I'm sick of a being a PA - but what else can I do?

alyth

I've been a PA for over 10 years, and am totally sick of spending my working hours organising things for other people, to then come home and try and keep my own life organised! Final straw today was when boss asked me to get the fax machine fixed in his hotel room,despite the fact he's in the US and all he needed to do was call down to reception and they'd have come running! I am throughly sick of booking holidays, arranging my bosses and their families' lives, taxing cars, the usual stuff, with no thanks at all. I temp as a PA and have a good reputation and no problem getting work, but it's just getting me down so much in that all I deal with are problems, tracking down people and putting them through to my boss, sending rejection letters to people wanting money, but I don't know what else I can do! I live in a fairly rural quiet area but there are a couple of towns within commuting distance, but the job market isn't exactly thriving, and I just feel like a gofer who comes home at night totally drained from sorting out people's lives when I barely have enough time to sort out my own! Has anyone moved successfully from the PA field to something else, or does anyone have any advice for me?

Doodles

Hi alyth
I really do sympthasise - I'm a PA too and there are times when I get sick of running round after my boss doing petty things! I recently saw that film 'Devil wears Prada' and lets just say there was a fair few things in that film which were too close to home! :rotfl: But I stay in the job because it suits me at the mo and has its positives - I work the hours that I need to (fixed around dropping son off at school and getting back before 6pm of an evening) and I'm on quite a good salary.

About 2 years ago I did an NVQ level 3 in administration - have you thought about doing something like that? I know a few PAs who have gone into administration jobs, finance/payroll, HR and another trained in events management before taking a job in that field (needs a good organiser, which PAs are already good at).

Trouble is with the PA role is that is often a make or break situation depending on who you're working for isn't it, because its such a close working relationship. I've had bosses which have been wonderful to work for and others I could have quite frankly rung their necks! Are you sure its the job you're fed up of or who you're working to?

One other thought I had - have you heard of the Creme Show? Its run by The Times newspaper and there is about 4 shows a year (its the only professional trade event for PAs, secs and exec assistants). Its massive, a bit like the ideal home show and is free entrance. They do loads of 1 hour seminars (at a small cost) on different areas and you walk around and get to speak to different organisations. It might give you a feel for something you might fancy. Obviously I'm not sure where you live but they have them at different places in the country. Do a google search for The Times Creme Show and you'll get more info if you're interested?

Hope this is of some help.

lynzpower

Sounds to me like you have excellent skills!

What would you LIKE to do?

Oldernotwiser

What qualifications do you have and where do you live?

alyth

hi, thanks so much for your replies. Doodles I lived in London until 5 years ago and always went to the Creme show, but we moved up to rural Scotland because of OH's job and I worked as a legal PA in London, then stayed in law as a PA up here until last Aug when I jacked it in and went temping. I wanted to get out of law, hence the temping.

I've no qualifications apart from O levels from school, I'm 36 and have basically worked in an office for 20 years, albeit in some fantastic jobs with wonderful bosses. However, the thought of being someone's lackey for the next 30 years is filling me with dread! When this contract finishes as the end of May I'll speak to my agency, who are brilliant, and see if they can come up with anyone outside of the PA side of things, but my nearest town is Perth and there's not a huge amount of work there. it's definately the job rather than the boss, I've been feeling this way for a while now, I think this is just the boss that's tipped me over the edge!

And Lynz, I would like to have a smallholding! We nearly got one towards the end of last year, but the cost was too much, but that's my dream!

Ive a few ideas batting around me, doing voluntary work with animals, although there's not much scope for that up here, I've just started a TEFL course, more to get my brain back into studying than anything, but I'm extremely lucky in that I have no outgoing as OH pays for everything, and after having a brief chat with him tonight he's said basically I can do whatever I want to do, so I'll try and do some mind-mapping type stuff this weekend and see what I can come up with!

Oldernotwiser

Careers Scotland offers a free service to adults and they have an office in Perth. They could be a good starting point for discussion and their website is pretty useful.

http://www.careers-scotland.org.uk/home/home.asp