HELP! I'm jealous of my own Admin!

[deidremichaels]

m just not great at tightrope walking.



Any thoughts you have would be helpful

 

[msrobbie]

First of all, welcome to the boards, and it's nice to have another "lurker" join the party.  Now, down to business . . . .



In your message you said, THEY have picked a woman . . . .  Did you not have any say-so in the hiring process?  Does this woman truly work for you, or does she work for the partners?  In other words, do you sign her time sheet, do her performance reviews, have the authority to reprimand or commend her work, decided whether or not to recommend her for a raise, and so forth?



If you do not have this authority, you are not her "boss", so to speak.  She may get her training and work assignments from you, but you are not actually her supervisor.



Anyway, getting past that, anyone who feels threatened by another worker will most decidedly show that fear.  You have been with this company for three years.  Since you have been with the partners for that amount of time, they must have a relationship with you that has been carefully built over those three years.  Even though the new admin worker may have skills or knowledge that you do not, she does not know the inner workings of the company.  She will, however, learn the ins and outs and eventually make her own place in the group.



What you need to do is, while you are training her to do the tasks for which she was hired, get her to share her knowledge and skills with you.  There must be a way you can assimilate some of her work skills, and if she is any kind of decent admin, she'll probably be glad to help you while you're helping her.



I know you're intimidated by someone who has had more education that you and who seems to have a more varied set of skills.  Just remember, she is new and she is nervous and she is looking to you to be her guide into this new position.  You do have the upper hand, you just have to make the most of it.



Try to view this situation as a great opportunity for you instead of a threat.  



Good luck, and please let us know how things are going.



Robbie

[elleny]

Don't worry about her abilities and education.  It is obvious that your bosses are happy with you work, and value your opinion, or they would  not have considred your request for some help.  Take this opportunity to show what great supervisory skills you have.  I would suggest that you just take charge of the situation and handle it the way it has been given to you.  You have an assistant, have her assist you with your work.  



For the next couple of days, take her with you.  Show her how YOU like for things to get done.  When someone hands you something that you feel she can do (and if you haven't given her too much already) delegate it to her.  Hand her the file and say "Mary, will you please fax this to John in Atlanta" or "I need this to be typed up on letterhead by the end of the day."  



Schedule a meeting with her as an icebreaker.  The meeting should be very informal.  I would start the conversation with something like "First off, I wanted to let you know how happy I am to have you hear to help assist me in running this office.  (the key word here is assist) I just wanted to talk with you personally and find out from you a little about your past jobs and skills."  



From there just talk about her for a while.  Make sure you pay attention to what she is saying, and ask her questions to let her be aware that you are listening to what she is saying.  After about 10 minutes or so let her know that enthusiasticly that her skills will be a great assest to this company.  I would then go on to tell her about yourself.  Since this is your first admin position, draw on past work experince where you held some sort of supervisory role, or where you had a great responsibility.  I would then go on to your current company.  This part of the conversation should show a progression of responsibilty that will show her that advancement is possible and that hard work and responsiblitiy is appreciated by the company and especially by you.



Now, as for her taking on thing that you don't think she is ready for, I would find her somthing else to do and aproach her with something like "We (key word her is we) will work on that later.  Right now I need you to do this for me instead.  Then follow up on your word and both of you work on it together.  One word of caution here, make sure it is really a posiblity that she is not ready for it and that jelousy is not interfering in that opinion.  



Remember, this is a great opportunity to show your bosses that you can handle the responsiblity of Office Manager and  can manage the office not just assist it.  This means delegating work to other employees.  I've learned that if you fake confidence, it tends to sneak up on you and make you more confident.



Ellen (sorry for the length) in TX  

[elleny]

BTW, I was writing the above while Ms. Robbie was posting hers, and she brought up a good point.  Please make sure you really are her supervisor.  If you aren't then I'd definitely ignore mine.  It was written with the assumption that you are her supervisor.



Ellen in TX  

[sungoddesslv]

Deidre, welcome to TAA.



Not much to add here, except you should be thankful that your voice was heard and now there is help in the office.  You now have time to concentrate on Marketing.  Having worked in and with marketing, I know that once you get into that, you have very little time for anything else.



I can understand how you feel about giving up some of the work that you have been doing for the past few years, but you asked for it! !  Having someone with this person's experience and knowledge should be a God-send - because now you don't need to spend much time in training - just training in company-related things.  You should be pouring your time into Marketing and not worrying about how good this new person is.  



Certainly don't be jealous of her...learn from her.  

[bethalize]

 making yourself even more indispensible!

You are in a very good position to create a win/win situation, Best of luck.

 

[andrea843]

Oh Boy, here goes Andrea not being popular again.  Doesn't anyone see the larger picture here? That of total non regard by Deidre's employer?



It's an employer's job in addition to whatever service he provides, or product he sells to make sure that his employees are directed, motivated and assured of their place within a given organization. Without those key ingredients there is no organization.



In this case, Deidre, your employer apparently heard your plea for help and then didn't bother to bring you in on the process of finding it.  



Further he/she apparently hasn't bothered to inform you what your status is.  Are you the supervisor? Just another face in the crowd? Has no one spoken to you about your new place & responsiblities? Don't assume because this individual is being brought in to "help" you that she's your subordinate.  



I bring in the FedEx guy every day to help me but I don't write his performance review.



Should you "thank your lucky stars" that you HAVE help? Or begin to wonder if your employer could be more aware of your needs?  Nothing and I do mean "nothing" about this profession will change until people stop being grateful for crumbs and begin to insist on being treated like the professionals they are.



Andrea's advice:  Get to the partners immediately and get a clarification of your status. If you ARE the supervisor in this case approach the new employee as a supervisor and not as a competitor.  For like it or not my  new friend, you are competing, and while I don't view competition as a necessarily bad thing, I do view it as counterproductive at times. And it's counterproductive for you now.



Competition should have it's roots in a need to excel, not in a need to protect one's job.  



In a worst case scenario, what if this person HAS been brought in to replace you, what can you do about it? Can you realistically change your employers mind about that? Probably not.  So what can you do to help yourself feel better?



Try a little self talk.  There was a time in my life, that I was so unsure about my skills and my potential that I took a talisman,, (in my case a bronze medallion that I'd won) and every once in awhile would spend just five minutes looking at it. Being completely egocentric about it too.



Those self talk sessions were eventually tranformed into more self assurance and higher productvity.   In short I became able to learn and to excel because I made myself believe that I could. Find your own talisman, be it a picture of your child, a visualization, a college catalog,, anything that takes your mind to a place where you have MORE personal power than you do now.  Use it daily.



In the best Case scenario, you are this individuals supervisor and need to acquire the skills to be her supervisor.



In either case, your letter is symptomatic of a much larger problem,,, that of the employer who forgets to treat his admin like a professional.  Do you think for ONE instant that if a new VP was being brought in, that existing officers wouldn't be assured of their place in the new Org chart?



Calling attention to this kind of treatment, getting proactive, not reactive will benefit you, with increased confidence in your worth and increased marketability as a professional and not a doormat.



should you fall at the employers feet and thank him for getting you help? No.  He's providing help to get HIS job done.  Would you call up Ford motors and thank them profusely for putting the brakes in your new car? Of course not.  Now you might call and compliment them on the efficiency of their new braking system,,,, but should you thank them for something they should have provided in the first place the basic method of stopping the car?



When you do approach your employer, forget about talking to them about YOUR work and how it should be seen, talk to them about the COMPANY'S work.



"As you know our marketing efforts are confined mainly to mailings, I think Susie will be a big assist in that area" (Take ownership and achieve partnership at the same time, note the OUR statement combined with an I Statement)



as opposed to "oh thank you so much for bringing Susie in, I couldn't handle those mail outs all by my self anymore!". (Being a victim unable to handle things. Needing to be rescued by the employer on his white steed ,,, supplication at it's finest)



Which one shows you as a professional and which one shows you as poor lil ol' admin relying on bossie to make everything all right? Consider your approach to the boss carefully and stop competing with the new person for fear of losing your job.  



DO your job, know in your heart that you're doing the BEST posssible job, self-talk a bit about how great you are,, and allow your self to be a professional!



'nuff said.

Andrea lover of all things.....respected, in Charleston