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Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,937 posts, read 36,951,955 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
This. For the Admin Assistants to be eliminated, the higher-ups would have to learn the Microsoft Office functions: Word, Excel, etc. They're not going to want to be bothered with that stuff.
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They all know how to do that stuff. They wouldn't have gotten through college, or to where they are, without these basic tasks.
That doesn't mean AAs don't have value. It isn't cost effective to pay someone 150k a year to do duties someone earning 45k a year can do. It's throwing money away. Have the higher ups focus on the value added tasks.
They all know how to do that stuff. They wouldn't have gotten through college, or to where they are, without these basic tasks..
No, they don't. I know plenty of business people who can barely use Word, Excel or other programs, and constantly have to ask admins how to use various features of those programs. They might have a basic working knowledge but when it comes to anything more, they get stumped.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,937 posts, read 36,951,955 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla
No, they don't. I know plenty of business people who can barely use Word, Excel or other programs, and constantly have to ask admins how to use various features of those programs. They might have a basic working knowledge but when it comes to anything more, they get stumped.
I haven't run into that since the 00s when there were still 50 and 60 year olds who went to college pre word processors in charge. That cohort is mostly long gone. Retired away. Nowadays, management is more likely to have MBA, Ph.D., etc and able to do pivot tables and statistical analysis, not that you would want them to be doing that... which is the point of a AA.
A mid 50s manager now was in grad school when word (at least wordperfect) and excel was being used.
They all know how to do that stuff. They wouldn't have gotten through college, or to where they are, without these basic tasks.
That doesn't mean AAs don't have value. It isn't cost effective to pay someone 150k a year to do duties someone earning 45k a year can do. It's throwing money away. Have the higher ups focus on the value added tasks.
But when an admin knows more than management, and has more skills than management, then what?
I work at a healthcare company. NONE of the management here have any managerial skills of any kind, they are nothing more than overpaid receptionists who brown-nosed their way into these positions. The company is just as grossly over-incompetently "managed". The manager I have had to be trained on Excel spreadsheets, even though she claimed to be an "expert" at it. She's had to be trained in using PDF's, as well as basic Acrobat, as she knows absolutely nothing about document creation and information storage.
She didn't even know how to keep track of something as simple as work being administered to different people in the department on a daily basis! And this is a woman who HAS a college degree! And she is constantly and consistently asking people "what do I do now" or "how do I do that"! She has absolutely no managerial skills of any kind. Even when she has asked me how she does something in a managerial capacity, and I give her different options, she says "I never heard of that before"! And they are nothing more than BASIC management strategies that are learned when working in corporate environments!
The location I work at is literally held together by 4 admins, including myself. If we were to all quit at the same time, this place wouldn't survive, the "managers" here are completely incapable of doing anything other than signing their name on coversheets and going to "meetings".
And yet the admins get the crappy pay and the lousy benefits.
It would be nice to find a company that actually hires admin's by their skills and capabilities, rather than just pulling somebody off the street, or only hiring someone with a "degree" that has no clue about anything. I've been doing this for 20 years, and I know more than 99% of these "educated professionals" that I've had to train, as well as train managers. And yet, I can't seem to move up at any of the companies I've worked at in these 20 years.
Hmm, I think that kind of turned into a rant....LOL.
Sorry!
They all know how to do that stuff. They wouldn't have gotten through college, or to where they are, without these basic tasks.
That doesn't mean AAs don't have value. It isn't cost effective to pay someone 150k a year to do duties someone earning 45k a year can do. It's throwing money away. Have the higher ups focus on the value added tasks.
Yeah no.
I sat in on an 3 panel interview for a manager in my overall group (as an Admin! ) and listened to some dusty old fart tell my coworker (mgr from the dept that was hiring) that he "didn't know how to use a COMMM-puter but he knew how to manage people that did."
The mgr from the dept that was hiring thought this guy was great - because they were born in the same year of the flood. He got a huge thumbs down from me = subsequently not hired.
Many many more instances of these so-called high value earners knowing less than their subordinates and give me a break with their "value added tasks." We all provide value, thank you.
I think an Administrative Assistant these days support more than just 1, 2 or even 4 people, they support the entire division and team. Additionally, the ones that work for the Executive Management team aren't Administrative Assistants, they are Executive Assistants. There is a huge difference- in role, responsibilities, and pay scale. And, they do A LOT more than administrative tasks. They're more like Personal Assistants, and only to the Executive Management Team.
When I worked for a CFO, my role entailed getting his coffee/breakfast ready, obtaining estimates for the painting and renovations of his personal NYC apartment, as well as booking his flights back and forth to his home in Tampa, 1st Class. I would handle all the office tasks that were in relative to his area, as well as all his personal errands ... it was like a bad marriage minus the sex in the end. I hated it. I used to call him, "The Devil Wears Brooks Brothers". Hence why I'm not longer there- he was too needy for me. He couldn't even dial his own phone- I would have to dial his phone, and put the call through ... I'll never forget when a CEO on the receiving end said to me, "it's 2011, tell your boss to learn how to dial his own phone" !!!
That's the difference in executive and admin: EA has a depth of tolerance beyond parenthood for a grown man (usually) that acts like a totally useless fool...God bless all EAs. Second wife is my nickname for it and it's so not me, I run from those job descriptions. The more you do, the more stupidly they behave. Can't. Won't.
AA is getting blended upward but not in good ways. I'm no accountant, and people thinking they will get away with adding accounting duties (not payroll, AR or AP all of which I have done ) but sales tax liabilities, pass through corporations liabilities, owner taxes, payroll insurance liabilities...that's for the professionals. I can't predict your sales tax liabilities and I wouldn't try - stop being cheap and hire an accountant. Recently it's nursing...I have seen ads for nurses that will also take on admin duties. What person went to nursing school to futz with AA work?
I have no problem with the WebEx and Skype and IT add-ons. Budgeting, etc - sure go ahead. But things that require licensed CPAs? Registered RNs? Go fly a kite and stop trying to cheap your way out.
I met a man at an interview at a craft brewery who was in a sea of admins waiting for a cattle call interview. I sat down and asked him what he was doing there - he said I'm a retired accountant and 'I wait for these young dumbasses to realize they can't hire an admin to do their books and I straighten them out for a lot of money.' I lol'd at that because that's exactly what they were looking for...an admin to juggle their books.
There aren't any administrative assistants in my 160-person department. But I've noticed that the people at the VP level here all seem to have an admin and a Chief of Staff.
At my last job, in a 35-person department, our department head decided he needed an admin, even though his previous 2 predecessors had gotten along fine without one. I worked with his admin for 6 months and the only work product I saw her produce was an update to the org chart. Oh, she also kept track of staff birthdays and planned a couple of parties. Other than that, it was hard to tell what she did, since she had an office with a door and she kept it closed most of the time. Nice work, if you can get it, I guess.
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Not saying I recommend it. . .
) and listened to some dusty old fart tell my coworker (mgr from the dept that was hiring) that he "didn't know how to use a COMMM-puter but he knew how to manage people that did." 
We all provide value, thank you.
