
A Startup's Crucial First Hire: The "Do-It-All Office Admin" - mahipal
http://www.currentlyobsessed.com/2009/12/16/crucial-first-hire-the-do-it-all-office-admin/
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moe
I often see this role filled by what everyone calls a "secretary" or
"assistant". They tend to be very highly valued by everyone in the company
[below exec level] and tend to go all the extra-miles to babysit same execs.
Even moronic extra-miles such as re-booking hotel-rooms on a saturday because
the CEO didn't like the furniture, or organizing company-events in their off-
time because the CEO "asked" (read: demanded).

Sadly, more often than not, at least in my experience, aforementioned execs
take all that for granted and the secretary remains a secretary in terms of
pay and appreciation.

It's one of those stereotypes that I keep seeing over and over again that
pisses me off every time.

~~~
lionhearted
> Sadly, more often than not, at least in my experience, aforementioned execs
> take all that for granted and the secretary remains a secretary in terms of
> pay and appreciation.

True story:

A friend of mine is a broker to a guy who is/was a major real estatement
developer. Billions of dollars of developments. The guy is a maniac too, he'd
develop multiple sites in different ways at the same time and he had a pretty
small staff. Just infinite amounts of work and energy. Immigrant parents, came
up from nothing, developer was just a pretty amazing guy.

My friend was one of the brokers he used. One year, secretary's day was coming
around. Normally, the developer would give his secretary like a $200 gift
certificate for Tiffany's or to a fancy restaurant or something like that.

This year, he thought - you know, my secretary has been with me for 20 years,
she's been amazing, I should do something really special for her. My friend
was just about to trade his car in and get a new car, and so he sold it to the
developer for a pretty good bargain - something like $12,000. It was a nice
sports car, only a few years old.

So he gave her the car, and she was thrilled, really really happy. Very
grateful. After a couple weeks, the thrill wore off, and it was just business
as normal, and she was still the very good secretary she had been for years
and things were going well.

Next year, secretary's day rolls around again, and he gives her... a $250 gift
certificate for Tiffany's. Like every other year.

And she was TICKED. Very upset. Her work quality suffered. She'd been very
excited about what she was going to get, and then a slightly bigger than
normal gift certificate was very upsetting.

Long story short - many people have thought the same way as you and tried to
rectify it, often with undesired results. Everyone in the world isn't
necessarily stupid - if something is done almost everywhere a certain way, it
might because that way works the best. When deviating from the normal way,
things should be thought through carefully. I do agree that a top notch
assistant is invaluable though, and often times underappreciated.

~~~
rue
Giving a one-time gift is not "rectifying" a fundamentally inequitable
situation. Employees should feel like their work is appreciated and correctly
valued _all the time_ , not just in a burst of mania every few years.

~~~
lionhearted
> Giving a one-time gift is not "rectifying" a fundamentally inequitable
> situation.

I was a little lost for a second when you put "rectifying" in quotes and
assumed an inequitable situation - I looked if the original poster used it;
nope, he didn't. Did I? Nope, I didn't. I was responding to "aforementioned
execs take all that for granted and the secretary remains a secretary in terms
of pay and appreciation" - which I noted many people have thought before, and
sometimes acted a little too hastily after thinking. So, I shared a story as a
word of caution to people who think, "Yeah, my secretary does a lot! I should
show more appreciation!" Well, yes you probably should, but you should
probably think through the best way to do so before doing so.

Also, I should note she was paid quite well. I forget the figures, but it was
over market - this guy paid everyone well, my friend did like half his
business just being one of his brokers. He paid _way_ over market - which,
stereotypes be damned, seems to actually be common among high performing
people. They tend to compensate well from my firsthand experience. But I
digress, she was paid quite well, so I was referring more to the
"appreciation" than the compensation. The gift really was meant to be a gift
and to show his appreciation, not as a rectification or a makeup or anything
like that.

> Employees should feel like their work is appreciated and correctly valued
> all the time, not just in a burst of mania every few years.

Fully agreed, that's a good point.

~~~
rue
From the grandparent:

> _Long story short - many people have thought the same way as you and tried
> to rectify it, often with undesired results._

I am obviously not familiar with the particular situation, so I was speaking
in generalities: secretaries and assistants are I daresay as a rule vastly
undercompensated in comparison with their bosses (and many other professions).
In those circumstances, giving some lavish one-time gift or bonus is probably
the _worst_ kind of an incentive.

Overall, I think we are in agreement...as you say:

> _Well, yes you probably should, but you should probably think through the
> best way to do so before doing [showing your appreciation]._

------
shaddi
When our computer science department was founded, Fred Brooks (the founder)
insisted that the university provide funding for a department secretary from
the outset. He went through a lengthy process of selecting the best person he
could find, and to this day she is revered in the department (one of our
classrooms is named in her honor). It's not a matter of considering some tasks
to be "below" you, it's about maximizing your productivity by dividing labor.

From the department history [1]: "Professors and administrators may be loath
to admit it, but no one knows better than they who runs a university: the
department secretaries. [...] He was fortunate to secure the services of Sara
Elizabeth ("Lib") Moore, a graduate of the University who had worked in the
chancellor's office before moving to Duke University. Lib ran the Department
for 16 years."

[1] <http://www.cs.unc.edu/History/Infancy.html>

~~~
ajdecon
Indeed. One of the things I've learned as a graduate student is that the
department secretary is the single most important person in the department, at
least for a student. They will likely be the one to schedule your exams, order
your supplies (including chemicals!), get you time with faculty, coordinate
meetings with your committee, and generally keep things running smoothly. Woe
to the student who gets on their bad side.

Having an office admin isn't about offloading tasks which are "below" you:
these tasks often require experience and excellent people skills, and it's
about an effective division of labor.

------
staunch
This is kind of the general equivalent of letting someone sign your checks. I
don't want anyone else signing my checks, and I don't want anyone doing
anything else on my behalf.

No _startup_ CEO's time is so valuable or so scarce that they don't have time
to order a fridge or a laser printer. This is for the lazy guys that enjoy
having an assistant because delegating makes the feel like A Real Businessman.

I bet I could follow around any startup CEO for a day and point out 50 times
he's got 20 minutes to order a fridge, or whatever.

Steve Jobs or something, sure. He really could be entirely booked up every
single day all day.

~~~
jheitzeb
I worry about the startup whose CEO cares a single second on what kind of
fridge they have. Wrong priorities. Spent that extra 20 minutes on hiring,
product planning, sales or coding.

~~~
staunch
I worry about the startup CEO that thinks it's beneath him to order a fridge.
He may be aloof and think his job doesn't involve grunt work.

~~~
jheitzeb
touché. So we agree, shouldn't care about the kind of fridge and it's not
beneath them to order it. Btw, hopefully the people in the company care more
about the quality of the people, the work and the direction that what is IN
the fridge.

------
puredemo
Aren't they called "Office Managers"

~~~
jheitzeb
"Office Manager" is a good percentage of the role, but in a chaotic startup
environment, settling on the narrower job expectations that come with that
title is limiting. Our d-i-a-o-a's were doing usability studies, guerilla
marketing, recruiting and other things way beyond the tranditional scope. In a
startup, it is good to have generalists and people willing to stretch and do
whatever it takes (even for engineers...imagine if one of your devs said "um,
sorry, i only do OO, if you need a shell script for XYZ, that work is below
me" or whatever...disaster)

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sriramk
If I leave MSFT, this is the one person I'll sorely miss. An admin at a large
company is a life saver for so many reasons.

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mkramlich
He's young. One of the benefits of that condition is the right to reinvent the
wheel now and then, and coin new words for old things. Note I am not being
sarcastic, merely pointing out the truth.

~~~
jheitzeb
With all due respect, this is totally different from exec admin or exec
babysitter. When we were 12 people in a small room coding and focused on our
product, our do-it-all-office admins were absolutely strategic, important and
appreciated by everyone in the company....and they allowed everyone to focus
without distractions. And when we were acquired, our d-i-a-o-a were doing due
diligence and holding their own with multiple execs and about 5 laywers. They
were incredible. I'd lay down on the tracks for them now. Their job was
anything but "baby-sitting". And it got each of them into top schools pursuing
law and business degrees. By the way, not bad for a first job out of college.

~~~
mkramlich
Never said anything negative about the role(s). I think it's important, and
takes a load off the folks doing the more core business-specific tasks which
are vital to startup takeoff.

~~~
jheitzeb
totally!

------
jrockway
This website reminds me why I should never browse without Tor. And why I
should make my proxy block Feedjit.

