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Handling Personal Stuff for Boss
Sorry in advance that this is long! I work as an Executive Assistant but the position was somewhat created for me (no one before me). I've been here since March 2010 and I never was given a job description, verbally or in writing. I've just always handled things as they come up. Things have started to cross over into the realm of "personal stuff" that I am being asked to handle. Sometimes I've been asked to do things like drop off dry cleaning at the cleaners, which I don't mind because it gets me out of the office for a bit and because the owner of the company asked me to do it. I wasn't going to tell him no. He's also a friend of my husband. However, that has always been the extent of me handling his personal business.
Another boss, on the other hand (I have 3 total), has me handle a number of personal things for him such as booking vacations for he and his wife, getting his oil changed in his car, and scheduling other things that involve me communicating quite a bit with his wife...she'll even call me to have me put things for their own son on the calendar!! I wonder if they even talk to each other at home. He even asked me to drive to Chicago once (a 2 hour drive) to pick up his daughter!! (That I did refuse since I had plans thank goodness!) Last week, I was really pushed over the edge. He and some other executives were leaving for a business trip, he didn't tell his wife until a few days before, they had some big plans he forgot about so he had me check to see if I could change his flight. Not possible, so I told him and he then had me call his wife to tell him her that he couldn't change the flight. When I called her, she was LIVID that he "screwed this up" and wouldn't be home when they had a bunch of people coming in from out of town and went on and on about how upset she was etc etc. It was the longest, most excruciating 12 minute phone call of my life!!
I sent my boss an email (since he was out of the office for a week) politely letting him know that I was very uncomfortable being put in that position when it was a personal matter between he and his wife. His response was basically not apologizing for putting me in that position, but apologizing for his wife "overreacting." Is it out of line for me to ask not to handle his personal business anymore? It would really help if I had a job description but I have 3 bosses and I'm not even sure which one has the most authority. Does anyone have any advice on this? I just feel like I'm a little too involved in their marriage sometimes and it weirds me out.
Re: Handling Personal Stuff for Boss
I know a lot of the assistants where I work with have a relationship with the bosses' wives. I think he was right to apologize for her behavior, but not for asking you to call her and tell her the flight couldn't be rearranged.
JMO
74 books read in 2011
Personally I have worked as an EA for about 5 years now with two different companies. Both companies I do business related things and personal related things to my boss or bosses. I have done everything from scheduling events to picking up the dry cleaning. In both jobs I have become fairly close with the wife or wives. But I have never been brought in the middle of a personal matter.
Personally I would sit down with your 3 bosses and have them give you a job description. From there ask them each what is expected out of you...is it doing mostly business work with a little personal errands on the side or what.
Other than asking you to pick up his daughter, I don't really see anything unusual about any of the tasks being assigned to you. Even the daughter pickup thing doesn't seem that unusual depending on the timing of the request.
I've hired a number of EAs and every one of them has taken on PA duties (including arranging dog medical care and grooming, purchasing gifts/flowers for spouses, relatives and friends, car care and arranging services for the Executive's home.)
Do you have flexibility to delegate any of the task? For instance, if our EA was asked to pickup the daughter, she might respond, "My schedule won't allow me to pick her up personally, but I've looked into a car service who can pick her up. The cost is $X. Would you like me to arrange it for you?" Are you allowed to do that?
This exactly
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Interesting responses. I guess I just thought there was a difference between an executive assistant and a personal assistant, and lately I seem more PA than EA. As far as delegating to someone else, I don't really think that's an option. Also, when Boss A (owner of the company) found out that Boss B asked me to drive to Chicago to pick up his daughter, he wasn't happy and said to let him know if something like that ever happened again. I guess I just need to have them tell me where the line is between what my job does and does not entail since it's frustrating and unnerving to have that uncertainty.
I probably should have clarified that we make it clear to all of our EAs that personal duties are a part of the job during the interview process, and they all have written job descriptions. I can easily see someone being confused/uncomfortable by those types of duties if they were never told that they were going to have to do them. So, I guess, I don't think the duties you were assigned were unusual parts of a job, but I agree that you should have been told ahead of time that you were going to have those types of duties. kwim?
I think you should just ask to have a conversation about your job description and break it up into sections with personal duties and business duties (that's how ours are) so that everyone is clear. You should also figure out which of your executives you should go to if you have questions about whether a task is in the scope of your duties because reporting to 3 people can be difficult unless there is one person that's your main point of contact on difficult issues.
Yes, I agree it makes a difference KNOWING what is expected of you! It just threw me for a loop. Thanks for the advice and input. Looks like I definitely need to have them outline their expectations for me, even though I'm not planning on staying here long. I've decided to go to nursing school so I'm only here until I finish a couple pre-reqs.
I would go to the owner first. Explain that you'd like to create a job description for your position and you'd like to get a better feel for his expectations and also where the line is on handling personal items. Don't make it purely about Boss B, but you can use him as an example.
If you go to all 3 and say "what do you expect of me?", you're going to get a list and Boss B will say "run my errands for me".
I personally think the owner is the one person who can say "yay or nay" to some of the expectations of the other bosses.
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While the wife had no business airing her disapproval to you reagarding her husbands actions , these days I' bet there would be a line out the door to fill your position.
As long as you get paid for the time you spend doing those errands, what difference does it make??
I HATE it when people in my office say "I dont get paid to make coffee"...my response is "yeah, you do...but if you want me to dock your pay when you do make it, I will!!!"
I'm with you (OP) about the differences between an Exec Assistant and a Personal Assistant. In my experience as an EA at several companies in the corporate world, many of the things you are being asked to do would never fly. In my current EA job, the closest thing to a personal task my boss ever asks me to do is mail something personal for him.
However, I had an experience similar to yours when I worked for a privately owned company, supporting the owner and a couple other people. In my case, I DID have a written job description but everyone failed to mention in the interviews that the owner saw no difference between work-related and personal tasks. I had to take his car to get the emissions inspected, go to his house to wait for the cable guy, arrange his golf games (strictly personal, not business-related) and many other things like that. The funny part was the other two guys I supported never asked me for such things. The owner was never disrespectful of me and otherwise treated me well and I liked him personally, but it was not what I was expecting when I took the job. He was also in process of a (thankfully amicable) divorce from his wife and would have me drive to her house to drop off papers, etc.
All that say I can sympathize. I agree with Dr. Loretta's advice about sitting down with each boss and coming to an understanding of what each expects of you.
Since there is no written job description, you might want to create one based on the duties that you have been performing since you started and present it to the owner. Chances are that each of the three bosses do not know what you are doing for the others.
You could list all of the main things that you do for each of them and have a few bullet points at the end indicating the personal things that you have been doing. This might open to door for a conversation regarding what you feel is appropriate to be doing versus what you are uncomfortable doing.
I agree with pp's though, the higher the executive you are supporting, the more personal stuff that you may/will be asked to do. Something that always made me question what their SAHW's are doing while the exec's EA's are doing all of the personal stuff.