Message #67011

[raindance]

We don't have a forum for secretaries and therefore we don't "lunch together".  Our management structure is very flat and whilst we have a hierarchy of jobs in that some jobs have certain enhanced responsibilities (such as CEO - can't be more "enhanced" than that), we mix with each other fairly freely - including lunch.  

I'm EA to the CEO, and my job profile is not a secretarial one as such.  I have an assistant of my own, and there are other assistants dotted around throughout the organisation at her level.  They don't have a forum either.  

Maybe you could set something up in your own organisation, Gee, when you have been there a bit longer.  Sometimes, people get into a way of working and it takes someone new to shed new light on things.

The induction process that I described in my earlier email was my brainchild not long after I joined my company.   That, and many other things I had "bright ideas" about were taken up by my boss, and they generally work well, even if they need a bit of tweaking now and then.  Working with the CEO has some advantages to it - you get to feed ideas to the person who can really make things happen.  

It's always a bit difficult with new people. Group dynamics are very subtle and a new person ALWAYS changes the atmosphere and temperature of an organisation - either in an good way or a bad way.   The worst thing is when people who are in post have applied for the post you take up - that's where those little jealousies creep in and there's nothing you can do about them.