Anonymous wrote:p.s. (00:23),

given the staff ratio, one admin support would handle 8-10 lawyers (at least) plus 1-2 supervisors so when 1 of the 12 needed a fax sent it was a fair bet that the admin was working on something for one of the 11 others and couldn't just drop it to send the fax ... so if a lawyer needs to --- god forbid --- send a fax rather than wait til the admin could break to do that -- the lawyer did.

That's getting the job done (being a professional, not a prima donna).

Not the poster you quoted, but your post suggest that your admin staff was busy doing other things. The other poster stated that she was required to do mailings, etc because the admin staff refused. Not the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this going to spin off into "minorities have it so easy"? Can I just throw up in my mouth now and get it over with?

they do have it easy. affirmative action is a nice ticket.

I know it is so easy to be a white woman In america and then to have the luxury of affirmative action is the icing on the cake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

what kind of a person cannot send their own fax or fedex?

To me that is outright ridiculous, almost like expecting someonevat the office to bring you coffee

Yes i agree. I worked in a law firm and we faxed and emailed are own work. No secretary needed. Surprise, surprise, it was also easier for me to type my own motions. Administrative assistant positions are gradually being phased out due to the invention of modern technology. The other posters need to Stop their bitching and whining and keep up.

Anonymous wrote:I work for the government and see this daily. Our agency recently put out an announcement for a budget analyst position.

Who do we hire? Minority vet with a degree in HR from University of Phoenix. The individual can't even run a basic function in excel. The whole department consists of a few competent analysts and a whole bunch of other people who are terrible at their job but were hired by the gov't for one reason or another.

I wonder if your colleagues would say this about you. Perhaps they think you are incompetent and only hired to check the minority status box marked female.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for the government and see this daily. Our agency recently put out an announcement for a budget analyst position.

Who do we hire? Minority vet with a degree in HR from University of Phoenix. The individual can't even run a basic function in excel. The whole department consists of a few competent analysts and a whole bunch of other people who are terrible at their job but were hired by the gov't for one reason or another.

Shame on your hiring panel, HR and manager (signed, a 26 yr. Fed manager).

p.s. (00:23),

given the staff ratio, one admin support would handle 8-10 lawyers (at least) plus 1-2 supervisors so when 1 of the 12 needed a fax sent it was a fair bet that the admin was working on something for one of the 11 others and couldn't just drop it to send the fax ... so if a lawyer needs to --- god forbid --- send a fax rather than wait til the admin could break to do that -- the lawyer did.

That's getting the job done (being a professional, not a prima donna).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

You're either lying or exaggerating.

You're clueless.

Though I disagree in part w/ the pp quoted and the racial stereotyping (some admins were worthless (black, Hispanic, white, etc.), others were good (black, Hispanic, white, etc.)), I was a manager at EPA for 26 yrs (retired '13) and I and my staff all sent our own faxes regularly and did our FedEx shipments when needed (admins usually handled that). Your disbelief merely reveals your clueless ignorance. People were there to get the job done and unlike a lot of others (BigLaw etc.) it was not "beneath" me as a Div. Dir. or Associate Office Dir. to send a fax if that's what needed to be done.

Others with poles up their butt (you perhaps?) may not believe that people can be willing to do that if that's what the job takes, but it's a fact whether you like or believe it or not (I and others were often at the office after admins had left and someone had to send those faxes or get those briefs out).

Anonymous wrote:I work for the government and see this daily. Our agency recently put out an announcement for a budget analyst position.

Who do we hire? Minority vet with a degree in HR from University of Phoenix. The individual can't even run a basic function in excel. The whole department consists of a few competent analysts and a whole bunch of other people who are terrible at their job but were hired by the gov't for one reason or another.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this going to spin off into "minorities have it so easy"? Can I just throw up in my mouth now and get it over with?

they do have it easy. affirmative action is a nice ticket.

Pobrecito

Anonymous wrote:Is this going to spin off into "minorities have it so easy"? Can I just throw up in my mouth now and get it over with?

they do have it easy. affirmative action is a nice ticket.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

what kind of a person cannot send their own fax or fedex?

To me that is outright ridiculous, almost like expecting someonevat the office to bring you coffee

Think the point is that the support staff were hired to do this job. They are being paid to do this as their job and collecting expensive benefits. If the people who they supported did this on their own, there would be no reason to hire support staff. Also, the people who they support focus on their job and the support staff, generally who are paid less (maybe not so true in government) do their work at a lower cost. Kind of like a client paying for $5/5 minutes of clerical work vs $1/5 minutes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

what kind of a person cannot send their own fax or fedex?

To me that is outright ridiculous, almost like expecting someonevat the office to bring you coffee

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

You're either lying or exaggerating.

Same thing in my agency. The attorneys couldn't get the support staff to do much of anything when they were not talking to their buddies on the phone. Attorneys just wrote their own memos and letters and sent out their own mail.

+2 Same thing in my agency too. We now only have one admin for maybe 50 people. Everyone just does their own filing and fedexing. Sort of a waste of a GS 15 to spend days filing, but whatever.

You're all useless

I work for the government and see this daily. Our agency recently put out an announcement for a budget analyst position.

Who do we hire? Minority vet with a degree in HR from University of Phoenix. The individual can't even run a basic function in excel. The whole department consists of a few competent analysts and a whole bunch of other people who are terrible at their job but were hired by the gov't for one reason or another.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interned at the EPA in the 90s (long time ago I know). Almost all of the support staff was black. As a general rule, they did nothing all day. If you asked them to fax or fed ex something, they looked like you like you had two heads. Now, that said, the lawyers worked their asses off (and were very diverse, all races and religions), so this is not a racial thing but an employment/union thing. It was pathetic.

So, the lawyers sent their own faxes and Fed Ex shipments?

yep. and the admin talked on the phone with their friends all day.

You're either lying or exaggerating.

Not PP but clearly you have been fortunate not to have encountered these types of employees.

The admins at my agency are terrible. It's easier to do something myself.