Does anyone work as a PA/ Secretary?

Astaroth

No, that is the large quantity of very boring IT meetings I have to dial in to and then there is nothing worth saying.

She did scare me on the first day she started.... had a telephone call with someone and mentioned that it would be good to go up to his office and see their operations etc but would have to check my calendar. Put phone down and decide to go to lunch thinking if I should let my PA deal with it or just deal with it myself given the hassle the temp she replaced with was for these things.

Got back to my desk 30 minutes later to find my diary re-arranged, train tickets on my desk, hotel reservation made (and not at the hilton which I cant stand but is the standard booking - how she knew I have no idea) and another meeting arranged for up there that had been on my to do list for weeks.

The obvious down sides is that she must have amazing hearing or can lip read or something so dont think I could ever have a private discussion if she is in the same building.... but then I have never known her spill any "secrets" even after a night out on the company.

lynzpower

maybe Ill add in my hobbies section the fact Im like to think im a bit psychic :rotfl: whether that will go in my favour or not who knows!!!!

Astaroth

ts_aly2000 wrote:

I can just imagine you saying that. :rotfl:

Well she was :A

2 classic examples:

1) We changed our IT infrastructure and so no longer had an automated way of booking the 2 meeting rooms we had on our floor. We were going to be able to set up a new Outlook thingy to do it but there was a change freeze so couldnt do it straight away.... Asked my PA to create and run a simple system we could use for a month or two before we could get the Outlook one setup.... her answer.... you asked her for a room and she wrote the time and date (but not the name) on a post it and stuck it on the door.... in no particular order, no other record kept. Ask her if a room is free and she had to go to each door and look at the 40 or so post its on the door but then couldnt say who had booked it if it was already booked. Not only didnt it work but looked a mess too

2) One of my colleges came in and said today was his daughters first b'day.... her reply... oh thats lovely, when was she born? :T

Savvy_Sue

Astaroth wrote:

The obvious down sides is that she must have amazing hearing or can lip read or something so dont think I could ever have a private discussion if she is in the same building.... but then I have never known her spill any "secrets" even after a night out on the company.

:rotfl: My sister reckoned she couldn't blow her nose without her secretary knowing about it, and thought she was also supposed to ask permission first! :rotfl:

John_Davros_Cooper

One thing to consider when working on Diary Management....

1) I amanged to sync my mobile phone and my microsoft entourage (Mac version of Outlook) diaries to be as one. A very good move and you can set up reminders etc therefore you could agree that everytime the person would it they could update their phone diary with a 2hr warning before each meeting.

2) Be worth looking into the person you are going to be a PA for - do they work from home or are they office based. two very differing levels of stress upon your job then!

Regards and best wishes
john