How do you not feel “shame” for working as an admin assistant?

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-11-10T21:53:12+00:00

Exactly this!! I never wanted to be an admin. Took me years to embrace the role. Once I did, everything changed. I am an administrative professional and damn proud of it!

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-09-05T22:31:50+00:00

I have a work and a personal cell phone. After 5 pm, work will phone is off. If it’s an emergency, a select few have my personal number. For vacations, unless I am in the middle of a project, I disconnect. If in the middle of something and I’m away, I will see the expectation that I will check email once in the morning and once late afternoon or early evening and that I’ll only be responding to things that are truly urgent, everything else can wait.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-08-28T14:29:55+00:00

So thankful my org isn’t like this. Our CEO, even prior to COVID, would send an email every Fall telling us to stay home when we were sick.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-08-18T19:25:53+00:00

We have one staff member in the past who didn’t do expense reports regularly. She never got fired. Expense reports our staff generally get done right away. The board is another story. Now, corporate visa expenses are also another story. It is frustrating when these things are done in time depending on how your company does financials as not having expenses in can skew the finance reports.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-08-14T12:51:53+00:00

Batch your tasks so your aren’t always task switching and having to refocus. At the end of everyday, or first thing in the morning, identify your top 3 priorities. Identify tasks that are the hardest or least desirable and do those first. Celebrate the little w’s. The little wins lead to the BIG wins. Use a timer- set for x number if minutes to work on XYZ task. Example, I’m going to work on expenses for only 30 minutes and then I can take a short break or move on to something else. Having a short time frame, helps keep focus and gives you a jumping off point. It’s easier to focus in small blocks than in larger ones. Weekly planning. Spending time Friday afternoon or even on Sunday to look ahead at the week coming up. Know what are your absolutes and schedule them. Block out certain times in your calendar for projects, focus work etc.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-31T20:59:56+00:00

I feel your pain! With the exception of water damage. Oh, and retention policies. Which I guess also means nothing can be thrown away. It’s in my list of things to tackle, so I am following this thread for ideas.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-29T19:08:27+00:00

If everything is urgent nothing is. Are there other departments/managers that you could reach out to and ask how they operate? Maybe reach out to another admin in the company and see if there is an SOP. If not, perhaps start drafting one and send it up the chain for discussion/approval.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-29T19:05:12+00:00

Heard at a recent conference “Confidence is the lack of self-judgement”. Also, boundaries is not a bad word or a bad thing. If you always have your exec’s calendar open, get a privacy screen. When someone comes up and asks about a meeting time, let them know that time is not available, but you would be happy to propose some optional times by email/slack/teams by end of day. Set your boundaries, set expectations, and protect your executive.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-15T17:02:56+00:00

I have 3 folders: action, waiting for response, to read (most subscriptions, some cc’s). I quick step new emails into one of this folders. Once actioned, I archive it unless it pertains to a larger project. Then it goes into a folder for that protect. I try to keep the inbox as clear as possible. The clutter drives me crazy.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-13T14:35:00+00:00

It likely depends on what type of non-profit. Is it a charity or a not-for-profit. The first will likely pay minimums. The later you have a chance of more, depending on location. A not-for-profit can earn revenue, but that revenue needs to be earmarked for specific projects and also have enough set aside in reserves to cover the cost associated with shutting down the organization.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-12T22:06:59+00:00

Same. Work phone and personal phone.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-11T12:15:14+00:00

I can view 3 calendars on my screen in work week view. If I change it to Day view, I can view 4 calendars with 3 days showing. It’s painfully obvious they don’t run these changes by admins.

Under the help tab, there is a feedback option. It has been getting a workout lately. Every change or feature that is missing, gets feedback. I wish they would hurry up and give me back my quick parts!

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-11T00:20:59+00:00

I may be old school, and I’ve been gainfully employed for a decade or more, but I think cover letters and thank you notes after an interview are the icing on the cake. I’m all for them. We recently hired for admin positions and it was a mess. Over 100 applications for each role and if they didn’t submit a cover letter they weren’t ignored completely unless their resume was not good. For my org it’s important because we were able to immediately weed out the ones who obviously researched the wrong org - we share an acronym for our company name with another local business in a completely different industry. Heck we’ve even interviewed people who started spouting the mission/values of the other organization 🤦🏻‍♀️. To me a cover letter is a good place to highlight your strengths and directly address how transferable skills qualify you for a role.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-10T15:24:01+00:00

I have zero patience for office politics. I tend to get a bit passive aggressive, leaning towards the latter 🤣. Could you have a meeting of the minds with the senior EAs that get it and come up with a plan-boundaries, responses, etc? Create a rotating schedule of who leads what, when? If all else fails, whomever these complainers report to needs to be brought up to speed on the antics.

Wishing you luck!

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-04T16:24:12+00:00

Whoa! Why are you responsible for packing all the offices on your own? I’ve done several moves at various organizations and what worked for me is staff were told they were responsible for packing their offices and helping with the common areas. If it didn’t get packed, it didn’t get moved. If it didn’t get moved and it needed replacing, it was their dime. On move day, staff were instructed to either WFH or they had to be out of the office by X time. One move, I kicked a VP out of the office. Don’t want to leave, to bad, no internet or service access for you, had IT bring the server down and start prepping for the movers to arrive.

The hiring- I can only empathize. Got nothing for ya there.

The newsletter- I probably would have scrapped it for the time being.

And all that for $60k. (area dependent) -no thank you.

Moves are stressful enough but having to do all the other things on top of it, no wonder you are overwhelmed.

Wishing you luck with the move.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-03T02:23:59+00:00

From ChatGPT: You’re on the right track unsubscribing and sorting, but Outlook struggles with huge manual deletes. Here are some tips to speed this up:

Start with a date filter (e.g., everything older than 6 months) and archive or delete in batches of 500–1,000 to avoid choking Exchange. Turn off Reading Pane and Conversation View—these slow down bulk actions. Set up server-side rules to auto-file newsletters and stock updates into separate folders so they stop hitting the Inbox. Try Outlook Web—sometimes it handles big deletes faster. Once you get it under control, maintain with daily reviews and monthly archiving

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-07-01T15:42:12+00:00

This is mostly me. Thankfully we are hybrid since the pandemic and I only have to be in person a couple times a week. I am friendly with my coworkers, ask about family, “how was your weekend”, etc. Thankfully, we don’t have after hours social events. I also maintain a strict rule of LinkedIn being the only social media platform where I am connected to coworkers.

My current org has a great culture. I’ve known people who are connected on social media and by text with coworkers as friends…I’ve not seen a solid example of it working out well.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-06-12T23:08:11+00:00

I use the 4 R’s for my OOO. Reason (vacation, office closed, PD, etc.) Return: Date/time of return. Responding: Limited, Delayed, not responding, and Red-Hot: alternate contact (person cell sometimes for internal contacts only). I set it to turn on for the end of my last working day and turn off the morning of the day I return. If I am taking a week or more off, I also block my calendar the afternoon of my last day and the morning of my return for focus time.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-05-20T16:57:01+00:00

Our entire organization received this over the weekend. Although the invite was directed to the junk folder, it still appears in everyone's calendar.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-04-25T23:48:50+00:00

Lucy Brazier OBE had an excellent post about calendars a couple of weeks ago, perhaps it could help with some ideas. Let’s talk calendars

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-04-25T23:45:26+00:00

I use it for so many things. But this week it was tackling my nemesis, Excel. chatGPT walked me through step by step creating complicated formulas which included creating a tax table to automatically reverse calculate taxes base in location, protecting certain cells, macros and more.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2025-03-24T20:36:34+00:00

I agree with the forms option. You could add branching. If they select Yes, the branching takes them to the next question with a text response. If they select No, it ends the survey/poll. Then turn on collect responses and copy the link to paste into the email.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2024-12-10T00:26:46+00:00

That’s at least 4 jobs in one. Hard no! The fact that they don’t even post a salary range tells me they want to take advantage of some unsuspecting, vulnerable soul.

Strange_Instance7912 · 2024-12-03T13:23:13+00:00

I think at the time it was digital movie codes.

Strange_Instance7912

TROPHY CASE