Need some objective advice - am I ignoring red flags or am I just anxious?
I’ve been offered an Executive Assistant role in a particular industry that I’m passionate about, and I’m really struggling to decide whether I’m seeing genuine red flags or whether anxiety is making me overthink everything.
On paper, it’s an exciting opportunity in an industry I’ve wanted to get into for years. However, throughout the recruitment process I’ve picked up a lot of things that have left me feeling uneasy.
Here are the main concerns:
• The current Executive Assistant warned me several times (without me prompting her) that the executive I’d be supporting is “difficult” and not particularly well liked around the office. She mentioned it more than once, which stuck with me.
• During my interview, the executive herself said she has “no filter” and that people often mistake her for being rude. She also said she has exceptionally high standards and doesn’t tolerate mistakes of any kind. She made it clear she expects perfection from the people who work for her.
• Employees don’t really get a proper lunch break. Instead, everyone is expected to eat lunch together in the office every day. It sounded less like an optional team lunch and more like an expectation.
• The notice periods seem very one-sided. The company only has to give me one week’s notice if they want to dismiss me, but if I want to leave, I’m expected to give two months’ notice.
• The salary is well below what I’d expect for an EA role supporting someone at this level, especially considering the workload and expectations.
• The culture places a huge emphasis on socialising outside work. During multiple interviews they stressed how important it is that everyone goes out drinking together regularly and that being part of the social scene is a big part of fitting in. I’m not against socialising, but it felt more like an expectation than an optional perk.
• The hours are long and it’s very much an “always on” type of role. It is 5 days in the office.
• I also know someone who previously worked there, and they gave me a pretty negative review of the environment.
• The interview process itself was unusually long. There were multiple stages and I had to complete tasks at almost every stage.
• For my final interview I spent hours preparing a presentation that they specifically asked me to create. When I got there, they didn’t ask me to present it at all. It wasn’t mentioned.
• During the interview, the executive also commented that she’s had a lot of Executive Assistants over the years. She didn’t elaborate, but given everything else, it made me wonder about turnover.
The thing that’s making this difficult is that I don’t know whether these are genuinely significant warning signs or whether I’m becoming overly cautious because I’ve had difficult experiences in previous workplaces.
Part of me thinks this could still be a fantastic opportunity and that I’m focusing too much on the negatives.
Another part of me feels like there are simply too many independent warning signs to ignore.
If you were offered a job with all of the above, would you accept it? Which of these would concern you the most, and which (if any) do you think are perfectly normal?
I’d really appreciate some objective opinions because I feel too emotionally invested to judge it clearly myself.