My boss asks me to do annoying admin tasks, please tell me if I need to get over this/what to do

[Anonymous]

I am a woman boss. One thing I ask of someone who works for me (a woman) is that she print off all of the reports needed for each weekly meeting.
She works for me, but is not strictly an admin.
It's called delegating.
If she quit and I hired a man, I'd have him do it too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it unbelievable that some of you think it's ok for op to do admin work when she isn't an admin.

But what I really don't understand is why companies don't even hire admins in the first place. Oh, no. They would rather have someone who is making double what an admin makes do all the admin work and annoy her in the process.

Some of us care less about status games and more about getting the job done.

[Anonymous]

I truly think that the reason admins don't get hired anymore is because there is so much more automation compared to even 5 years ago. There's not a full time job there anymore.
So everyone does their own admin, but at times when its really busy, I do ask those who work for me to do what would be done by an admin normally. It falls under "other duties as assigned" and I don't care if you are a man or woman who works for me--I need stuff printed out, or an appointment set up or a conference room booked. I've never had a staff member take it as a slight.

[Anonymous]

If there's an office admin and it's purely an administrative task (printing, copying, faxing, filling, data entry), then hand it off to the admin unless the boss specifically said it has to be you because presumably the admin is crashing on some other fire drill.

If there is no office admin, then everyone should be printing their own handouts, not the lowest-ranking woman on the team. Sure, the boss can ask her to do it, but that's a bad idea on many counts.

I had a boss who voluntarily disclosed several times that he had never worked with a female non-admin before I came along and it showed. He asked me to fax, file, order water for the office, etc. I gently trained him to remember that I was a professional hire. His boss also redirected him a few times towards the actual admin on the team. You can stand up for yourself in a polite and professional manner. You don't earn respect by being a doormat.

[Anonymous]

I own a small company. I get coffee for my clerical help, I go out and bring back lunch, I copy and do whatever they ask me to. They all do the same for me. Whatever the easiest and fastest way for us to get the job done is what well adjusted and attractive people do. That way you can go home early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If there's an office admin and it's purely an administrative task (printing, copying, faxing, filling, data entry), then hand it off to the admin unless the boss specifically said it has to be you because presumably the admin is crashing on some other fire drill.

If there is no office admin, then everyone should be printing their own handouts, not the lowest-ranking woman on the team. Sure, the boss can ask her to do it, but that's a bad idea on many counts.

I had a boss who voluntarily disclosed several times that he had never worked with a female non-admin before I came along and it showed. He asked me to fax, file, order water for the office, etc. I gently trained him to remember that I was a professional hire. His boss also redirected him a few times towards the actual admin on the team. You can stand up for yourself in a polite and professional manner. You don't earn respect by being a doormat.

I'm so confused why this has become a "woman" issue.
Part of being an effective leader is learning how to delegate. I'm a woman, c suite and we don't have admins. All of us delegate work however we need to delegate work to get the job done. I don't think it's "below" me to do this admin type of work so I'm baffled why anyone who works for me would think it "below" them if I delegate it to them.

I have women and men who work for me. At times, both do admin-type work for me. Sometimes I don't have time to do it myself. Sometimes I do. Whatever...get over yourself and stop making simple delegation into some kind of gender issue.

Obviously there's a line...no one should be making coffee for anyone. When I was young I had a boss "go there" (in addition to routinely having me watch his bratty kid when he was in meetings and his kid was spending the day in the office) and in that kind of case obviously it's time to speak up.

But as to real WORK, (like this OP where the work is printing reports to prep for meetings), you do what your boss tells you to do. If you don't like that, get yourself promoted to a place where you are the boss or start your own business.

[Anonymous]

This is loser talk. Winners manage to move ahead in life whether or not they include clerical work in their day.