r/ExecutiveAssistants

I’ll say it plainly: corporate gifting is the bane of my existence. I’ve been planning company offsites, holiday parties, and events for years, and I feel like I’ve officially exhausted every possible gift bag idea out there.

PLEASE help me with some fresh ideas that are under $100 🙏 (side note - my company isn’t cheap - we already give bonuses and have lots of perks/great benefits/great pay/amazing work life balance etc etc. So please don’t just say “just get them money”).

Some of my favorites I’ve done in the past:
- tumbler/stanely/cups
- clothing (hats/shirts/sweaters/jackets)
- high-end notebooks
- hot chocolate kit
- packaging/travel cubes
- luggage tags
- power banks

One part that makes it more difficult is we’re a remote company, so I try to lean towards items that won’t take up much luggage space.

Help a girl out 😅

I work as an executive assistant to the founder at an advertising agency. I'm into my second month in the role and I noticed the following:

• There was no proper onboarding and everything operates on a need-to-know basis.
• Instructions from the founder had no context and clear directions. When I ask clarifying questions, the founder gets frustrated and tells me I'm the one who's vague and disorganized.
• When the boss has free time, that's the time when he corners an employee and follows up on tasks and shames them in the GC.
• There is no proper HR department. His family and friends lead the HR department. They only provide adminsitrative and logistical support, but no support for employees.
• The boss only calls me for negative feedback and when he needs to vent about tasks that my coworkers failed to do.
• The boss never gave me any positive feedback.
• When I asked for feedback, he only said that he feels empowered.
• Days vary greatly—sometimes I do routine admin work, some days I was asked to book a catering service for 500 guests at a restaurant and was only given a week.
• He doesnt tell me what he needs, but only complains when his unclear expectations are not met.
• I've been meaning to set up an alignment call with him, but I hesitate because he's so condescending and ascerbic.

I have tried to let his negative energy and insulting remarks slide, because I know that he's busy and frustrated about his own situation. And also because I know things won't get better for me if I tell him how to communicate properly and improve his leadership skills. I have done what most EAs would do, like give him structure and options instead of asking open-ended questions, offer him solutions, record his instructions so no one gets the blame if he doesnt get what he wants.

I'm thinking of turning in my resignation once I find a new job lined up.

My question is, should I stay? If I stay, do you think his bad behavior will escalate?

I'm diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. My symptoms are getting worse. I am not sure if my boss is really toxic or is it just me and my condition. I badly need some advice.

Hi, Hive! Please help, I don’t know SF!

We are hosting an event at the Presidio Theater and need nearby meeting/working space for 2 of our speakers who might want to take meetings outside of the event. We’ve used rooms at the Courage Museum before but they’re under construction— any ideas? The key is to be v close so people can easily move between the event and the “offsite” spot.

ty!

Is it just me or am I having a hard time getting any form of communication out of my executives? They want what they want when they want it and they want it almost as if Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka, and the chocolate factory is their inspiration animal.

I’ve been in my role for probably about six months now and I’m having an incredibly hard time getting any decisions made whatsoever, but I’m too new to be trusted with making those decisions. Everything I do has to be approved by them, but they don’t make any forms of decision in a timely manner and by the time that they need something and or want something done, I am unable to meet the deadline that they’re asking

I’m having an incredibly hard time
Please tell me I’m not the only one
And if I’m not the only one, how are you handling it and what are you doing to coat and or move forward?

I have been an executive admin for 6+ years. I work for 3 CEOs. I am contractor for 2 of them and employee for the other. Recently I took an AI course and was fascinated by how quickly it can manage calendar clean up, scheduling, inbox management, etc and it got me thinking, will my admin assistance be needed anymore? I do much more for them but I have this overwhelming sense of dread that AI will replace me and I’ll have to find something else to do. I genuinely love what I do but I cant help but feel like I may be let go or fired due to AI. I’m worried for the future and what AI takeover will look like. Just wanted to reach out how other admins who are embracing AI and what you are seeing?

I am currently searching for a new role. I don’t use AI unless I really HAVE to or it would be silly not to, because I want to keep my mind sharp and am alarmed to see friends and family outsourcing everything from texting to basic thinking to “Chat” 🥴

My typical answers in interviews is as follows: “I’ve used AI in my job search and workflows for organization, SEO or keyword optimization, and quick information gathering, but I prefer to keep my writing and idea generation “human” and value my creative skills which have been honed over decades. I also double check any information before dissemination because AI can “hallucinate”, but it’s helped with a restaurant recommendation in a new city on a tight deadline for sure!”

I try to keep it light, imply usage, but be honest that I don’t like relying on it. Do you think I’m shooting myself in the foot by not being “all in” and lying that I use it all the time?

I’m (29F) bored of all my professional clothes and want to go on a shopping spree for my next board meeting. What do you all usually wear?

I have two days of board level meetings, the actual board meeting is business professional and the day before is committee stuff that’s business casual and we’re given the dress code of “leave the tie off,“ which is not helpful to me as a lady and the two female trustees we have.

I was younger when I started at this company so I have always dressed up a little extra. Plus it’s all men so I try to dress at a level to be taken seriously.

I have the suit part covered but the more business casual is harder since I dress up more than I would at work, usually a blouse and a more casual skirt but skip the jacket.

Looking for ideas of clothes that you feel comfortable, confident and serious in!

Hi All! Not a rant at all, I just didn’t know what to pick!

This really just an observation, but I recently started a new job as an Executive Assistant and I feel like I finally understand what this role actually is.

I’m a true EA. I manage scheduling, calendars, travel, dinners, events, and work on my executives’ priorities.
I’m not simultaneously the receptionist, treasury manager, personal assistant, office/operations manager, and whatever else happens to need doing, all while having an “Executive Assistant” title.

I genuinely have no idea what my actual job titles should have been at some of my previous roles, but apparently it was not this. 😂

That’s all. Just a realization I needed to share with people who would understand.

Is there ever a convenient time to start having a family in this role? I’m the EA to the CEO with no backup and I am trying (without a magic wand of course) to time my next pregnancy, but it’s proving very difficult and inconvenient. We have a huge in-person event once per quarter. Q3 and Q1 are events run/managed/facilitated by me solo. Nobody has ever helped in the past and the Q1 event is highly confidential as in person voting and firm decisions are discussed within that meeting (a small group of equity partners). And I just found out next year there will be a second event in Q3. I would like to take the max maternity leave which is 6 months where I live. Just don’t see how I can get coverage for that when all the other EAs in the firm are maxed out. FYI: I am not the EA lead. Just an EA supporting the highest role at my company.

Can I hear from some new mothers in this group on how you managed your leave? Particularly those supporting CEOs? Was coming back from maternity leave awful? I’m thinking of the daily stress I have and I am scared as to how I’ll feel postpartum working with this amount of stress.

I was serving as EA to a local leader for the last three years. The work was engaging, interesting, and I had incredible coworkers and influence within my community and the organization. I had a lot of responsibility and the capacity to make decisions. It really was fun. The organization even paid for a lot of specialized training too so it was really a win win for me.

However, it was taxing on my mental health and sanity. I would work long hours like 7am to 9 or 10pm, take calls from my boss into the evenings, travel a fair bit and more. Overall it was incredible career experience (I am 26 years old) but I felt overworked and underpaid.

My situation changed a bit this year. I got married and moved out of my parent's place. My priorities have shifted a fair amount.

Two months ago, a new opportunity opened up literally down the street from my office and I decided to try for it. This would be EA to a local public sector executive. I wasn't too serious about taking it even though the pay was a bit more but they seemed to really like me because even when I declined their job offer, they came back with more pay. They also highlighted a plan to move me into a manager role next year - which I can only believe once it happens. I decided to take the job strictly for the pay and maybe less work load. Even if I don't get the manager job next year, I'm still making a significant amount more.

I've been in the job for two months now. It's been pretty good; friendly coworkers, some convoluted processes that I have worked to improve, and overall much less stress and workload. My boss trusts me and overall things are good. There is a team of EAs here that I get along with fairly well.

The issue now is that I am bored as hell. I finish my work in like 30 minutes and am bored out of my mind the rest of the day. I come in for 9, go home for a 1 hour lunch (but I often take a bit longer), come back and sit around until 5pm. It truly has been a mind numbingly boring experience. I try to stay busy but there's only so much I can do. I kind of worry about asking for more work because I have done that before and I am bad at saying no! One of my regrets at my previous organization was never saying no to more work. I was fresh out of university and didn't guard my time very well. I ask myself if I made the right decision to change jobs or not but I don't really know. Maybe things will pick up but at the moment it's kind of depressing.

End of rant. Would love to hear some other similar experiences!

I’m so over my job right now. I work as an EA supporting three executives at a Fortune 500 company, and while two of them are genuinely great, the third one is slowly driving me insane.

He’ll randomly call me at night, expect things to be handled with basically no notice, ask about visa requirements the weekend before a trip, randomly reschedule meetings, and label things “urgent” only for them to suddenly become completely non-urgent. I’ve already talked to one of the executives I support about it, and even he basically told me that the after-hours stuff isn’t my problem. So why am I constantly feeling like I’m supposed to be available 24/7?

The culture is also just… weird. There’s this very obvious distinction between executives and everyone else. Executives get invited to lunches, dinners, happy hours, etc., while regular employees are just kind of expected to stay in their lane. It’s never explicitly said, but you can absolutely feel it. I came from a tech company where the atmosphere was much more casual and I actually enjoyed going to work. Here, everyone feels like they have a stick up their ass.

My manager is actually fantastic, which makes this harder. He genuinely cares about his people, and I appreciate him a lot. But I make ~$100K and live in NJ, so the commute is also getting old. The job is in New York and not like path friendly New York, like two blocks away from Central Park.

I’ve been here since January and really want to hit the one-year mark. Part of me wants to start interviewing in December and GTFO in January. I’ve heard December is basically dead anyway, so maybe I just need to survive a few more months.

Has anyone else stayed somewhere just to hit the one-year mark? Was it worth waiting?

Basically feel done with being isolated invisible and having no autonomy of professional identity. My role tot is half “ Communications Lead” in coming up to two years in this role. It’s awful pay in non profit but the only role I could find quickly when coming back from Australia to the uk. I am creative at heart, like dealing with people and yet these roles I feel ignored and looked down on it’s broken my spirit.

I’m brainstorming ways I could expand my support for an executive I work closely with. She’s a senior leader in a nonprofit with a pretty broad portfolio. She manages a large team of senior professionals, has organizational leadership responsibilities, does substantive subject-matter work herself, travels frequently, and spends a significant portion of her days in back-to-back meetings.

She has specifically mentioned wanting to find more challenging/higher-level work for me to take on. I’m not really looking for the standard EA answers like calendar management, travel booking, expenses, basic meeting coordination, etc. I already understand those areas.

I’m curious about the less obvious things experienced EAs have grown into. Have you taken ownership of a project, system, recurring responsibility, research, reporting, team function, communications work, or something else that genuinely freed up meaningful executive capacity?

I’m especially interested in things that developed organically as you learned your executive’s work, or responsibilities you wouldn’t necessarily see in a typical EA job description.

I’m just looking to crowdsource ideas/examples. I know ultimately it depends on the individual executive and organization.

Hey EA’s - I’m planning a team offsite in San Francisco and I’d love to hear if anyone has planned any upscale teambuilding/activities with a big group (I’m talking 30-35). We’re steering away from the traditional sitdown dinner as it may not be appealing to be stuck with whomever you’re sitting next to you for the night lol.

Historically I’ve arranged a private cruise with apps/bevvies included, rented out a grass lawn area for a bracket style cornhole competition with a mobile beverage cart, walking food tour, group bowling, rent out a restaurant private room w/ murder mystery dinner theatre, did SPIN SF, A private tour at Alcatraz unfortunately is out as they’re closed through a good portion of November.

--Budget: $10k-20k for the activity alone
--Should occur late afternoon / evening; 3/4pm onwards. Just one activity
--Crowd is very casual, not buttoned up. Fair amount of active folks, but not everyone is. Team vs team events go over well.
--Dietary restrictions: vegetarian, gluten-free, no alcohol for 1/3 of the group

Would love to hear anyone’s input! TIA ❤️🙏

So I posted about my nightmare role a few months back. Just truly... awful.

If you are nosy (like me), read it here, but seriously not necessary.

I successfully:

(1) Convinced by boss to hire a PA for his wife and get this person to never have to interact with her again (yay!)

(2) Let everyone (except my "manager") know that she is a nightmare to work with, and have added protection for this role, and people actively step in/call her out

(3) Have gently told the exec "if you want someone to work overtime hours, you either need to pay overtime or change the pay range of this role." (He often would ask me the night before to get in at 8a and not leave until 7p or later.)

I still believe this is not an EA role and hiring someone who is an EA for this role will set them up for failure.

Why I do not believe it is a "true" EA role:

- NO access to the execs inbox. As in. No idea what is going on. No email forwarding. Nothing. If you get an email, it is forwarded deliberately to you manually. You usually get 5-10 emails a day (at most).

- People are VERY secretive about what is happening at the company in general. HUGE things have shifted without my knowledge (my execs meetings, board meetings, etc.) INTENTIONALLY.

- If you ask for further information about something (lets say, for example, "why is MY EXEC traveling to LOCATION") he will say something like "thats confidential" (FYI: this is not a gov org... this is a small VC company... what... also... just asked some friends and they will just say "it is a board meeting for X.")

- The reason you can't have access to the email is because "there is confidential stuff on there, like people's salaries." (I have always had access to these things historically.)

- You are expected to print out the execs calendar and draw (with pencil) where you would like to schedule everything, then sit down with him and go over it.

- The exec schedules most of his meetings himself. Probably north of 50%.

So.... what does this role do all day?

To be completely frank, I think it is mostly a vanity role.

My exec likes a woman to get him coffee and food. I remember I once left on vacation and left his coffee cup in his office. When I got back, he had moved it to the middle of my desk, and it was full of mold.

Literally would rather let something mold than wash it himself.

Also -- answer calls, make sure the office is stocked (ink, paper, etc.), greet people walking in the front door, get exec coffee/lunch, remind him 10, 5, and 2 minutes before every meeting, and LIGHT travel scheduling/expensing.

That is it. I am butt-in-seat about 50 hours/week but I WORK about 25.

So everyone (except my exec and HR) know I am leaving. They all support me in doing this. We had a little kiki today and they were all sort of like

"soooooo.... before you leave..... tell us who we should hire?"

And the truth is, I have hired folks before and I have some pretty good instincts there, but mostly in engineering. I don't have a strong grasp of what "niche" options there are for admin support roles.

I understand AA, EA, COS.

I sort of think this role leans more toward a receptionist?

I think a receptionist in this role would be THRILLED to make 110k + benefits and have a "laid back" job vs. an EA who feels like they have been sold a bill of false goods... but what do you guys think?

Hello!

Looking for productive feedback, please! I’m a first time EA and supporting a brand new exec who has never had an assistant in a non profit.

I support her and two high level meetings, along with some requests within her department. I was in admin roles previously and even had multiple jobs where I worked over 60 hours a week before this role. I was highly organized and very successfully time management.

Since stepping into this role, it feels that I’ve lost that organizational skill. I’m thinking possibly because it was just my own work and schedule that I had to worry about. So now I’m struggling to figure out how to manage it all and improve and be successful. I feel that I’m just barely getting by, if so.

I’m privileged to where my role is fully remote with at least 3 meetings in person a month. But this does make it difficult for me as it is hard to reach my boss sometimes/not the most responsive most times. Then there are multiple virtual outlets that I can be contacted through, on top of checking those outlets for my boss too. I’ve tried different systems and routines, but they haven’t seemed to help too much. My boss also doesn’t always have enough time for our 1:1’s, but I also can tell they aren’t satisfied with how we’re functioning at the moment.

My boss is of course scatter brained and chaotic and disorganized and procrastinates, so I’m really trying to determine what is the best way to manage them, myself, and better our partnership all while being remote and so separated most of our days. Especially as they are out of office for a week, every other week.

Any advice, words of wisdom, or sharing of things that work for you all would be really helpful.