Administrative Arts » For the Boss

Thinking Like A Manager

Jodith — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Joan Burge had a great post this week about thinking like a manager. It’s part of her series on “Becoming an Administrative Superstar”. Her post got me thinking about my own experiences as an Executive Assistant and most especially my first Executive Assistant position.

Put Yourself In Your Boss’s Shoes

When you work as a direct admin for your boss, whether it’s as an Administrative or Executive Assistant, you should look at everything that crosses your desk through your boss’s eyes.

I remember my first job as an Executive Assistant. I gave him his signature folder one morning with some employee reviews and purchase orders for his signature. After he looked at the paperwork, he called me into his office.

My job, he told me, was to make sure that everything that came to his desk was resolved of problems before he saw it. He pointed out a questionable employee review and a purchase order that had issues. Essentially, my boss was teaching me to think like a manager.

Delegated Authority

I have to admit that the first few times I sent paperwork back to a Director for corrections or explanations, it was with trepidation. In my experience so far in my career, secretaries just didn’t do that. And I did get push back from a couple of Directors.

I explained to all of them that Dave had delegated authority to me in these matters. It was my job to review their paperwork to make sure it met his standards before I gave it to him to sign. After a while it was just understood that I had that authority. Eventually the Directors sought out my advice on these matters. They came to me with questions instead of bothering my boss.

Wielding Authority With Confidence

If you want to be a truly effective assistant, you must be able to wield delegated authority, and you must be able to wield it with confidence. When you have direct reports to your boss confronting you on your delegated authority, you must be able to look them in the eye and defend your status. You must defend your authority.

If you cannot confidently wield authority, no one will respect you. If you cannot confront your boss’s direct reports as your boss, they will not accept that you have authority for anything. They will work around you, bypass you, and undermine you. At this point, you will have lost all effectiveness as an assistant.

What Challenges Do You Face?

What are your challenges as an Administrative or Executive Assistant? Does your boss give you delegated authority to make decisions? How do you wield that authority? Leave a comment and share your experiences with us.Similar Posts:

Ask the Admin: My Boss Is Having An Affair

Jodith — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

We have a doozy of a question this week, folks, and I’m hoping some of you can help the writer with some advice:

I just found out that my boss is having an affair. Normally I wouldn’t care. I mean, who he sleeps with is none of my business, isn’t it? The part I’m having trouble with is that I like his wife. A lot! She’s in and out of the office all the time and she attends company events with him. She’s such a sweetheart, and I feel just terrible about all of this. I hate to see her taken advantage of. So what do I do? Do I tell her about the affair? Or do I protect my boss?

Andrea (not my real name)

Andrea, thank you for writing to me about this problem. You certainly have a serious dilemma on your hands. Situations like this can cause you some serious heartache.

Confidentiality: How far does it reach?

I’ve always been a big advocate of keeping your boss’s personal business confidential. An Administrative or Executive Assistant is so much in her boss’s pocket, that she tends to learn many things that she might otherwise not want to know. If we are to maintain the level of support to our boss’s that they need, they need to be able to trust that anything we learn is kept strictly confidential.

My question would be how you learned about the affair? Was it through your work duties? I know that I’ve come across the same knowledge in the past looking for an e-mail my boss couldn’t find.

My gut says if you found out about the affair in the performance of your work duties, then you owe your boss your confidentiality. However, if you found this out in a non-work venue, then you are not so bound. For instance, if you heard about it from someone in your social group.

Assuming you didn’t find out from work duties, I’m still of two minds about telling the wife. You still have to worry about your own position and the possibility of retaliation from your boss. It could make your job very, very difficult. It’s a matter you have to wrestle out with your own conscience.

Opinions

I know Andrea and I aren’t the only two who have made this discovery. I see the topic in search often enough to know it isn’t an unusual happening. I’d love to hear from all of you, my readers, on this topic. How far does confidentiality reach? Would you tell the wife in these circumstances? Please, leave a comment and tell us what you think.Similar Posts:

Getting Coffee: Personal Errands Personified

Jodith — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Should you get coffee for your boss? I find this question over and over in the searches on my site. Why are admins asking this question. Why is it important?

Personal Errands

Getting coffee is really just the tip of the iceberg. What most admins are asking about is running personal errands for your boss. Getting coffee, picking up lunch, dropping off dry cleaning. You all know the kinds of things I’m talking about. I’ve talked about running personal errands before. While many bosses are hesitant to ask their admin to run personal errands for them, other bosses think it is a requirement for the job.

Lack of Respect?

Is it a devaluation of our skills? Does it show a lack of respect on the part of the boss to ask us to get coffee? It depends on boss. Most bosses understand our value and are reluctant to waste our time on such errands. On the other hand, some bosses consider us lackeys. We exist to do what he wants when he wants. But does that mean we shouldn’t ever run personal errands for our bosses?

What Is Our Job Anyway?

Let’s break our job down to its core objective. Administrative and Executive Assistants, at their core, exist to make the boss’s job easier and more productive. If getting a cup of coffee or picking up lunch allows her the constructive time she needs to work on a project, then getting that coffee or food meets our core objective. It is, indeed, part of our job description.

It’s All About Respect

As I said earlier, I don’t think most bosses disrespect what we do as Administrative Professionals. Some, however, do. I don’t think the issue for any of us is getting coffee. It’s being respected for the highly skilled professionals that we are. If your boss doesn’t respect you, it won’t change if you refuse to get his coffee.

If your boss respects all that you do, I can’t imagine you would have a problem getting the coffee occasionally. At least that’s the way that I feel. For a boss who respects and values me and my work, I’d do whatever he needs to help him be successful. For a boss who doesn’t respect me and my work…well…let’s just say I’d be looking for another job rather than worrying about the details.

What’s Your Opinion?

Do you get coffee or run other personal errands for your boss? Why or why not? Leave a comment and let us all know how you feel about this topic.

I’ve added a poll to the site. Vote in the latest poll on the sidebar (click through to the site if you read this in a reader or e-mail). This week’s poll: How Long Have You Worked in the Administrative Support Field?

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Should You Text Your Boss?

Jodith — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

photo credit: ydhsu

While perusing the many blogs that I follow, I saw this blog post on LifeHacker about the etiquette of texting your boss. It started me thinking about how much technology has changed during my career and how we respond to it as Administrative and Executive Assistants. Using text messages is a good example of technology that we can embrace.

Like all technology, though, texting can be good and bad. You need to have guidelines to follow when using texting to contact your boss. Some of the questions/guidelines I can think of would be:

Always ask the boss if texting is acceptable. Some digital plans charge extra for text messages, so make sure his plan covers it.
If your boss is using a company provided phone, make sure you know the company policy about texting. There may be guidelines and limitations on use of text messages.
Have guidelines for when texting is appropriate. For instance, use texting when you need to contact your boss urgently, but she is in a place where she can’t answer her phone. If the issue isn’t urgent, then perhaps e-mail is a better method of contact. Discuss this issue with your boss.
Regardless of the way you use text messaging in your personal life, avoid using text slang when sending text messages at work. First, not everyone understands text-speak, and “4” and “ur” just look completely unprofessional. Spell out your words.
Regardless of what the survey says, you should NEVER ask for a raise by text message. Seriously.

Since this is an area where few guidelines tend to exist, what do you think? What guidelines do you think are needed for texting the boss? Leave a comment with your ideas. If you are reading this post in your e-mail or blog reader, click through to the Administrative Arts website to leave a comment.Similar Posts:

Ask the Admin: Managing E-mail for the Boss

Jodith — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:05:00 +0000

This question came from Jody:

Did you get any feedback on how assistants typically work with their boss’ email?

My boss has never had anyone help him with his vast quantities of email and I am wondering where to look for best practices.

I did not get any comments on the post I previously wrote about managing the boss’s e-mail, but I did go out and find some discussions I had previously seen on other sites.

There were two discussions on Office Arrow, both with some good tips:

Patricia on Laughing All The Way To Work also had a good post on this topic that you may find helpful:

Managing your Boss’s Inbox

My best advice on managing someone else’s inbox, is to design your procedures in conjunction with the owner of the inbox you are managing. Different people do better with different organizational structures. Talk to your boss about what he wants you to handle. If he doesn’t know, make suggestions based on your own experience. Start there, and review the procedure with him frequently in the early days to get feedback on what is working and what isn’t. Change your procedures over time based on that feedback. The important thing is to take the initiative of getting the conversation started and finding something that works.

Does anyone else have any suggestions to help Jody manage her boss’s e-mail? Leave a comment and help out. Note: if you are reading this in a blog reader or by e-mail, you’ll need to click through on the title to leave a comment on the blog web page.Similar Posts:

Screening Sales Calls

Jodith — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:48:04 +0000

I’ve talked before about Screening Calls to Make Your Boss More Productive, but I didn’t discuss sales calls in particular. Telemarketers are wily characters that will do their best to try and fake you out and get you to put their calls through. It’s your job as an administrative or executive assistant to hold the line and not let them through.

The Easy Calls

Some calls are obviously sales calls

“May I speak to the person in charge of purchasing decisions for XYZ?”
“Who do you currently buy your office supplies from?”

My immediate response to these types of questions is always, “What are you selling?” They’ll give you a song and dance, start asking questions, but don’t give in. Eventually they will either tell you what they’re selling or they’ll hang up. For those who tell me what they are selling, if it is something we might need, I tell them to send us a brochure. If they want a name, tell them to put your name on it, and you’ll forward it to the correct person. Never, ever give them the name of the person who would do the purchasing. They’ll just use that to bypass you the next time they call.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

There’s no way to put a nice face on it. Sales people will flat out lie to you to get through to your boss. Don’t trust it.

“Hi, can I speak to Bob?”

OK, this one isn’t so much a blatant lie as an attempt to fool you into thinking he knows your boss. The reply to this one is, “If you’ll give me your name, I’ll see if he is available.” If you only get a first name in reply, then ask what company he’s with. If you keep getting a song and dance, don’t let him through. Remember, even if this is a legitimate call for your boss, it’s better to get a name and number, and let your boss decide about calling back. I usually marked these messages as suspected sales calls. I’d review them with the boss, just in case they were legitimate, so I’d know in the future. Generally, if people have legitimate business with your boss, they are happily forthcoming with information, because they know it’s your job to protect your boss’s time.

“I’m returning Bob’s call.”

Now, this one is generally a blatant, bald-faced lie. Again, you treat it the same way as the other calls. If unsure, get a name and number and run it by the boss later. Don’t put them through.

“I’m a friend of Bob’s.”

Again with the lies. If this person is really a friend, they won’t mind leaving a name and number.

Confusion Reigns

Some marketers will just try to confuse you into letting them through.

“This is John from XYZ Company. Your President is Mr. Howther, is that correct? I need to speak with him immediately.”

This marketer wants to intimidate you into letting his call through. He puts on an air of authority and throws a lot of information at you in order to confuse you and hopefully get through to his mark. Don’t fall for it. A simple, “May I ask why you are calling,” is often all that is necessary. If they don’t want to give you any information, then the boss will remain “unavailable”. Take a name and number and mark it as a possible sales call.

Verifying Information

This gambit is one of my favorites.

“This is not a sales call. We just need to verify some company information.”

It’s true, they don’t want to sell your company anything directly. What they don’t say is they are verifying information so they can sell it to another company to try and sell you things. I firmly let them know that we do not verify that kind of information, and I hold to that. If they won’t give up, I eventually hang up on them.

Be the Gatekeeper

Screening calls is probably one of the most important aspects of an administrative or executive assistant’s job. Remember, you’re the gatekeeper. It’s up to you who gets to talk to your boss. Always be polite but firm when protecting your boss’s time.

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Ask the Admin: Staying in Touch While Traveling

Jodith — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:21 +0000

Lisa sent me the following e-mail:

Do you have any tips or advice for communicating daily, weekly or priority items when traveling for weeks at a time.

Thanks for your e-mail, Lisa. As it happens, I worked for 3 years for one boss who traveled almost 50% of his time, so I learned a great deal about how to keep in touch while he was traveling.

Make Sure You Have a Plan

If you have a boss who travels frequently, you need to have a plan in place to make sure the two of you stay in touch while he’s out of the office. Make sure you sit down together a day or two before he leaves to discuss things that might come up while he’s gone. Some of the topics to cover are:

Any current issues that may come to a head while he’s out, and who is in charge of those issues while he’s away.
What types of issues he expects to be notified about immediately.
What types of issues can wait until you next talk.
What issues can wait until he’s back in the office.
Who is in charge of what departments while he’s out (i.e. who’s the go-to person for different issues that may come up).
How often will he contact you while he’s out of the office. Usually, depending on the time difference, my boss would contact me once or twice a day to touch base and go over any pending problems. If anything of an emergent nature comes up, I would contact him (sometimes in the middle of the night if he was in Asia).

Having a plan in place before your boss leaves can relieve a lot of stress on the part of you both while he’s traveling.

Monitoring E-mail

Usually when people travel for business, their schedules are pretty tight, and they don’t have time to keep up with their daily e-mail. Make sure and find out if your boss wants you manage his e-mail in a more hands-on basis than normal. A boss that generally only wants you to keep an overview of his e-mail may want you to take point when he’s traveling. For my boss, I would set up a folder called “For When You Return”, and I would put all non-urgent messages there. He could glance at them if he had time, but he knew none were urgent and could wait for his return. I’d often send phone messages to him by e-mail and file them in that folder as well. Any urgent e-mail I would turn red so he’d see it immediately when he checked his e-mail. And, of course, any e-mail that was of an emergent nature I would call him about. If it’s something you normally do, you would continue to delegate any issues to others that are appropriate.

It’s a Trust Issue

The most important thing if you have a boss who travels frequently is to have built a high level of trust. The boss needs to know that you can make appropriate decisions about what needs to be delegated, what can wait, and what needs an immediate notification. This is the kind of trust that is only built over time, and it requires cooperation from your boss to build the knowledge and trust necessary. If your boss doesn’t talk to you regularly about his work and his priorities, you aren’t going to have the knowledge necessary to be able to make those types of important decisions, and he won’t feel comfortable leaving delegated responsibility with you when he travels. It’s another reason why it’s so important to push your boss about having a daily meeting. You need to be a partner with your boss if you are going to be able to do everything he needs when he’s away.

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Mentoring a Young Executive

Jodith — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:00:21 +0000

At some point in your career, you are going to be working for someone who has never had an assistant before. One of the toughest, but most rewarding, jobs an Administrative or Executive Assistant can have is helping a young executive learn how to partner with an assistant.

Understanding the Need to Delegate

In my experience, new executives have two hurdles to cross. First, they are used to doing everything themselves. I’ve had several tell me that they didn’t really need an assistant, but their boss insisted they have one. They are used to managing their own e-mail, making their own travel arrangements, and setting up their own appointments. If they need a database, they create one themselves.

The key to dealing with these young executives is to help them understand that its not an issue of them not being able to handle those duties, it’s just that they no longer have time to handle everything themselves. It usually doesn’t take long for them to realize the truth of that statement. Many don’t realize that in going from front line management to managing managers, their time becomes a premium. They will be juggling more projects than they ever thought possible. After a month or two in the position, though, they generally begin to understand the need to delegate tasks. This brings us to the other hurdle for new executives.

Learning the Role of the Administrative or Executive Assistant

It takes time for new executives to learn to trust the abilities of their assistants. Many new executives who have never had an assistant before have a picture in their mind of someone who answers the phone, types, and files. They always need an adjustment period to realize just how much expertise we have as Administrative and Executive Assistants.

We know a wide variety of software for many different functions. We know how to set and monitor a department budget, take meeting minutes, research topics and write reports, and that’s just for starters. We can monitor industry publications for items of importance, give feedback on personnel matters, monitor social media for company mentions, and update the department website. The days when Administrative and Executive Assistants just handle phones and filing are long gone. In today’s business world, we are valued partners of our executives, and the earlier this is learned by a young executive, the more successful he or she will be.

As Administrative and Executive Assistants, it is our role to help gently, and sometimes not so gently, educate our executives on our role and how we can best provide support. As I said before, it’s a difficult job, but probably one of the most rewarding ones in our career.Similar Posts:

How To Really Be on Top of Things as an Administrative Assistant

Jodith — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:42 +0000

What’s the chief characteristic of being a great Administrative or Executive Assistant? It’s knowing everything, or at least seeming like you do. The best assistants are those that can aptly handle managing the boss’s calendar, sorting his mail and screening her calls without having to always stop and ask for information or permissions. But how do you get to that miraculous place where you know all?

Daily Meetings – Not Just Recommended, But Required

Daily meetings between the boss and the assistant are absolutely required. Well, maybe not every day. When the boss is home sick or on vacation, you can let him be if it isn’t an emergency. But most days vitally need at least five minutes of face to face time with the boss (phone time if she’s traveling).

You can’t be the person in the know, the person who saves your boss so much time and effort, if you don’t know what’s going on and what’s important. Without that vital information, your boss may as well have a robot sitting at the desk doing things by rote. The heart of an administrative assistant is her intelligence and discretion, and mostly of all, her knowledge.

What Should We Discuss in Those Daily Meetings

At first, you may think there’s not enough to discuss for daily meetings. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll have trouble squeezing everything into those few minutes. Here’s a list of basics to discuss:

Review the boss’s calendar. That day, the coming week, and once a week or so go over the coming month. Let her know what new meetings you’ve accepted and what they’re about and any information you have that you think is pertinent.
Going over the calendar for the day, make sure the boss has all the files he needs. Review the next day and find out if he needs anything special for those meetings.
Discuss her priorities for the day and week ahead. Who he’s expecting to call or stop by. What issues may be emerging of which you should be aware.
Any particular duties for you that take priority that day.

As you and your boss become more comfortable with the daily face-to-face meetings, you’ll both start thinking of more to be discussed. One boss I worked for was the Director of Human Resources for a university. Part of my duties for him was to review industry magazines and websites for pertinent information (especially legal decisions) he needed to know. That was part of our daily discussions. What you discuss every day will depend on your industry, your boss’s position, and your boss’s personality and work style.

Tell Us About Your Meetings

Do you have daily meetings with your boss? If not, how often do you meet? What do you discuss in your meetings? Leave a comment and share with all of us, so we can all learn from each other.Similar Posts:

Managing Calendars Part 2: Scheduling More Than Meetings

Jodith — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:18 +0000

In my last post, I talked about using discretion in scheduling meetings. Today, we’ll go into other ways to manage your boss’s calendar to increase his productivity.

Keep the Calendar More Full Than It Looks

Let’s face it. If there’s a blank spot on your boss’s calendar, someone’s going to want to schedule a meeting there. The higher up in the company your boss goes, the more true that will become. This is where you come in.

Like I said in my last post, your boss can’t be ultimately productive if all he does is attend meetings. So to keep people from trying to schedule meetings for every moment of her day, you’ll need to tie up some of her calendar.

Scheduling Work Time

Sometimes, the only way you’ll be able to set aside work (that is, non-meeting) time, is to actually schedule time for it on your boss’s calendar. I like to schedule two hours of work time every day on my boss’s calendar. The time I schedule is going to depend on your boss. Some prefer work time early in the day; some prefer it later in the day. Some prefer one longer amount of time scheduled; some prefer two shorter time periods to be scheduled.

Whatever your boss’s preferences, be sure to set aside some time every day for work time. Now, that doesn’t mean that you won’t sometimes have to schedule over the work time. Sometimes meetings will take priority. But when that happens, always try to move the work time to later in the day or week.

Using Recurring Meetings

Generally, I use the recurring meeting function in MS Outlook to put work time into the calendar. It’s quick and easy to set up the time, and then you can change just the individual occurences if they need to be moved. Just open a blank meeting and click the “Recurrence” button on the toolbar to set up a recurring meeting.

Other Calendar Tips

Always leave 15 minutes or so between meetings. This gives your boss time to return urgent calls, make notes from the previous meeting, or review his files before the next meeting.
If the meeting isn’t in the office, give at least 30 minutes before and after the meeting for travel time, longer if the drive time is longer.
Remember, your boss needs to eat, too. It’s true, regardless of what office gossip may hold, he’s human just like us. So, always remember to schedule time for him to have lunch. Trust me, she’ll thank you for it.

Share Your Calendar Management Tips

What are your tips for managing your boss’s calendar? Leave a comment and let us know how you manage things.Similar Posts:

Managing Calendars: More Ways to Keep the Boss More Productive

Jodith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:00:14 +0000

Last week we talked about helping the boss be more productive by properly screening calls. This week, let’s explore another way to help the boss be more productive: managing the calendar.

More Than Just Scheduling Meetings

“Managing the calendar,” you’re thinking. “Isn’t that just scheduling the boss’s meetings?” Well, scheduling meetings is just part of what it takes to manage your boss’s calendar. You aren’t just scheduling meetings, you’re doing something much more important. You’re managing his time!

It’s All About Time Management

Think about it. Your boss has so much more to do than attend meetings. If all his time is taken up in meetings, he’ll never get anything else done. Your job is to make sure she’s not so overwhelmed with meetings that she can’t get manage other work.

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Just Like Screening Calls

Just because your boss is invited to a meeting doesn’t mean he really needs to be there. Just like screening phone calls, you need to use your judgement here to figure out which meetings to approve and which ones to delegate to someone else.

When you first start a new job this can be quite difficult. Until you get a grasp of your boss’s priorities, it’s a good idea to review his calendar during your daily meetings. Go over all new meeting requests so he can decide which ones he needs to attend and which not. After a while, you’ll get a feel for what can be delegated and can’t, and you’ll be able to start using your own judgment, just like screening calls.

But What About the Rest of the Time

As I said before, managing the boss’s calendar is about more than just scheduling the boss’s meetings (or not scheduling them as the case may be). In Wednesday’s post, I’ll go into more depth about scheduling other necessities for your boss to keep him as productive as possible.Similar Posts:

Screening Calls: How to Make Your Boss More Productive

Jodith — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:16:05 +0000

For any administrative or executive assistant, you have one basic goal, making your boss more efficient and productive. That’s it. Everything you do during your workday should have this one basic goal behind it. One primary way to save your boss time and help her be more efficient is to properly screen calls.

Now, when we talk about screening calls, we usually think about sales calls. And, yes, it is important to screen out unwanted sales calls. But screening calls is about much more than just blocking people selling things you don’t want. It’s also about redirecting calls that your boss doesn’t really need to handle.

Why Redirect Calls?

Let’s face it, the higher up in the organization your boss is, the more of a generalist he’s going to be. Here’s an example. I worked for the Director of Human Resources at a local university. While he was very knowledgeable about HR in general and the policies of the university in particular, he probably only knew general information regarding the health benefits provided. If you had a specific question about health benefits, you probably needed to speak with someone in the Benefits Department rather than the Director of all HR.

And yet, people regularly called the Director of HR with these types of questions. Why? Because they knew his name and were high enough up in the university hierarchy to demand the attention of the Director. Their impression is that they would get faster service by calling his office than by calling the front desk of HR. The truth is, they would get faster service from the front desk, because they are used to taking those calls and transferring them to the appropriate person. But you know how higher-ups tend to be.

Saving Your Boss Time: The Meat of the Matter

So now we come to your role in all of this. When you answer a call for your boss, your immediate response should not be to ring it through. Instead, your response should be, once you know who the caller is, to ask what the call is concerning. Because if they only want to ask about a specific health benefit, you can then divert them to the benefits manager, who can likely answer their question. Which, of course, is the same thing your boss would do once she takes the call. My usual line is, “May I ask what your call is concerning?”

Voila! You have now saved your boss the several minutes it would have taken him to do the same thing. And you’ve provided the caller with good customer service, since odds are your boss wasn’t available at that moment and the caller would have to have just waited for a return call. Add up all those minutes over the course of days and weeks, and you can see how properly screening and redirecting calls gives your boss much needed time to work on her real duties.

Share Your Strategies

What are your strategies for screening and redirecting calls? Leave a comment and let us know.Similar Posts:

Hourly vs Saleried: Are You Losing Money?

Jodith — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:31:09 +0000

photo credit: Tracy O

If you are improperly classified as a salaried employee, you could be losing a lot of money.

In big corporations, whether you’re an hourly or salaried employee is usually a decided by HR in order to comply with labor laws. However, many small businesses don’t have an HR employee, much less a whole department, and it isn’t unusual to find administrative support personnel classified improperly. I know that I’ve worked for several small businesses and non-profits over the years that classed me as a salaried employee, most likely incorrectly. However, since I’m weird and like being salaried, I never argued with it.

Whether or not an employee must be paid overtime is governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). FLSA contains guidelines covering which employees can be considered exempt from overtime pay. (For an overview of exemption rules, click here.) Essentially, for administrative personnel to be considered exempt from overtime pay, they must meet the following criteria:

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and
The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

As far as Executive and Administrative Assistants are concerned:

An executive assistant or administrative assistant to a business owner or senior executive of a large business generally meets the duties requirements for the administrative
exemption if such employee, without specific instructions or prescribed procedures, has been delegated authority regarding matters of significance.¹

If you believe you’ve been wrongly classified as a salaried employee, first discuss it with your employer. If your company has an HR department, call them and ask them to look at your classification. If your company maintains that you should be salaried, you can call the Wage and Hour Division to file a complaint.Similar Posts:

Perspective vs Prospective

Jodith — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:44:55 +0000

photo credit: ellievanhoutte

In my career as an Administrative Assistant, I’ve seen some grammar mistakes that are fairly common: its vs. it’s, they’re vs. their, to vs. too. One mistake that I see all too frequently has always puzzled me. Perspective vs. Prospective.

This seems to be a fairly common mistake, and not just among the uneducated or those for whom English is their first language. One of my bosses had a Masters degree and was one of the most educated and articulate persons I’ve ever known, and he made mistakes using perspective and prospective.

Actually, I’ve never seen anyone use prospective when they mean perspective. The common error is to use perspective when they mean prospective. I see it on the internet, in business writing, and have even seen it in magazine articles.

So here’s the dish on using the words Prospective and Perspective properly (don’t you just love alliteration):

Prospective is an adjective referring to something happening in the future or likely to happen. If you have lunch with a possible future client, you refer to hiim as a prospective client.
Perspective is a noun referring either to a physical view or vista or a mental view or outlook. You can refer to your view of a scene as your perspective. You can refer to your view on politics as your perspective. You never refer to a potential client as a perspective client. That would be incorrect.

So, next time your boss gives you a letter to proof and you see him use the term “perspective client” or anyother inaccurate use of the word perspective, correct it and give it back to him.

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For the Boss: Keeping Your Personal Life Private

Jodith — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:46:20 +0000

In this day of shared calendars, it can be hard to keep your personal life private. No matter how much you trust your administrative assistant, you just want to keep some things to yourself. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you don’t have to be afraid to share your calendars and tasks, because you can mark these things private.

In your appointment or task dialog box, in the bottom right hand corner, is a check box marked private. If you click this check box, your appointment or task will be viewable only by you. Anyone else, even delegates with Editor status will only see it as PRIVATE.

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