Who ever would have thought that there could be even more downsides to being an assistant? According to a recent ABC News story, some employees have been busted for lying or exaggerating how difficult something was in order to make themselves look like “heroes.” Although STA friend Josie Jobless might tell you that playing up your beleagueredness is a great way to get people to do things for you, is it wrong to make your job sound worse than it is in order to make yourself look better than you are?
While lying outright about your job isn’t a great idea, I don’t have a huge problem with assistants playing up all the drama they have to deal with to get shit done. To be honest, most of us don’t even need to exaggerate–we really do have to spend hours on hold only to be told that every single flight to Chicago is sold out, then manage to get one going to Chicago via Denver (which he will ONLY do if he can sit in an aisle seat in business class if they’re serving something with turkey in the in-flight meal on BOTH flights), and make sure that your boss’ briefcase is FedExed overnight to the hotel in Chicago so it’ll be there when he checks in. When you work for crazy, busy divas/divos, far-out assistant stories are the norm. And if someone hearing you tell the story thinks you’re a hero for saving the day, well, it’s about time someone acknowledged the badass work you do on a regular basis. Because you probably are a hero.