measi's Diaryland Diary

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Being an administrative assistant

While I still have several fires (translation: twenty... there was a list of forty-- with email threads included in that 200 count) to put out since yesterday, I can't get moving on a lot of them because everyone's at a budget meeting today. *sigh* But everything is replied to at least, and I have all but five of these "emergencies" moving toward resolution. Thankfully, my "normal" workload was unusually light today, so I was able to concentrate on this stuff.

I don't get why everything has to be an emergency. Particularly things that with just two seconds, could have been solved without flooding my email box.

Let me go through a few of the gems I had to deal with today.

Completely valid stresser #1: an illustrator who hasn't been paid for the work she did this past summer.

The Gem off this one: As always, my accounts payable department has this amazing way of "losing" things, when in reality they just stuff them into a pile and never look at them again if there's the slightest question. In this case, I had two numbers reversed on a book ISBN. Even though the title and publishing date of the book were also included on the invoice. *sigh* Lazy butts.

Give me a break stresser #1: Someone sent me a TEN EMAIL THREAD FLOOD about the fact that they snapped their phone cord (the ringlet one between the actual phone and the hand device), and the replacment ones in the cabinet were "too long" and "not the right color."

Was this really necessary?

Completely valid stresser #2: A cluster of invoices totalling over $20,000 that should have been paid through another office, but wound up on my desk. I received forty emails on this one yesterday.

The Gem on this one: The manager and art buyer of the other office didn't reply to three of my emails over the past five days, querying about these invoices and the invoice losses to two other vendors. Then they have the nerve to be all pissy with me about wanting to get this work done. They didn't reply until I got Bigger Boss involved in emailing them, and then they have the nerve to say I'm trying to "make them look bad."

Listen buddy-- if you have $20,000 worth of invoices that have NO grant of rights contract created or signed, and the work has been done for three months, it's not me making you look bad. I'm trying to do a little PR here to keep these people on as vendors, for crying out loud.

Give me a break stresser #2: People getting all pissy that they aren't included on the invites for the holiday party on Friday, when I gave them three weeks to respond (including two reminders) to let me know if they'd be coming. Mind you-- our holiday party is being held DURING work hours. It's not like they need to find a sitter or something. They just have to leave their desks.

*sigh*

I'm glad I can go home soon. I just want to get into pj's and curl up on the couch.

Being an admin is an enigma of sometimes very cool, but sometimes absolutely hellish work. We're the ones expected to know everything and do everything, yet we have absolutely no "official" clout in the office. We're supposed to be the silent ones just getting stuff done in the background.

It can be a thankless job. Especially with whiny employees who have no idea what the job really entails. It's not just a job of doing typing, filing, and data entry. It's also one of budgeting, routing stuff every which way in the company, and doing PR with outside clients. It's that PR thing that's exhausting. Admins are expected to be the ones that stay calm in a crisis, knowing how to get things done with the least amount of difficulty possible. We're both the doers and the listeners. I don't know of many administrative assistants who don't play some sort of a role as department counselor from time to time.

I've been tempted to steal that "Ten Forward Lounge" sign off of the online media systems meeting room and put it on my cubicle wall. That or the Lucy van Pelt "The Doctor is in, 10 cents" sign. I have people in here all the time.

Funny, I never thought a minor in psych would come into play with an admin job.

Instead of that, though, I have my name on an "official" name plate, and "Queen Mab" on a Microsoft Word-generated one right under it (same font and all- gotta love being in a design department). If I'm in a particularly lousy mood, the Queen Mab one gets taped on my real one. Those who get the joke tend to be the ones who appreciate the need for space. They're also the ones that appreciate what really is involved in admin. work.

It's a Queen Mab sorta day today.

I'm just glad I don't have the boss from hell. Linda's been so supportive today with me. She even bought me chai and a new leopard-print stressball. She kicked me out of the office for fifteen minutes around 2 p.m. to get a breather. (literally said I was to leave the building, and took my ID badge so I couldn't get back to my desk for that time).

It's those little moments that make it worthwhile. Being appreciated and occasionally coddled when shit's really hitting the fan. Everyone else in the department has a "buddy" support system-- people can take over the work if someone else is buried. But there's no one to bail me out. I just have to hunker down and plow through it.

The day's almost over. Just about a half-hour longer...