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.