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How do young women professionals manage their secretaries...
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Anonymous
Many do, yes. While some people are full of themselves and/or are insecure enough to need to be dismissive of staff to reinforce their own importance, most of them do yes. And why not? It costs you nothing to be friendly, so long as you also communicate clear performance expectations and provide accurate feedback, positive or negative, to those who work for you. (I'm assuming that PP meant "be friendly" more than "become friends" in the sense of having a relationship outside the workplace.) |
Anonymous
well I am a male and I am friendly with everyone I work with, and they are friendly back. If someone "undercut" me, whatever that means, then I likely wouldn't be as friendly, but I doubt things would change too much since the job description wouldn't change and I still spend 40-50 hours of my life with those people every week. |
Anonymous
It is most important to be friendly to those who undercut you. How else will you ever get them to let down their guard so that you can put the knife in when the proper time comes? |
Anonymous
| when I worked at a law firm, a female associate told a younger female associate that women in law firms could "either be bitches or doormats, no other options". she was very dismissive to staff. |
Anonymous
This is totally untrue. I can't tell you how many women at my firm are successful without being either. |
Anonymous
| We live in a sexist world as this thread has demonstrated. I too found myself with an assistant who only supported the male boss. I got myself a 23yr old go getter. He is an excellent assistant and his ivy education and writing skills help my productivity. |
Anonymous
| What a great thread. I think it is especially challenging when you work with a lot of male peers. Sometimes, I have found that you just need to switch admin teams and set the tone from the beginning. |
Anonymous
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The 14:18 posting again. I am a little stretched sometimes having a PT assistant like this, but the incredibly terrific people that we have hired make up for any stretching. And really all it requires is a bit more planning and discipline on my part to make sure that I accomplish what I need to do in order to pass on the next steps to my assistant. Nothing goes undone. The only time I have ever had comparable assistants would be when I worked outside of this area and being a paralegal or a legal secretary at a law firm was a coveted job in places where the employment options were not as great as in this area.
There are a few things to keep in mind. If you hire someone with elementary school kids in Fairfax County, they don't work Mondays b/c of early dismissal. Or they work only until noon. Learn the winter holiday breaks and spring breaks for your county -- they won't be working during these times. Be very flexible about work hours. Very. Some have wanted to be at home to put kids on the bus and so will come in later. Some have wanted to be home to get kids off the bus and so will come in really early. Some with traveling husbands, deployed husbands, single parents, will need to be able to do both. My experience has been that they will move heaven and earth for you. And to the poster who said the SAHMs who work at their office always talk about their kids, so do I so we all get along great  I think they appreciate being able to talk about their little league games and me knowing when prom is and asking to see pictures. And I know I appreciate having people at work I can prattle on to about the miracles of my children.
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Anonymous
Bull! An Ivy Leaguer working in such a lowly position? Ha, unless you are a judge and he/she is your clerk. At least post something believable. |
Anonymous
Not pp, but my assistant has a degree from Yale. In the last ten years, every assistant I've had has had a college degree (and, no, I'm not in the judiciary). A couple have had Master's degrees. There are so many young ambitious people who want to get their foot in the door in Washington, it is very common. Most of my assistants have stayed a couple of years and moved on to bigger and better things, but they are great while they're around. |