I've been an admin, in one way or another, for about five years now. Five years of filing, typing coorespondense, waiting in lines at the office supply store, answering phones, playing tech support and so on. Five years of getting coffees and setting appointments and meeting with clients on behalf of boss person. Five years of miracle working and pulling rabbits out of very deep hats and so on.

In those five years, the following has become obvious:

1) No matter how many years the employer spent in school, they still do not know how to forward an attachment.
2) The boss has no idea where the mail drop box is located in their office building, nor do they know where the nearest mailbox is should there be no mail drop box in the office.
3) They can't be trusted with keys. They will lose them.
4)They have an allergy to sitting on their office chair and will avoid it at all costs. Often times this means not showing up to work and when they do, they stay out of their office, often finding a spot in another room far, far away. At that point, no real work will be done.
5) They don't understand calenders. Its like Greek to them ( or Aramaic should you boss actually know Greek). Seeing that there is an event planned at 12:30 on a Friday does not compute to there actually being something they need to worry about at 12:30 on Friday. Its just words on paper. Nothing more.

I would like to say its just my current employer, but alas, these five things seem to be universal in people that eventually hire an admin. Sure they hire the admin to do the above tasks, to be sure the keys are where they are supposed to be and that they are reminded repeatedly that that 12:30 meeting on Friday is an important one and that they should not be out shopping for new bags at that time. Thats the job of an admin, but on the rare occasion that the admin is out for anything, the above five will be the downfall of all of the hard work the admin has done. Files are lost, computers are acting strange, and keys....well they are just gone. The happy admin will structure the day around tackeling their usual tasts plus catching up on things from their absense and by the end of the day, should have gotten through it just fine. The angry admin, on the other hand, will do exactly what the happy admin would do, often with the same results. The difference is that while the angry admin is slaving away reorganizing the same client file for the tenth time, she will be doing it with spunk and sass, to the delight of the co-workers, who share in the pain.

This is how the angry admin makes friends. Companionship through anger.

Its 9:10am on Monday morning and this admin is already angry. Not because its 9:10 on a rainy Monday morning. Not because this admin, who also is a mama, spent the entire weekend dealing with a kiddo that had an ear infection, pink eye AND a sinus infection and hasn't had an adequate break from the world. No, I'm angry because I've been here for about 40 minutes now and already the boss has charged me with the task of completely redoing how I email clients for our Monday morning check-in. My task- I do it my way. The information gets to the clients in an easy to read format with little to no extra information that they do not need. Its clean, happy and professional. People like it because its personal but informative. I don't fill it with fluff, and for the sake of our clients that seem to always have their attachments get lost in space somewhere, I include the information in the body of the email ( shocking, I know.)

Instead she would rather me create a form, fill out the form for their specific transaction by hand ("It looks like you took the time to do it if you hand write it."), scan it, find it on our server, then email it to the clients as an attachment with a form email so that I don't have time to type up a message for each client. So pretty much, it will appears as if a robot sent them, I just filled out the form. My problem with this is that these emails give the clients more than the information on their transaction. This allows me to throw in a personal note so they know someone cares. I'd like to think that this is a weekly pick-me-up for them, reminding them that some businesses still care about the person and not just the money. Its totally selfish on my part to not to want to deal with the extra work boss lady wants because of time constraints, but when balancing her demands and customer care, I'd rather take care of these clients in the way they wanted to be cared for. This personal touch could be the only well-wish they get all week.


I would love to say that was all, but no. Since this admin is apparently a miracle worker with nothing else to do with her day besides catering to boss lady's ever whim and idea, I also have to rework a project that has been sitting, simmering on a side burner for weeks because boss lady has refused to draft the one little paragraph of information needed to complete this thing, so now, because its been weeks, she's decided she doesn't like it and wants the entire thing redone by none today. Ummmm....no. Ok, Actually I can do this, however she has left the office without drafting said paragraph, so even if I do what she has asked, its still not going to be done by noon. I'll just put this on the "Oh my god, really? OK, no....this is gonna wait" list.

So, not only do I have to create a form and then spend an hour filling them out because apparently my client check-in emails are not what she would want ( even though they have been in this format for a year and a half now) and think about reworking this project along with all of my other Monday morning things, I have to babysit the other office employee, who I referr to as the Nag, who I am not an admin to but who doesn't seem to understand that and constantly interrupts me to ask me one ridiculous question after another. I then have a contract for a new transaction to finalize, which will take no time, but I will be interrupted no less than ten times an hour by the Nag wanting to know what I'm up to.

Its gonna be a long day and this admin is pissed. Boss lady has a total passive-aggressive attitude when it comes to me and its wearing thin. One day she's all" Thanks for this" ( which is really rare but occasionally it does happen and did not happen on Admin Day) then the next day she decides that I am completely incompetent and wants to come in and change how I do everything all while refusing to acknowledge that the way I do things has resulted in an influx of business and has helped retained clients that would have otherwise gone on to someone better. Her profits are up, spending is down, and her marketing has never been better, yet how I do things is not how she would like them done and they must be corrected with no delay.

So thats my Monday in a nutshell. Dear St. Pam, please deliver me from this place.

How fitting that I decide to start this blog on Administrative Professionals Day? Apparently this admin has some time on her hands.

A little about me, I suppose. I'm an admin. Aside from big burly construction workers, celebrities, and large financial institutions, admins are the backbone of this country. Working ever tirelessly to ensure that one piece of paper with what is more than likely a meaningless bit of information is moved carefully from one spot in the office to another. We calculate figures in our already too full brains, fix office equipment, develop systems for efficiency and ensure that you can get out to your tennis match on time with everything you'll need for the day. We're like nurses without the blood and guts ( but the truth is, sometimes blood and guts factor into the day). We're here to take care of you and to ensure that at the end of the say, your business is still running smoothly and that profit( if that's your reason for being in business) is up.

I didn't grow up wanting to be an admin. Like St. Pam of Scranton would say " What little girl dreams of being a receptionist?"but life is funny and here I sit, in my cubicle, proudly wearing the hat of an admin. I'm really good at what I do and I don't mind being the backbone of this little operation. So why start a blog called The Angry Admin?

Got a minute?

Ok, good.

As noted in the beginning of this post, today is Administrative Professionals Day. Its the day when you are to shower your administrative staff with love for having spent the past year keeping your business up and running. Customary tokens of appreciation include flowers, candy, gift cards, lunch, cards, and so on. At the very least, you should look your admin in the eye and say "Hey, thanks for keeping things going here. Thanks for working so hard at a job that you are more than likely under-compensated for. Thanks for the professionalism and the hard work, and more importantly, thanks for ensuring that I stay in business just a little longer ". This did not happen today. In fact, not only did I not receive so much as a thanks, I ended up with more work on my desk. While others around me enjoyed their little bit of recognition, I sat, stewing in my admin sorrows until I decided that enough was enough.

So here I am, the angry admin, ready to vent my frustrations to the world. I'm sure I'm not the only one.