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Exec admin is asked to do too many personal errands
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Rebecca in Sausalito writes, “I work as an administrative assistant for two executives; the company CEO and CFO. The CEO primarily has me doing workplace administrative tasks like answering his phone, scheduling meetings and creating power point presentations and occasionally asks me to help him with a personal errand. The CFO on the other hand has me doing his personal errands all the time including things like paying household bills, coordinating contractors to work on his house and even taking his car to get washed and waxed. I like my job overall and enjoy the work tasks but I feel like the personal errands are starting to get out of hand. Help.”
The amount of commingling of personal and business tasks that an assistant to someone at the executive level takes on varies widely. It is often a professional job of a very personal nature, since the executive typically needs to open up many parts of her/his life to the assistant. It is also not uncommon to for the responsibilities to change over time, as the relationship grows, and it is reasonably expected that there will be and ebb and flow to the balance of professional and personal tasks. Nonetheless as a company employee an assistant is not the executive’s personal gopher. So if you find your day-to-day tasks are overwhelmingly personal in nature and that is uncomfortable and not what you signed on for here are some suggestions. One, share your concerns with your boss – in this case directly with the CFO. Explain that while you don’t mind the odd personal errand now and again you are eager to learn more about the business and want to spend the bulk of your workday on those tasks. Two, if you too uncomfortable discussing this directly with your boss share your concerns with someone in the human resources department. HR often functions as a liaison and mediator between a superior and subordinate in these matters and can give you good advice. Three, proactively get involved with other teams as an employee development activity. Let your boss know these area professional growth areas for you and you have identified some opportunities to cross train. That leads nicely into a discussion about prioritizing your current tasks. Four, look into a real personal assistant for your boss. There are individuals and services that exclusively run errands and manage the households of busy professionals for hire. There are even international providers who can set up a “virtual” assistant to pay bills, make household appointments and order groceries for delivery. And car detailers can come to the office parking lot. Share with your boss and gently start off-loading those requests. Five, if your boss really wants someone who is comfortable with a dual professional/personal role as admin and that just isn’t a fit for you say so. Your boss will appreciate your honesty.
email your workplace issues to joelle@hrchaeology.com
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