We use Outlook Exchange so both the boss and I have access to his calendar, as do members of the divisional management team and the Centre management.  When he is out of the office he can check on his PDA before arranging a meeting.

Anything that looks like it is going to be complicated to schedule he asks me to arrange.

This all seems to work quite smoothly.  The problem (or rather irritation factor) occurs with the number of times meetings scheduled by the Centre Directorate change.  I receive a copy of every change in my mailbox so I can accept them or otherwise on his behalf, but most of the time I don't need to do anything with them.  Sometimes a date/time can be changed three or more times within a couple of hours.

A few years ago, before electronic calendaring, a previous boss used a pocket diary and I had a large desk diary.  I used to update the small one as required.  If he booked a meeting while he was in the office he referred to the desk diary, otherwise he asked me to arrange it.  If he was out of the office and put something in his pocket diary he would agree with the other person that he would confirm it when he got back to the office in case I had booked something for that time as well.  I think he had been well trained by his previous PA.

A good few years ago I went to see one of the other secretaries in my division.  When I walked into her office she was just doing an internet search for a particular type of underwater survey equipment with her boss looking over her shoulder, when the search pulled up very inappropriate content.

She was so embarrassed!

A

Outlook Exchange for meeting organisation.

A shorthand notebook for phone messages etc, post-its stuck to a desk pad for things that will be actioned quickly (at the moment it has things like order toner for the copier, print 50 business cards).  These are scrapped once actioned but it keeps everything together.

Folders for individual meetings/travel planning etc with a sheet on the front showing progress, required actions and important dates.

A list to collate stationary requests for consolidated orders.

HR look after the payroll, a colleague collates overtime for some of the division, which is authorised by a manager and sent to HR.  Most of our contracts don't allow formal overtime, so we monitor our own time.

We have the option of flexible working for certain grades, staff clock in and out with a swipe card.  I look after the alterations to the flexi records, but this is not tied in with payroll, it is purely for time management.

The majority of staff also have to use an electronic time management system to split their working hours between different projects they are working on, this is linked to the financial management system and allocates their salary costs to the different project budgets.

A

My other half is an ex merchant Navy engineer and applies much the same technique to sorting things out so I am used to it.

The wife of one of my previous bosses sent me a document explaining how your photocopier knows when you are in a hurry or want to copy something difficult, then frustrates you.  I just had a look to see if it was still around, it used be stuck on the wall above the copier, but I think it must have been thrown out in one of our many moves recently.  It was very funny!

A

We have a large all singing all dancing networked copier printer which I look after.  It goes through phases of jamming, a dozen times a day then nothing for weeks.

Most staff now give me a call if they can't sort a jam out, most times when I have had to call an engineer out it seems to be because somebody has got rather heavy handed when they can't sort out a jam,have slammed a door shut and broken something.  I e-mail everybody to say the copier is broken, then e-mail them when it is repaired to tell them what was wrong - if something has been broken as a result of a paper jam I emphasise that they must be gentle with the copier and ask me to sort out jams if they cannot.  

Most of our staff are engineers and  if something doesn't work, the first course of action is to give it a thump.  Asking for assistance is low down the list of possible solutions and reading the manual is bottom of the list!

They have to ask me for paper, in our building copying paper walks if not locked  away.

We also have a colour laser printer for printing reports which uses high quality paper.  Since I moved office this has been put in with the copier, so I now have to keep an eye on it to make sure that someone hasn't taken the regular copy paper out of the copier to fill the colour printer.  Otherwise I get an unhappy member of staff banging on my door who has just printed out a 100 page report and found it is on the wrong paper.

A

I shouldn't have said my office needed nothing done to it, now I have got caught up in the next round of musical offices.  I am moving across the corridor to an office of my own.

From being told at the end of last week that it would be three or more weeks before I move, today it is suddenly all happening!  At least I am around to make sure the carpet gets a thorough clean whilst there is no furniture in there, and various repairs and alterations are made.  There are some bookshelves to be put on the wall, but I shall wait until I have the rest of the furniture in place before I decide which wall to put them on.

Some of the equipment I am responsible for will have to move into the room next door to the office - that will confuse the regular users for a while.

I've found my old door name panel, thank goodness it wasn't one of the ones I have already recycled for somebody else.

All good fun!

I share the Admin Office with two colleagues, we have worked in the same building for something like 14 years but due to the regular re-organisations we have moved around departments and divisions, this past year is the first time we have shared an office.  

I changed a few things when I first moved in - getting rid of a large whiteboard, moving a wall mounted bookshelf and adding a small noticeboard and some more drawers next to the desk.

There are no more changes that need to be made now, but I'm off sailing for a year, so I have to remove all my personal stuff and store it somewhere so the temp has a clear desk when s/he arrives.

A

Desk notes

Also from the UK.  We have pot lucks (also sometimes known as American suppers), in fact we went to a New Year party at one of the local sailing clubs this year and everyone took a dish with them.  The food was excellent!

We don't have anything at work because we have a cafeteria, but any food left over from a meeting is put in our divisional Mess Room and word passed around.

The building as a whole has regular Cake Events with homemade cakes to raise money for charity - usually for Children in Need, Comic Relief etc.

The University closes our building for four or five days around Christmas and New Year, depending on how the holidays fall.  I usually take another three days' leave or flexi to have a fortnight off.

A

I have a BSC in Biology, LCCI Private & Executive Secretary's Diploma (and various RSA and LCCI secretarial skills certificates - typing, audio, shorthand, IT etc), and the European Computer Drivers Licence.

Plus a long list of individual training certificates for specific software packages, manual handling, first aid, etc.

A

I think things are changing in the UK now as well.  Certainly in the Higher Education area where I work, jobs are now advertised as EA rather than PA, although the job descriptions haven't really changed.  The Director of our Centre now has an EA, who replaced his PA.

We have just had a major re-organisation in the Division where I work and I was asked whether I wanted to be a PA or an EA.  I settled for EA, because though in theory I provide PA support to a Divisional Head, I also provide support to a lesser extent to the rest of the Divisional Management Team.

Amanda

Hi Jess

Sorry to hear you have RSI.

One of the scientists where I work has had the same problem for some seven years and he uses a voice recognition programme called DragonNaturallySpeaking for all his typing.  You might find something similar of use (but perhaps not if you have a shared office).

Best wishes

Amanda

My job title over the last ten years has migrated from PA to Unit Secretary/Purchasing Officer to Unit Administrator/Purchasing Officer and finally to Executive Assistant.  I work for the Head of Division and also provide support to the Divisional Management Team.

This reflects the changes in the organisation where I work, we have now gone full circle as far as the operational structure is concerned and all the so-called changes for the better have proved not to be better than the original structure.  I am now sharing an office with several other administrative staff whom I used to work with when I started out.