Administrative assistant positions are found in almost every industry. Whether it’s finance, mining, legal, film, and/or retail, this position can be extremely demanding, and definitely deserves some recognition. Some might believe that being an administrative assistant is easy. That’s not the case, administrative assistants work extremely hard. They are educated individuals, who have charming personalities, and can pretty much do anything.
1. They Can Be Forced To Deal With Difficult Personalities
Most administrative assistants have had to deal with a lot of personalities coming in and out of the office space. Generally, these people will be pleasant, while others will be ticking time-bombs throbbing with compressed anger, ready to unleash on the polite administrative assistant.
When dealing with a difficult personality, admin staff usually have a witty charm about them. They can help the heated individual calm down and gain confidence in the company once again, by providing trust and reassuring the angry individual that all will be resolved as soon as possible.
2. They Can Be Seen As Someone Of Lesser Importance
Somehow, the administrative assistant position has been classified as a starting position for most companies. What most people don’t understand is that being an administrative assistant is a professional career in which people can excel.
Administrative assistants are so proud of their careers, their knowledge, and their humbleness, that it’s easy for them to simply brush off anyone who questions their plan for career advancement. They know how important their role is, and how they bring growth to the company they work for.
3. They Can Be Expected To Clean Up After Everyone
You would think with an office full of grown adults, that people would know how to clean up after themselves. Admin staff know that their job requires many nurturing duties, but they also know that they have a problem, when they start finding banana peels left to decay on the boardroom floor.
Administrative assistants deal with messy co-workers by simply placing posters and signs reflecting their co-worker`s unethical workplace hygiene. They may not always call out an individual directly, but the message is clear, dirty dishes left on the kitchen counter and candy wrappers on the floor will not be tolerated.
4. They Can Be Expected To Fix Anything And Everything
Did you know that administrative assistants are IT technicians as well? They are expected to fix internet problems, connect employees to network printers, help with software, and then go back to filing paperwork and answering multiple phone lines. Not to mention the amount of times they’ve had to lug leaky garbage bags to the dumpster, change exploding toner bottles in the photo copier, refill empty ink pads and pens, pull old banker boxes from the dusty storage, and more.
Administrative assistants are not certified plumbers, electricians, or technicians of any kind. Yet, they find a way to solve the problem at hand with their amazing problem-solving skills and physical abilities.
5. They Can Be Expected To Know Everything, Even When Not Included In Meetings And Private Conversations
There are meetings and conference calls all day, in which they are not included in. Yet, they are expected to know what’s going on at all times.
Despite their inabilities to make executive decisions, they know more information than the typical employee. They are an information hub. This is because they have mastered the act of ease dropping, asking the right questions, and piecing bits of information together to obtain the right answers. Basically, they are all detectives.
6. They Can Be Blamed For Anything That Goes Wrong
They may not be the decision maker, but when everything goes awry, all fingers point to them as the culprit, or at least it’s their responsibility to solve the issue.
To avoid being accused or blamed for anything, administrative assistants log their work day. They write everything down and create a systematic paper trail for themselves to cover their schedule from start to end, just in case of an unexpected hiccup.
7. They Can Be Expected To Always Be Available
Sometimes, administrative assistants eat as they work. They can be mid-bite into their lunch when they are approached by a co-worker about an upcoming meeting, broken internet connection, or even a flooded toilet.
Knowing when to draw the line is half the battle, because some co-workers can make a situation sound so much more urgent than it really is. For their own benefit, administrative assistants learn to make judgement calls based on the situation at hand. They will always agree to address the problem, but sometimes they decide that after lunch works best for them.
8. They Can Have Their Desk Used As A Dumping Station
They love the feeling of making a huge dent in their work pile, but if they walk away for just a moment, they are sure to be welcomed back by additional paperwork sitting in their inbox.
To keep up with steady incoming work, they sort and manage everything in categories and then prioritize them. Administrative assistants are extremely organized and know how to keep a productive workflow to handle large loads of labor.
9. They Can Have No Privacy
Being the assistant to pretty much everyone means that their desk is a free for all for those they work with. They are the keeper of keys, passwords, stationary, supplies and the great all might candy drawer.
To keep their space to themselves, they develop homes for all company property outside of their personal bubble. Anything that is personal is kept far away in an opposing corner such as car keys, wallet, and cell phone.
10. They Can Lack Physical Activity
Someday, there’s too many emails, and too much paperwork piling into their inbox to even walk away. Sometimes, they may even sacrifice taking a break or lunch to complete a job.
Administrative assistants have such a great work ethic: they can easily multitask and work harder to find extra time during their day for a refreshing walk outside.
11. They Can Sometimes Be The Butt Of The Office Jokes
When administrative assistants make a mistake, which can happen, they are sometimes the butt of all jokes for the rest of the day.
To deal with mockery, they just chime in with everyone else and laugh at their own mistakes. They know that being able to admit their flaws and to learn from them is a sign of great leadership.
12. They Can Be Under Paid And Feel Unappreciated
The status of an administrative assistant position is debatable depending on the point of view it’s looked at. With the work-load of a hundred people, they are sometimes paid as if they are at the bottom of the totem pole.
Sometimes their employers are so busy themselves, that the admin staff need to bring up the fact that a raise should be addressed. Sometimes employers forget how much their administrative assistants have done for the company, and they should be appreciated regularly.
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Featured photo credit: Some Office Things/VIKTOR HANACEK via picjumbo.com
