Västerås Sekreterarförening: november 2015

Läs denna artikel av Jen Wilson, vd på företaget Gate-Keeper, ett rekryteringsföretag i världsklass för just chefsassistenter och VD-assistenter, och bli stolt över ditt yrke och gå gatan och korridoren fram med stolthet.

Being a Personal Assistant or an Executive Assistant is more than just taking orders from your boss. Let’s be frank, we know the job we do and anyone who says we are just admins clearly does not understand the role. Being an EPA is a complex role and I challenge anyone who thinks they can walk into the job with no experience and be good at it from day one.
I receive many emails and phone calls from people who have worked in Marketing, as cabin crew, or in HR who tell me they fancy a change of career and ask me to put them forward for EA roles which I am recruiting for. Now believe me, as a former EA with over 17 years experience I politely tell them that being an EA is not a job you can just decide to do. Would they honestly expect to be interviewed and offered a job as a car mechanic if they didn’t know one end of a spanner from the other?
But its just admin right? How hard can it be they tell me?...
I have to admit; I get a tad annoyed! I am proud of the job that I did and people who think that its just some entry level admin role are very much mistaken. Part of the reason I publish these articles is because I believe it is important to raise awareness of the job we do and the talent behind being an EPA. I genuinely respect every good PA I have interacted with. We each have a different story to tell with regards to our role, whether it be a difficult boss, a strict company or just the fact that our job specs are left wide open to abuse with the ‘any ad hoc duties’ line which is normally added in right at the bottom!
We don’t just file and process expenses, the role is so much more than that, its stressful, its challenging, it’s a thankless job at times and it can be lonely, but if you actually stop to think about what you do on a daily basis you start to understand that actually we are so switched on and have many capabilities that other people do not possess or use in their job.
Rather than talk about the daily tasks that you do let’s look at this from another angle and recognise the competencies and characteristics you have acquired in order to be a top notch EPA
DeliverWe have to deliver work in the timeframes we are given and working as an EPA these are generally short assignments with short timeframes. We don’t have months to work on projects and spend hours having meetings/brain storming sessions with other colleagues to decide how we will work. We simply get the job done on our own with little help or guidance. For this you need to be extremely proactive and confident to just get on and do it.
UnderstandWe understand our bosses inside and out and this is key. You need to know what makes them tick and what ticks them off. Recruiting for EPA’s is one of the hardest positions to fill because the position is not just based on your skills, experience and qualifications, we also have to ensure that your personalities are a match and you can have a good working relationship. Chances are if you are complete opposites, you will both end up unhappy and this affects the ability to carry out your duties as an EPA and your boss’s willingness or actually give you work.
Identify
We can sniff out a snake in the grass from a mile away, we know who are the blaggers and who suffers from lazyitis! Its our EPA sixth sense and if you are always nice to us we will share our knowledge with you.
AssessEvery day you constantly assess and reassess your bosses and your own workload to prioritise what needs to get done and in a timely manner. Most of the time we do not have the luxury of shutting down our laptops when 6pm rolls around. Generally, you will find that most EPA’s will always clear their list of things to do each day. We almost have SLA’s (service level agreements) where we aim to respond to meeting requests and action items within a certain timeframe. Never worry about forgetting a task because there will always be a colleague who will send you an email, then follow it up with a Sametime instant message seconds later, then walk over to you just to confirm that you received their request (Not cool by the way!)
RecogniseThis one is quite important and it really shows that we have the skills to adapt at a second’s notice. On a daily basis we will deal with many colleagues and clients who are from many different industries, cultures or nationalities so we have to be able to switch our approach to make each person feel like they are important and respected. There is a saying which always sticks in my head,
“don’t treat someone the way you want to be treated, treat them the way they want to be treated”
this is so true, you may just want the hardcore facts given in one fatal blow but someone else may want theirs sugar coated with tea and hugs included. Although we are not in sales I always use the KYC method (know your client)
AssistGenerally, and thanks to the 3 most hated words which are added to our JD’s (ad hoc duties) we have to smile politely and sometimes order someone’s salad or print off their presentation because they are just so busy (translates to: I’m far too important to call for lettuce or stand over the printer) The upside is that we are always dependable.
CreateWe are creative geniuses, yes! Those years spent at Girl Guides made us capable of accepting any challenge from creating flyers for events to coming up with the best and most creative excuses as to why our boss should have access to an event, free membership to a club or a gold flying card. Its amazing what we can achieve with a little bit of savvy thinking!
FocusThis is our ability to make decisions intended to drive anticipated business outcomes. Clever aren’t we?!
ConfidenceIt is critical that you have confidence in yourself. There will be times when colleagues will try to take advantage of you and also over rule a decision you have made. Be confident in your actions and stand firm to show that you are not a pushover, this will create good working relationships and will gain you more respect, after all you are an extension of your CEO so there should always be a level of respect anyway, but this has to be earned and maintained.
WillingnessSpending hours on the internet finding his wife’s birthday present or booking the family summer holiday and planning the agenda down to each toilet break might not be what you signed up for but it falls under part of the personal side of the role. I personally didn’t mind the personal side of the role but when his wife phones up in between gym and nail appointments most days to tell me to pick the kids up from school, I can pretty much guarantee I am responding with a polite yes whilst throwing cups, staplers, hole punches and anything else I can get my hands on across the office. We have all been there right?!
PerseveranceThis is my hate word… So easily used but really it should translate to: ‘not going to happen anytime soon!’ Ok so we have all had days in our job where we have had enough of the promises of promotions, payrises and job role changes with the following line; “if you continue to do a great job and just persevere for a bit longer… “
No, no, no! don’t use that word on an EPA, just be clear with us from the outset what is possible and what isn’t, we will respect you more for it.
FlexibilityIt is actually your middle name, check your passport. One day we are the EPA, next day we are psychologist and marriage counsellor then we can quickly switch to event specialist or aviation broker.
The most important one to me though is instinct. Always follow your gut and you can’t go wrong.
I hope after reading this you will really understand just how smart, talented and extraordinary you truly are.

Arbetet tar stor del av vår tid. Vi är på tå, servar hela dagarna och visst tar vi med oss datorn hem och kollar mejl på kvällskvisten. Eller kanske skriver ett PM eller protokoll på en lördag Vi trivs med jobbet, trivs med att vara den där spindeln i nätet.

Så vill vi ha en kul och givande fritid, vi motionerar och svär över att vi inte hinner gå på alla pass vi önskar, vi läser intressanta böcker, tidningar, bloggar. Hänger med och ser de senaste filmerna. Lagar god mat och serverar den fint till familj och vänner.

Vi känner oss rätt lyckade när vi har många järn i elden och vi är lyckade och vi ska vara stolta över oss själva. Men det vi måste komma ihåg att hur kul och givande allt är så måste vi vila ibland. Koppla av allt, lägga oss ner och vila. Sova ordentligt och vila är viktigt för att vi inte ska springa in i den berömda väggen eller på annat sätt bli sjuka. Det är inte fel att unna sig tid till ren vila.

Jag hoppas nu att ni alla får en underbar helg och att ni finner stunder till total avkoppling och vila.

Kram på er
Maria