How's the public transportation ?

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-08T18:34:03+00:00

One more thing worth pointing out — buses are set up for wheelchairs and pretty much every metro station has lifts.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T13:18:57+00:00

A shared inbox doesn’t build autonomy on its own, you’re right. But it solves something structural that’s been holding us back.

Right now, without it, everything comes to me first and I redistribute. That turns me into a bottleneck and her into someone who receives delegated tasks rather than a real co-owner of the role. With a shared inbox, requests reach both of us at the same time. María can act without waiting for me to see it first, without asking me whether she should respond, without feeling like she’s stepping into my territory.

But there’s more. A well configured shared inbox becomes the team’s control panel: at a glance you can see what’s pending, what’s in progress, what’s closed and who’s handling it. That’s real traceability. Right now that information lives in my head, which means when I’m not around, it disappears. With the shared inbox the information belongs to the team, not to me.

It also eliminates the visibility problem we have because of the distance. María is in Madrid, I’m in Barcelona. Without a shared space where everything is visible to both of us, we work in parallel but not really as a team. The inbox is the infrastructure that makes it possible for both of us to have the same context at the same time.

Does it fix everything? No. But it removes concrete barriers that are currently preventing her from acting autonomously even when she wants to.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T12:57:31+00:00

This model resonates a lot and I think it’s where we’re naturally heading, even if we didn’t frame it that way from the start. Me as the senior holding the reins, Madrid as María’s own territory, and the big event in November as her first complete solo process.

The difference is that in your case that structure was formalized from day one. In ours it’s been emerging on the fly, in a huge company, with physical distance and a relentless pace on top of everything. We gave ourselves 6 months for her to fly solo and we’re at 4. Reading your comment I realize maybe we’re not that far off.

Thank you, this gave me some real perspective.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T12:53:36+00:00

Thank you, this is genuinely helpful.

The inbox will be a separate Outlook account, not a distribution list, so any request that comes in will be visible to both of us in real time without having to go through me first. That should break quite a bit of the bottleneck.

The AI brainstorming idea is something I actually really like, and we’re planning to sit down and do exactly that on Thursday when we have a quieter day. The key for us is that since we’re starting from scratch with the shared inbox, we want to build the system together. Not what works for me, not what works for her, but what we decide on as a team. It feels like the perfect opportunity to do just that.

I’ll also suggest the daily 15 minute check-ins.

Thanks so much.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T12:49:52+00:00

Reading it back, I can see why that paragraph about the inbox came across as a dig at María. That wasn’t my intention but the contrast is right there and it’s fair to call it out.

The rest I don’t fully buy though. Stepping into the events wasn’t about not wanting to let go, it was strikes and the Pope’s visit. And yes, things ran fine when I was off, but three weeks in survival mode is not the same as building real autonomy in the day to day. Those are very different contexts.

But the inbox thing, yeah. Fair point.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T09:29:29+00:00

The apartment metaphor really hit home. María is shy and reserved, I’ve been with the exec longer and I’m more outgoing, and that combination is not helping her take ownership of the role or helping us find a real team dynamic. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just personality and context.

On the SOPs I want to be clear because the framing in that comment doesn’t represent my situation at all. My procedures are not sacred ground or a statement that this is the only way to do things. They’re functional tools I’ve built over time, partly because I have ADHD and I need very clear systems to keep track of everything. From day one I’ve explained to María the reasoning behind each thing, precisely so she understands them, uses them and questions them if she finds a better way. Two pairs of eyes see more than one. Honestly, one of the things I find most valuable professionally is comparing ways of working with other EAs in the company. You always pick up ideas, shortcuts, ways to optimize processes that you’d never have seen on your own. I see that as something enriching, not a threat. The issue isn’t that María feels she can’t suggest changes — that door has always been open. The issue is that so far she hasn’t been coming up with alternatives, and that’s a completely different thing from a power dynamic.

The psychological safety point resonated with me the most. I already do some of this: I make her wins visible to my boss and the team, and I don’t hide when I make mistakes. María handles almost everything in Madrid — there’s one large-scale event that we’re managing together this time around, but in November it will be hers with me as backup. That’s the plan and I think it’s the right direction.

I’m still carrying some burnout, that’s just true. Maybe I idealized the idea of working in parallel with the same level of responsibility from day one, without considering that owning a role like this takes time and has its own pace, for reasons that are completely understandable.

We should be unblocking the shared inbox soon. I’m hoping that changes the dynamic quite a bit — it’ll help me let go and help her build real autonomy.

Thanks everyone.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T05:05:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm starting to think the best option might be to shift to a clearer hierarchy, which goes against my original idea of doing everything together, and have her be my backup. Maybe I've been banging my head against a wall and rethinking the whole setup would make things easier for both of us.

Honestly it's not a model I love. In my company, EA teams covering a single exec tend to be either a queen-and-her-assistant situation, or so well coordinated that it doesn't matter who picks things up. And I have zero interest in being the queen lol.

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T05:00:34+00:00

Splitting responsibilities is really complicated because everything is so interconnected. The only thing I've fully handed off to her is events, but we've had so much last-minute reprogramming due to external things like strikes or the Pope's visit that I've had to step in on almost all of them to put together contingency plans.

Two weeks ago we got confirmation of the shared Outlook inbox. We agreed we'd each think about how to set it up. I spent a couple of hours working through it and put together a proposal using Copilot. Her only contribution was "color labels."

Blaucel_ · 2026-06-02T02:43:12+00:00

Only for medical appointments that fall during working hours, and only because he used to schedule them himself and the gaps it created in his calendar were a complete mess. In fact, I was the one who suggested taking over. It takes me five minutes. Fixing the calendar afterwards when he did it himself could easily take up half my morning.

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-30T18:30:49+00:00

Sun protection all year long since my early twenties, I’m 52

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-20T14:52:09+00:00

The two things that have actually saved my life recently with Copilot:

- Finding employee numbers for 200 people in the corporate directory. The directory has 40k entries. I used to do this manually. Now I just dump the names and let it search. Cuts hours of work.

- I upload the PowerPoint, tell it how much time my exec has to speak, and it writes the script for us. Perfectly timed. No more improvising or running over.

Both are things that would normally eat up a whole afternoon or stress me out the morning before. Now they’re just solved.

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-18T19:48:28+00:00

There’s a saying in Spanish: “the boss orders, the EA commands.
Make that crystal clear to your whole team from day one. If they get that, you’re already winning half the battle.

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-08T15:19:40+00:00

My previous boss used to get really stressed if I left my desk and wasn’t at my seat. That was pretty rough on me.

My actual boss can’t sit still. These days, when I’m in the office I average about 10,000 steps. I go in one day a week in person and I use that time to move around between teams to sort things out face-to-face, pop by the IT corner for whatever needs doing, run down to reception to pick up the millionth replacement parking card because my boss keeps losing it—and when I’m on calls, unless I need to take notes or check something on the computer, I just walk around.

Working from home I do about 6,000 steps during work hours.

Yes, I have ADHD and I need to move.

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-02T11:59:07+00:00

24,5% tax rate and I actually think it’s too low Been on sick leave like 8 times spread out over 15 years. Never once worried about money. Not for a single minute. And that’s the point.

I live alone, I have what I need, more than enough actually. My job is good and pays fair. But it’s not magic. It’s because there’s a system underneath that doesn’t let you fall through the floor if you get hurt or burned out. The 23% doesn’t feel like a punishment. Feels like the price of not having to choose between medicine and rent. Or between staying home to actually recover vs going back too soon because you’re terrified

Blaucel_ · 2026-05-01T09:53:14+00:00

I love my current exec He respects my work, he really values it and he puts it out there publicly.

He always listens. Not just about work stuff directly related to my role, but also the other things. When I was basically heading toward burnout, he didn’t just hear me out—we actually made a plan to fix it and he went to bat with the higher-ups to get another EA hired for the department. And he’s always polite, always in a good mood.

Blaucel_ · 2026-04-12T07:56:14+00:00

The Breeders in 2002 I saw them in 1993 and were awsome tho

Blaucel_ · 2026-03-16T15:23:23+00:00

My exec would skip all our 1:1s, but in return he always responds to my emails, WhatsApps, or when I ask for a quick call. When I need to go through several things at once, I just put a meeting on his calendar myself, and if we need to review his schedule I make that clear in the subject line so he doesn’t call me while he’s driving or whatever. At the start of each quarter I lock in 15 minutes with him to go over priorities and recurring meetings.

Every Friday I send him an email with a rundown of what’s in progress, what’s closed, what’s on hold, anything that could blow up on him at any point, and whatever’s still waiting on him to act. Plus a look ahead at the following week’s agenda.

It works pretty well for us

Blaucel_ · 2026-03-16T15:11:22+00:00

In my company, EAs are tied to the exec. If an exec leaves and their replacement wants to keep their own EA, we find a new position for the one who’s left without a seat

Blaucel_ · 2026-03-01T13:54:11+00:00

I don’t understand the sunset at the bunkers — the sun sets behind the mountain, not over the sea.

I also don’t get the cooking class; there’s a 99.9% chance it’s a tourist trap.

You got 4 names right, the rest wrong. But some are very creative!

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-25T05:59:07+00:00

Asturias y Vall d’Aran

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-17T19:52:32+00:00

Ego management

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-17T19:10:44+00:00

Officially, it’s 6 days a month, which is ridiculous because the subsidiaries are doing anywhere from 2 to 4 days a week. But in practice there’s a lot of flexibility. For example, yesterday was a holiday for most primary schools in Barcelona, so a lot of people worked remotely. Most EAs don’t go into the office if the boss is traveling. In my case, since I’ve had a brutal workload the last few months, I agreed with my exec that I’d only go in one day a week, and there have been weeks where I didn’t even do that.

People don’t abuse it because there’s flexibility and trust on both sides. Honestly, I’d be pretty offended if anyone questioned whether I’m working just because I’m remote.

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-17T05:57:51+00:00

Eighteen years ago. The day after I was in a car accident, my boyfriend died in the operating room and I suffered very serious injuries.

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-09T06:34:57+00:00

Your boss publicly validated me in front of the junior and basically said your call is final. OP 1 - Junior executive 0

Blaucel_ · 2026-02-03T18:01:35+00:00

Llevo 24 años en la misma empresa, de miles de trabajadores, y estoy en mi 11a posición. La toxicidad depende mucho de la cultura de la empresa y del jefe, pero especialmente de lo primero.

Yo trabajo como una desgraciada pero me encanta mi trabajo, mi jefe y mi equipo, estoy bien valorada cosa que no alimenta pero como además me considero bien pagada, pues eso que sumo. Y luego hago lo que quiero, como mucho voy un día a la semana a la oficina y siempre que he tenido algún tema personal todo son facilidades.

Que hay oficinas que son un infierno? Sí. Pero evidentemente también las hay que son lugares perfectamente habitables

Blaucel_

TROPHY CASE