Welcome to another question for Ask an Admin. This is where the administrative assistant and executive assistant can submit any question they have and their peers will answer the question based on their previous experience. We believe that there are many different ways to approach problems, difficult tasks, and situations so we thought this would be a great way to provide you a place to share your input as well as receive input from others. So, executive assistants and administrative assistants from around the world, let’s help each other out!
This week Chris B. asks:
I am in an office of approximately 300 and there are 5 admins. I am the only one who arrives early every day and works the full day. I am the only one who looks at the bigger office picture and ensures meeting rooms are cleaned/ready; supplies (like copy paper) are always available; know how to handle unexpected guests and vendors; and a variety of other office manager-type things that come up in a standard day. However, I am not the office manager but a peer to the other admins. I am consistent and reliable and there – so a lot of things come my way that belong on their desks. For example, if one of their teams has a meeting at the start of the day, I’m the only one there early and I will get pulled in to take care of the room and technology set-up, have to answer the door and guide guests, get catering/coffee set-up, make last-minute copies or edits, etc. Their leaders are comfortable relying on me to ensure things are done with professionalism. Besides feeling taken advantage of and recognizing there is a big disparity between what is now expected from me versus peers – what is the best way to have this discussion with my leader? I do not want to disparage my peers, nor diminish their work, however, I do want this to be seen as a differentiator between me and the others. Basically, how do I get seen as providing an exceptional level of service above and beyond my peers without calling them out or making it seem like a complaint?
Wow. That is a tough one. How does an executive assistant, who is already going above and beyond get noticed by the higher-level employees without calling out their peers? Well, Office Dynamics friends and family, let’s help Chris B. out! What can Chris do?
ATTENTION: If you’ve submitted your response on our Ask an Admin blog post, please be patient to see your response and other responses. We have to manually approve them to prevent spammers and profanity. If you do not see your response right away, please give it time and revisit. We apologize for this but this is the best way we can keep YOUR blog clean! Thank you, everyone!
Classes Available for Registration
Help other administrative professionals and share this page using the buttons below!
