As some commenters are noting today, Administrative Assistant’s Day is April 27 — right around the corner. (Most flower places are touting “Administrative Assistant’s Week” as starting April 24.) We haven’t had a thread on gifts for your secretary/administrative assistant for a while, so I thought now would be a good time for one. (Pictured:100 BLOOMS OF PERUVIAN LILIES
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First, a poll:
Years ago, a friend explained to me that she always got her administrative assistant both flowers and cash: flowers so everyone in the office knows you appreciate your assistant, and cash to keep the assistant happy. My friend’s system made sense to me, so I never really looked for more than flowers — but I’m curious if other people get the assistant a personalized gift, or take him or her for lunch, or something else? Please comment in the thread about what you’re getting him or her — and how the equation changes if you share an assistant with other people.
Also, do you plan to celebrate Administrative Assistant’s Day or a full week? Just curious…
I am an assistant (not in law) and I very much dislike receiving AA Day gifts. I am a professional doing my job and I do not need a special day of recognition for my work. On occasion after a big job requiring lots of overtime (and aggravation), I’ve receive a thank you gift; that’s fine, that was for something specific. But a gift for being generally good at my job…I feel that is patronizing.
So, my office gave everyone their administrative assistant’s day present a little while ago and…well, I was a little offended. Specifically, they gave everyone shampoo and a comb. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice that they bought us anything. But…personal hygiene products? Really? What was HR thinking when they decided on that? I feel like they might as well have bought us all designer deodorant or something.
I don’t currently have a secretary as I’m now a solo practitioner. But when I worked at a firm I liked giving my secretary gift certificates to sephora and she always said she loved them. I think giving cash to people is awkward and I felt like with the gift card got to buy herself something fun that she might not have otherwise. However, my secretary at the time was a girl in her mid-twenties. Might not work for an older assistant.
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I just got a heads up today that one of our managers took all of their office admin assistants to nice a lunch during admin week. Not just one day but 3. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It was noticed by the comptroller when the company issued credit card statement was reviewed. The manager was offended when ask about the charges. Any thoughts?