what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Right :/ ?Saturday, June 07, 2008
For this entire week, I assumed the role of a personal assistant. Yes, meet secretary See. Someone who will gladly (*coughs*) deliver your newspaper, prepare your warm water, and take care of all your administrative requests;make no mistake, that is only if you wield the power of authority and that roughly translates to having at least 4 crabs crawling on your shoulders.
The job seemingly appeared to be very simple, an illusion which I had been led into by the incumbent secretary who took a week off to enjoy herself in Taipei. Surely, any random Jack can perform easy tasks such as picking up phone calls, co-ordinating meeting files, and sieving through e-mails. Multiply that by a hundred fold and I'm sure that Jack, even with the help of Jill, will be roasted to bits like those ill-fated BBQ potato chips.
The endless calls, the dreaded e-mails, and the truckload of files. On many occasions, I find myself on the phone, signing over papers while balancing another stack of highly secretive reports on another hand- multitasking, something which only girls (and maybe a small group of guys) excel at.
Of course, this isn't as painful as that 24k road march, where you go from daylight to darkness (literally) or as traumatic as that entire BMTC experience, as claimed by some. But I can assure you that it is not easy. Not a single bit.
Even though the entire episode was a nerve wrecking one, I actually found it to be rather eventful. To be able to observe and learn from someone who has been there and almost conquered the hierarchy was certainly an experience worth taking home.
Below is a summary of the pointers/lessons which I learnt, particularly useful if your life-long ambition is to become a personal assistant:
1. A good secretary is one that is competent in acquiring information. However, it doesn't stop there. You also have to be calm when handling crisis since nothing goes according to plans and almost everything leads to disaster, have the vision to actually look ahead to foresee any unexpected (some oxymoron here) events and most importantly to function like a Blackberry phone. Without above-mentioned qualities, it would be extremely difficult to fulfill your secretarial duties. Do remember that meetings, appointments, and deadlines are your nemesis as they will all come back together to pay you a visit.
2. Your name is clerk. You have no history, future, passion, interests, hobbies, family or likes and dislikes. His name is boss, or sir if you can manage. Like you, he have no life as well so it is not wise to engage him in such matters. The result is two people, working within 30m of each other, but with absolutely no intent to communicate unless it is related to work. Take a minute to imagine that scenario. If that work environment is suitable for you, go ahead and submit your CV to SAF (Sorry, its not Sir Alex Ferguson).
3. Some requests may seem as if they are deliberately picking on you due to their seniority. This might make you believe that they actually dislike you. Or maybe they lavish praise on you and you actually bought their story. In whichever case, you will come to understand that most people are neither for you or against you;they are only thinking of themselves.
4. This is a direct quote-"You learn that no matter how hard you try to please, some people are not going to love you- a lesson that is first disturbing and then really quite relaxing."
Oh by the way I will like to take this opportunity to thank the backstage crew including those that got refreshments for me, printed and hand delivered the papers when my printer went nuts. These gestures made my time easier to pass.
