Message #80214

[Katie G]

"...the CEO's executive assistant who has a Director of Administration title..."

There are executive assistants and executive assistants.  During my teaching days, in my district, what everyone else calls a Vice Principal had the title Executive Assistant.  In many respects, he worked almost completely independently of the Principal, checking in with the big picture stuff, but not bothering with minutiae.  He was much more an executive than an assistant.

If that's the case here, where the EA is more an executive than an assistant, then I don't know that I'd call it a step back, but I'd make darn sure that 75/25 split was truly feasible.  If the EA turns out to need a lot more support than 25% of the admin's time, they he/she should probably have his/her own person.  That would be my concern rather than who's who in the pecking order.  I've been caught in the "shared" position more than once and it's always been a problem.

IF, however, this is not the case, and the EA is more of an admin support role, then yes, I might hesitate to take that position.  (Unless, of course, I'm facing redundancy or really need the job.)