work loads. Thank you very much!

Pearls Before...

In the world of an Adminstrative Professional, there are a multitude of levels that can be achieved. From the receptionist, whose demeanor sets the tone for employees and visitors as they enter the facility. To an actual executive level, where the Adminstrative Professional sets policy and procedures for the admins through out the organization. An entire spectrum lays between.

I only point out this breadth of range because of common comments I hear amongst my peers. "I have no way to advance." or "Nobody takes me seriously because I'm an admin" or, my personal favorite, "I just can't do what they are asking me to do because they haven't trained me."

Pardon me as I call bullshit on these whiners! I'm sorry to be blunt and rude, but enough! We who are admin are not brainless space holders who do nothing. If that is all you do? Get out now. You are doing your peers no service.

If you feel stifled, plenty of opportunities abound.  You just have to take them.

Today's economic climate does not leave pearls strewn across the road for the lucky to find. Instead you have to be savvy. Take advantage of work assisted education. Look for grants and programs that might suit your circumstances.

Opportunities abound, no one will hand them to you on a silver platter.

Valuable Resources

The Administrative Assistant has come a long way from the days of “Would you like cream with your coffee, sir?” 

While we still might answer phones and take meeting notes, we also manage offices and projects, balance budgets, act as unofficial keepers of morale, and general ombudsman of schedules.  Sometimes our job descriptions have us working in a more personal capacity to our employer, for example running small errands for your boss, helping them in small details in their personal lives all so they can have time to get their jobs done. 

As Admins, we often have the pleasure of training people new to the experience of having an Administrative Assistant’s skills at their disposal. For the newly appointed manager who has never had access to administrative help.  An experienced Admin will work hard at determining their needs and creating a partnership that will be beneficial to both in the long run.

My personal favorite is the new MBA or clueless collegiate graduate who comes into a department with an admin.  Lo and behold, they are incapable of sending faxes, getting coffee, composing letters or other tasks they consider menial because ‘that’s what an Admin is for’. 

While I am willing to offer assistance to those in need, they are secondary to my primary function.  That function is to support the executives that too whom I report directly. 

This Admin firmly believes in teaching people how to fish.  You see, I have one to two top executives that take the majority of my time.  If they ask me to send a fax or compose a letter, it is because they do not have time not because they are lazy.

After one or two instances of people not in my direct chain of command pawning their work off on to me, I will have a conversation with them.  If that doesn’t work, woe be unto them.  I will then bring out the big guns.

You see my executives do not like to have their resources wasted. 

I am a valuable resource.   

Upon Your Actions

The hierarchy of the workplace is a fascinating thing.  For some, their rise is a result of steady, quality work that is rewarded by promotion through the ranks.  For others, hierarchy is viewed as a maniacal game of strategy.  The farther they are promoted, the better the 'parachute' is on the way out the door.  For the rest of us, it is truly only a mindset.  Work provides only a base for our lives outside of work.
 The reality is we all put our trousers on one leg at a time and bleed the same color, red.
 Whether we drive a Yugo or a Lamborghini, you are only as important as you are in your own mind.  Respect is earned through your actions, not through your paycheck or title.
 Businesses are only as good as the people who manage them.  If managers are always seeking the next nifty, shining business model that promises to save the company and put the profits through the roof the end result is nothing.  But when managers use common sense, respect and hard work, their employees can see and respect that no matter the out come.
Countries have been won or lost based on the respect or lack of due to the actions and behaviors of their respective hierarchies.  The same can be said about companies.

The Hierarchy of Things

In the grand scheme of things there will always be bigger fish and smaller fish in the hierarchical order of the universe.  By law the bigger fishis meant to chomp the smaller fish and on down the line, or so Darwin would have you believe.  But as a smaller, more clever, and agile fish swimming in a pool filled with large sharks, I have found that my ability to think fast and maneuver on a dime to be ahead of the sharp teeth of the carnivorous predators that swim in my waters.

Working in the corporate environment is often a drama of survival of the most clever.  Who can adapt to the newest paradigm, avoid the latest pitfalls, and stay ahead of the bigger, less agile predator.

So I swim smart, swiftly and sleekly through the corporate waters of life, working to keep my fins intact and knowing that I have a lot of life lessons still to learn.

Flexibility!

I’m so flexible, I’m a pretzel! 

So, I spend a week and a half setting up 90 minute high-level executive meetings over a three week period. Juggling schedules, begging for meetings to move to accommodate said meetings, bribing where I can, to get all the meetings scheduled. 

One phone call destroys my hours and days of hard work.  The admin who made the call gets my frustration, but the executive who made the decision has no clue how hard it was to arrange all the meetings.  He just said ‘Make it so’. 

Instead he wants one mega meeting, which was the original idea.  Two weeks ago this meeting would have been easy to arrange.  Now, putting this meeting together for tomorrow is a logistical nightmare.  But, since the company officers attending the meeting are high enough up in the company, everyone can clear their schedules and make due.

Hierarchy is a double-edge sword.