Administrative Assistant - Tumblr Posts

Rule number one of a new job is always be very nice to the admin assistant. People often treat them like dirt, or they are dumb because they work the front desk, but they ALWAYS have the information, and responsibilities far beyond their job descriptions. Also, I mean, basic courtesy, there is just no reason not to be nice to someone.

I have watched a coworker learn this the hard way on a co-op. We were both on short term assignments, (co-op work terms) and he had been there longer than I had, but we were leaving the same day.

I always talked to the admin assistant, asked her for assistance when I had no idea what was going on, listened to her answers, asked about her kids, etc. Guy I worked with, just demanded things from her, was really abrupt, and did not listen to any advice she gave him.

One day the guy is telling me how shitty reimbursement is for OT, it can take weeks before "idiot at the desk" processes it onto your pay. Mine was always on the next paycheck and I wondered what he was doing wrong.

My preferred pens were always in stock, his were not. I got my expense forms reimbursed faster. The list goes on, but I never thought much of it. Offices, right?

I think the penny dropped for both of us on out last day, when we got little going away gifts that included some branded office supplies and chocolate. It was all my favorite chocolates, the kinds of office supplies I like, and I am stoked. He is just looking at his identical gift, and is like, OH, because it's the admin assistant that purchased this. I, who had just liked the admin assistant, also had an OH, moment, because all of a sudden all of the things that worked really well for me there could be traced back to one person, and I made a mental note to ALWAYS be very nice to the support staff. I think if he learned not to treat people in positions he though "lower" than him like they were beneath him, then it was probably the most valuable thing he could have learned on that work term.

i think this is probably true of every office, but there's a middle aged woman working in business who doesn't hold any particular place in the chain of command but is Sovereign. i was running support and she has access to more secure network drives than i do. im pretty sure she has an admin account. i was having trouble with my parking pass and my boss just said to talk to kristen- one day later i had parking in any garage on campus. she's not even in charge of parking in our building