Is it completely inappropriate to ask your assistant to help with any personal tasks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an administrative assistant and I have never asked her to help with anything remotely personal. However it is the administrative things outside of work that often are the things I need help with as it pertains to work. For example: moving drs appts so I can make last minute meetings, helping to change personal flights to accommodate new work commitments. Is it completely inappropriate to ask my assistant to help if there is work adjacency? I don’t want to be TA.

Hell no!! Maybe if you’re at a law firm or something like that, but not a corporation or govt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop pilfering from work, and hire a personal assistant like a normal person.

Do you really want your office admin staff to know about the lump on your privates or whatever?

Do normal ppl hire personal assistants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop pilfering from work, and hire a personal assistant like a normal person.

Do you really want your office admin staff to know about the lump on your privates or whatever?

Do normal ppl hire personal assistants?

Depends on what you mean by regular people?

I am in sales. I have someone that I pay a $2k monthly retainer to be "available", $500 of that is theirs right off the top. If it is just something that is a phone call or they can do on computer they charge $25 for 30 min increments. If they need to leave their house
they charge $50/half hour from time they leave till time they return home.

It's a simple formula. I assign myself an hourly rate based on how much I plan to or need to earn in a month. If whatever I need to do, buy, experience will keep me from earning that much I outsource it. If my rate is $400 an hour, and I need to go grab dry cleaning a pick up lunch, paying someone $100 to do those two thing for me is worth it. I am still up $300, where if I did it and it took about an hour I would be near zero.

[Anonymous]

I worked as an EA for a guy for 15 years and he never asked me to do anything personal for him. Only once did he ever ask me to get him a cup of coffee and I made a big deal out of it because it was so funny. He was a fantastic boss and the company CEO.

[Anonymous]

Hell no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop pilfering from work, and hire a personal assistant like a normal person.

Do you really want your office admin staff to know about the lump on your privates or whatever?

Do normal ppl hire personal assistants?

Depends on what you mean by regular people?

I am in sales. I have someone that I pay a $2k monthly retainer to be "available", $500 of that is theirs right off the top. If it is just something that is a phone call or they can do on computer they charge $25 for 30 min increments. If they need to leave their house
they charge $50/half hour from time they leave till time they return home.

It's a simple formula. I assign myself an hourly rate based on how much I plan to or need to earn in a month. If whatever I need to do, buy, experience will keep me from earning that much I outsource it. If my rate is $400 an hour, and I need to go grab dry cleaning a pick up lunch, paying someone $100 to do those two thing for me is worth it. I am still up $300, where if I did it and it took about an hour I would be near zero.

What is this madness? Are you able to make money every hour you are awake? I can tell you’re in sales but how do you ever plan to make it to management?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop pilfering from work, and hire a personal assistant like a normal person.

Do you really want your office admin staff to know about the lump on your privates or whatever?

Do normal ppl hire personal assistants?

Depends on what you mean by regular people?

I am in sales. I have someone that I pay a $2k monthly retainer to be "available", $500 of that is theirs right off the top. If it is just something that is a phone call or they can do on computer they charge $25 for 30 min increments. If they need to leave their house
they charge $50/half hour from time they leave till time they return home.

It's a simple formula. I assign myself an hourly rate based on how much I plan to or need to earn in a month. If whatever I need to do, buy, experience will keep me from earning that much I outsource it. If my rate is $400 an hour, and I need to go grab dry cleaning a pick up lunch, paying someone $100 to do those two thing for me is worth it. I am still up $300, where if I did it and it took about an hour I would be near zero.

What is this madness? Are you able to make money every hour you are awake? I can tell you’re in sales but how do you ever plan to make it to management?

You can assign a value to every hour, which I do. Theoretically I could make money every hour I am awake. But I don't want to work 5 hours a day to begin with and I really don't want to work 20 hours a day (number of hours I am awake).

Why would I want to go into management? Have zero desire, and I make a lot more than management. It would be a huge pay cut (roughly 70-80% cut),plus I would need to go into office, and I would have to work a 40-60hr week. No need for that craziness.

Most sales people that go into management suck at management and most mangers that go into sales, suck at sales.

[Anonymous]

The role and the position of the person the PA/EA is assisting is going to define what is and what is not appropriate.

C-level at an investment firm, they are paying you to do whatever is needed to make that persons life easier.

Similar to the reserved parking spot. Every minute counts and equals money. You don't want your top people walking and extra 2-10 minutes each way to their car or thinking about where the best place to park is. You want them working and thinking about work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The role and the position of the person the PA/EA is assisting is going to define what is and what is not appropriate.

C-level at an investment firm, they are paying you to do whatever is needed to make that persons life easier.

Similar to the reserved parking spot. Every minute counts and equals money. You don't want your top people walking and extra 2-10 minutes each way to their car or thinking about where the best place to park is. You want them working and thinking about work.

this.

[Anonymous]

Former Biglaw partner here. I never, ever asked or expected my secretary to do any of my personal business for me, ever. The closest I ever got was asking her to grab my lunch from the cafeteria when I was stuck on never ending conference calls and had to eat, and I felt like shit even doing that.

I’m a man by the way.

[Anonymous]

I feel like you should be using your personal assistant to help you make sure that the work meetings get scheduled around the doctor appointments or personal flights you schedule and have blocked off on your work calendar.

[Anonymous]

If you would have no problem with your assistant mentioning to the employer's president, CEO or owner what they do for you, then you're okay.

If you would be embarrassed if one of these people were to find out what you are asking your assistant to do, then don't do it. Essentially if the person who really pays for the assistant's salary doesn't care, then you should be okay.

[Anonymous]

I think it is safer to hire a personal assistant to do these things. And you can get a wide range—from online/remote only for a few hours a week to a house manager/personal staff that does everything.



https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-virtual-assistant-services/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally inappropriate.

Totally appropriate. The boss's time is far more valuable than the assistant's and the company is paying the assistant so that the boss can focus on work

Found the a$$××××

[Anonymous]

OP this is why our CEO's Assistant job description includes "quasi-professional/personal" items, enumerates what those are, and then ends with "other tasks as assigned".

Next time put it in the job description.