Assistants Should Be Seen and Not Heard

After fourteen years in the same job, I hopped on a plane and headed to London to seek greener pastures and get a completely different slant on life. In a move which went completely against the grain, I bypassed agencies and sent my CV directly to directors of companies. Clearly from the response I received, an agency would have been the best way to approach the situation. However, as luck would have it, I did get a response from a managing partner in an American law firm, and even more fortuitously for me my interview with him led to a contract which kept me in London for a time spanning two years. I was delighted!

I had always thought myself extremely professional in my job, but after working in London for a month or two I realised that I still had a lot to learn about being a secretarY and a personal assistant.  I was float secretary in a large firm, and my job entailed meeting and attending to the requirements of visiting out of town attorneys in our offices, from organising lunches, taxis and the like, to taking minutes and formatting and creating documents and setting up conference calls.

Attention to detail and a record of all comings and goings were to prove very important and I still pursue this in my work to this day. I send mail for everything, from saying "bless you" when someone in the office sneezes, to confirmation of the content of conversations which I had held.

Now back in my little neck of the woods, I am in an office with another assistant and any degree of professionalism seems to have gone out the window - not on my part, but on the part it seems of many others.

I have been fortunate enough to mostly have an office to myself throughout my career, at one stage taking care of the needs of eleven busy advocates (barristers). So it was great alarm that I realised that many, many people who profess themselves as secretaries and personal assistants do not have the slightest concept of how to act in an office. In my time since my return, I have had colleagues shouting and swearing in the reception area, throwing items, slamming doors and drawers, swearing and more, and I wonder how they not only get away with it, but have also then managed to turn the tables to make their behaviour appear to be as a result of my presence.

In my time in London, I learnt that my time during working hours was being paid for, and thus, by default, was my employer's time. I could rant, rave, kick, scream and cry like a five year old, but I had to do this outside of the office and outside of office hours. The attitude adopted by most employers is "if that is how you want to behave then pick up your stuff and leave", so needless to say when I was blamed for something which was taken out completely of context and I nearly lost my job because of this, I was livid! Because I choose to sit in the office and not share my personal life and my personal experiences with my colleagues, should be no reason for dislike on the part of my colleagues, but it seems that it is. I have been sworn at and accused of having a bad attitude, but if truth be told it can never ever be said that I have stooped to swearing, belittling, accusations, temper tantrums, key flinging, door slamming or the like. I remember an incident which hit headlines in a London paper, about two colleagues working in an office, who had a fight over a sandwich. One sent a slanderous email to the other, making accusations, but when the recipient forwarded this mail to all her contacts, matters got out of hand and both ended up losing their jobs. It was a good lesson in thinking twice before taking any rash action.

To me, the "seen and not heard" approach is the only way to go. When you leave your boss's office you close the door quietly so that he does not hear you leave, when you leave you take the dirty cups, plates and saucers off his desk with you. When you feel the need bang, sigh, hum and sing to yourself, as well as tap your foot constantly, think twice. This does not make you appear professional and it merely adds an irritation to someone else's day! Personal assistants and secretaries need to understand that their attitude and behaviour reflects on their bosses, no matter if most of that (bad) behaviour goes undetected or unnoticed by the bosses. All this comes back to roost eventually.

While it is often the case that extremely different personalities are employed together in offices, and thus stuck in each other's company, like or lump it, for the better part of the working day, pettiness in any form remains just that - petty!

Be quiet and go about your work without drama and without inflicting yourself unnecessarily on your colleagues. In that manner you can maintain a healthy working environment, making it easier to cope with the working day. Understand that while you are there for personal reasons, i.e. to earn a salary, that you are there more so for your employer's benefit and that petty personal attitudes should not be allowed to interfere. Understand also that if you are not prepared to put up with certain behaviour, you should not be the origin of such behaviour in the first instance. Don't take it personally when your colleagues choose not to socialise or reveal their personal lives to you. I have my own life and my own interests and my own friends outside of the office and choosing not to engage in a personal friendship with colleagues should not be seen as a personal rebuff - it is simply a professional decision. In short, when working in an office of professionals, no matter what the circumstances, put aside personal needs and behave as a professional, don't blame others, and feel free to rant, rage, and throw a temper tantrum in the quiet of your own home! As I said I have been sworn at, called names, had accusations made against me and also been advised to keep quiet and not talk to them. When doing as instructed (i.e. not talking) I then gotten into trouble for "upsetting" and creating an atmosphere. Sadly one has to realise that in life one cannot have it both ways, no matter how much one tries.

I guess at the end of the day, employees have to realise that the office is not a playground. I acknowledge that I come to work to do my work, attend to my bosses' needs, ensure that his/her clients are happy and leave without leaving a trace of myself. I understand that sometimes, in fact most oftem, your colleagues may not want to be "friends" with you (or even associate with you for that matter, past the bare necessities of general office requirements), but the day that I find myself throwing a temper tantrum, swearing at my colleagues, slamming doors or in any manner behaving badly, is the day that I know that I need to retire.