Gift Guide: Personalized, Small Gifts for Your Assistant or Secretary
Wondering what the best secretary gifts are? These are our favorites!
Should Your Work Friends Include Your Assistant?
Do you socialize with your assistant or secretary? Do you consider him or her to be among your work friends? Or do you keep your relationship with staffers friendly but avoid turning it into an actual friendship? If the relationship has swung too far towards “friendship,” how do you bring it back to “collegial”? Reader N…
The Bad Assistant: When To Switch, When to Fire
What should you do when you’re stuck with a bad assistant, secretary or subordinate — and your assistant doesn’t assist? When is just time to switch assistants, or even fire the person? Reader K wonders: We are a small (12 people) conservative professional investment firm serving high net worth clients. I recently moved from front office…
Should You Ever Hire a Friend?
Hiring friends: yea or nay? Does your answer vary if you’re hiring a friend to be a colleague/equal versus hiring an assistant? We’ve talked about interviewing with friends, but not the reverse situation, hiring a friend. Reader M wonders… I work at a small law firm. I’m pretty junior, but I have a considerable amount…
The Lazy Secretary
How do you get a lazy secretary to work harder for you — or how do you complain about her to the Powers That Be without seeming petty? Reader E, a reader from New Zealand, has this very problem… I share my secretary with my supervising partner, however he hardly uses her and often if…
