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May 02, 2009 at 06:39 PM | (0) Comments

expenses-fr With the economy turned upside down, everyone these days is focusing on expenses. And companies are tightening their belts and cracking the whip where they may not have done previously.

My company just instituted its first expense policy guidelines. Up until now, they had always expected that employees would be price-conscientious while dining out or choosing a hotel. Unfortunately, people took advantage of this and we were seeing receipts for $1000 bottles of wine and expensive valet parking service on the company dime.

As an assistant, you will likely be reviewing bills for vendors and checking credit card statements for egregious purchases. A great way to view this part of your job is to treat your boss’s expenses as you would your own. Pretty simple.

If your own electric bill suddenly doubled, you would undoubtedly call the provider and find out why. You should take the same responsibility if something looks fishy or out of whack when your boss’s name is on the account. Notice a $4.00 charge on his credit card from an unknown source? Take the five minutes to call customer service and see what it is.

The same thing goes when making purchasing plane tickets or making hotel reservations for your boss. Even though she has made it very clear that she only stays at the Mandarin when traveling to London, if their rate has doubled since the last time she visited, she will want to know that before booking. In email correspondence, just simply noting the rate of hotel rooms, plane tickets, and other purchases is a good practice to get in the habit of.

Your boss may not mention it, but will appreciate that you care about fiscal responsibility. This will show your strong work ethic and respect of the company culture. And in the end, this will be a payoff for you as they know that you truly care about the job that you do and will compensate you appropriately.

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Reader Question: Asked & Answered

March 30, 2009 at 06:53 PM | (1) Comments

In the comments on another post, I told a reader that if she had any specific questions that she would like to bounce off of us to feel free. Well, she took us up on the offer and below you’ll find her questions and hopefully a satisfactory answer. If you have any questions you’d like answered, leave a comment or email us and we’ll get to it.

Cheryl B:

Sure, Ethan! I’ve got a big one for ya (or maybe not so big…but it’s big in my head). How do you sell yourself as an assistant to a company that currently has no assistant positions? Or simply sell the idea of an assistant to a company that is starting to expand and might not have a full grasp of how crazy things might get for them in the near future?

Thanks for the question, Cheryl. Having worked as an assistant in a 25 person company and the only assistant in the organization, this type of situation is unique in that as the sole assistant, you have to wear many different hats.

In my situation, I was the assistant to the CEO and by default, I also handled HR administration, office management, payroll/accounting, office tech & party planner in addition to all of the regular assisting duties for the CEO. So to answer your question, you could explain to this company that being an assistant in a start-up or small company can mean much much more and thus take various tasks off of other people’s plates to encourage growth and promote efficiency. If you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and explain to them other skills that you have that fall outside the normal definition of being an “assistant” (like knowing Quickbooks, etc.), they could more than justify making the hire and adding the position.

Lastly, I would also suggest that you “sell” the idea more as an office manager/assistant role instead of just a straight assistant role to more than justify the added expense of adding a new employee. Does that make sense? Thanks again for asking the question.

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Your boss: Tough love, hot head or push over?

March 25, 2009 at 06:54 PM | (0) Comments

Bosses come in all shapes and sizes… does your boss treat you with tough love, are they a hot head or push over?

Everyone initially thinks that they want a push over for a boss but believe us, you don’t. Why? Because you won’t work as hard or get noticed for that promotion you want.

Do you want a hot head for a boss? In our view, it depends. If this boss has a reputation of being a hot head and you can survive working for them for an extended period of time, maybe even thrive, your reputation around the office will be that of ’saint’ for being able to put up with them. Which in turn will open more doors to promotion should you want to step through them.

In my opinion, I want a boss who gives tough love. Sure, the first six months can be brutal as you try to get up to speed and satisfy their demanding ways but boy, once you get that first compliement for a job well done, you’ll walk through fire for that boss. You see, a tough love boss is kinda in the middle between hot head and push over in that once you’ve proven yourself, the tough love boss will overlook a rare mistake and give you more freedom to pursue your own path within the organization. Plus, they keep you, and everyone else who works for them, on your toes.

Jerry Roberts of Careerjolt.com wrote a great guest post at Zenhabits on how to deal with a tough boss that’s worth checking out if you do have a tough boss or are considering working for one. However, if your boss is so unbearable that it is having negative effects on your personal life, maybe it’s time to tap your “See ya!” money and get out of there.

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Nailing the interview

March 19, 2009 at 06:57 PM | (0) Comments

A majority of our effort here is to help you succeed at your assistant position however before we can do that, you need to land the job you want, right?

That brings us to Steve Errey’s “The Confidence Guy” blog and his post about making a confident first impression in an interview.

He runs down some of the “oldies but goodies” tips but a few of them really stood out to me like “don’t jump in the first chair you see” and “try to sit a bit diagonally across” from your interviewer so you’re not acting as a wall. Or like his tip about “pacing yourself” which talks about how getting to know someone takes a specific pacing and that you should let the interviewer set that pace and not blurt our your life history when they ask if you found the building OK.

Just some all around good tips to keep in mind when walking into that interview. Check out Steve’s full post HERE.

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