I was working with a temp agency trying to find a job. I was really broke and eager to take anything, even if it was mindless. The agency sent me in to a company to interview for their receptionist position. The HR people liked me and asked if I could start immediately. I was thrilled to have some gainful employment and showed up the next day ready to work. That’s when I started to realize why the position had been open–they’d ‘forgotten’ to tell me that I was supposed to be an assistant in addition to being the receptionist. I was working for a guy who had gotten demoted, so he was being punished by having his assistant only be part-time. His response to the demotion was to act like nothing had happened and assume I was his full time assistant, even when I had plenty of other front desk-related work to do. I’d be in the middle of signing for a huge delivery and he’d be screaming at me to get into his office so loudly the entire office could hear, including the UPS guy, who actually told me he felt sorry for me. When I finally quit, I tried as nicely as possible in my exit interview to suggest they “clarify the job position during the hiring process.”–Submitted by Julia, New York City
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
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Not only is MTV’s The Real World still on, this year the Las Vegas cast members returned to their former home for a six-episode series called Reunited. Considering that Vegas, which brought us the pool threesome in the first episode, the Alton/Irulan neverending drama, and the pile of stupid that is Trishelle, the reunion was cringeworthy to the extreme.
However, the finale did have one sparkling moment: the return of life coach ‘Awesome Anne.’ This time around, though, it appears Awesome Anne’s original RW experience has brought her some success. She had a new addition this time: her assistant, Tim.
This hilarious article from Entertainment Weekly points out how ridiculous it is for a life coach to have an assistant. Furthermore, just Tim? When your boss calls herself Awesome Anne, and you’re just…Tim? Not Terrific, or Tremendous, or even Tantalizing? Poor Tim. If this is your training to become a life coach of your very own, we’d suggest you try to apprentice for Terrence, Paris’ life coach from Gilmore Girls.
So, what does a life coach’s assistant do anyway? Tim, if you’re out there, feel free to give us the inside scoop. We think you’re Tops.
This is the most appropriate “junk drawer” item we’ve ever posted.
We can’t decide if it’s funny or fucked up… you guys tell us what you think.
The name of our website is Save the Assistants. All the horror stories, tips of the week, and various items we post lead toward one ultimate goal: we want to save some assistants. We want to get you away from that asshole boss, into a job that challenges you, or into an unemployment that makes you really damn happy.
That’s why we’re happy to profile Josie Hawk, an STA reader who did the ultimate good deed: she saved an assistant. For that, we’re presenting her with our first-ever Save the Assistants Medal of Honor. Josie’s rescue was in the form of finding a new job for a beleaguered assistant.
Josie agreed to sit down with STA for an interview.
Leave it to other publications to take awhile figuring out what STA has known for ages: getting treated badly at work sucks. Our friend in business school just learned this gem last week: employees leave their bosses, not their jobs. I wonder if next week’s seminar lesson is assistants really like it when you remember their names.
‘Microinequities’ has been popping up for awhile now, as this Time magazine article indicates. It’s a word that represents all the tiny-but-annoying little ways that bosses undermine or devalue employees. That can mean anything from subtly cutting your idea down in a meeting to asking you yet again to ‘just make a couple of copies when you have a sec.’
Bosses now are smart enough to know that they’re not supposed to obviously treat you like shit. They’re not going to punch you in the face in the middle of the office because you’ll have a lawsuit on them even before the HR folks can say anger management. The problems people write into STA about aren’t usually ‘my boss punched me in the face,’ they’re ‘my boss ritually and habitually treats me like dirt.’ The very worst bosses are the insidious ones, the ones who casually undermine you until they break you. They’re the ones who start out acting like normal human beings and by the end of the week have you crying in a heap on the bathroom floor.
You want to call that ‘microinequities,’ fine. We prefer ‘being a fucking douchebag.’ But whatever works for you.
Lilit here. True story about my former job: the only reason I got through it was because I had friends. The other assistants and I bonded together to fight our evil, evil bosses and our evil, evil workplace. One of those friends was Ashley, and we all know how that friendship worked out.
The average job is part actual work and part office politics. That’s why this article is so smart: it identifies the types of coworkers who you should befriend as soon as possible. In the case of Ashley and me, she was the Cool-Headed Veteran. Even though I’d been at our company longer than her, it was my first job out of college. Ash had more job experience and was able to give me tips for dealing with everyday workplace stuff.
So check out this article before you invite a coworker out to lunch today. Are you the newbie, or are you one of the people on this list?
Sleeping at work is like sleeping in class used to be in high school, only instead of a teacher painting your nails you could end up getting fired. That’s why this blog post is awesome. For those of you who are hung over, recuperating from an illness, or just plain old worn out, sleep at work is just what you need to get through the day.
A highlight:
Philosopher method:
Rest your head on your hand. This position suggests that you are tackling an issue, which might be crucial to the existance of the company.
Check out the rest here.
Hello there, beleaguered assistants. Ashley and I are back from our week of sunning ourselves and plotting ways for assistants to take over the world.
Seems that while we were away, some people came up with a pretty smart way to eliminate stress. Unlike our idea, this one didn’t involve sunburn. Or mosquito bites.
The NH Hotel chain, based in Spain, now allows overstressed office drones to help them destroy one of their Madrid hotels as they prepare for renovation. According to the article,
Would-be participants [were] urged to warm up by pummelling a punch ball dressed as an archetypal boss while yelling out the cause of their woes
Sounds like we should have saved up for that trip to Spain. But on an assistant’s salary, we might have to settle for pummeling actual bosses instead.
