10 Things Your Admin Knows (That You Might Not)  

“Secretary’s Day,” a holiday created in 1953 by the International Association of Administrative Professionals, has been renamed “Administrative Professionals Day” but it’s still celebrated each year in April. Today’s administrative professionals are much more than the secretaries or support staff of yesterday. They often manage everything from IT to accounting tasks in addition to their role supporting busy, often demanding, executives. Their titles have changed too, from secretary to administrative assistant, office manager to chief executive administrator.

Although there has been some recent argument that celebrating administrative professionals undermines their position in the office by separating them from other professionals in the office. Some would prefer they were simply recognized as professionals—often with advanced degrees—and an integral part of the company’s success.

There are things that happen in the underbelly of the office about which no one knows but your admin. Everything your administrative professional handles for you is one less thing on your plate as an executive, so make sure to thank them for a job well done. Here are 10 things your admin knows that you don’t have to think about.

1. She knows how to change the toner in the copy machine and printer, how to clean the inside of the Keurig and the item numbers for at least a dozen office products. She sometimes wishes that Jeopardy had a category called “Things only the admin knows.”

2. She ponders important office questions like, “How can we go through a case of paper towels every month when nobody actually wipes or cleans anything in the office?” And she knows how much paper to order, which pens you prefer, how many coffee cups and sugar packets will be used in a week, and the phone numbers to every type of repair person around.

3. She has a file labeled “lunch” in her filing cabinet with menus from every local establishment and the names and meal idiosyncrasies for everyone in the office. Truth be told, she has memorized 99% of them anyway. She only keeps the file in case she ever runs screaming from the office never to return. Then, someone else can take over ordering lunches for the weekly meeting.

4. She’s the bomb at planning office birthday bashes.  She can throw together a cake, balloons, plates, napkins and forks in less than 15 minutes. (You probably didn’t know she keeps a helium tank under her desk!) She has calendar reminders set for everyone’s special day and she learns the birthday of every new hire within minutes of their arrival.

5. She can tell at a glance what you’re thinking, anticipating your every move. Many executive assistants have been known to track their boss’s moods, likes and dislikes, and favorite foods, and some have even made sure they read whatever book or publication the boss did in order to better understand their interests.

6. She rarely gets to finish her lunch–at least while it is still warm—or take lunch at a usual time. Invariably someone needs something just as she takes the third bite of the most beautiful grilled chicken salad you’ve even seen. She’s famished, but at that moment, the IT guy isn’t answering his phone and no one can connect to the server. Suddenly, she is checking wires and problem-solving. By the time she’s done, her salad has wilted into a blob of something resembling creamed spinach topped with chicken and soggy croutons. But she doesn’t complain.

7. She dreads taking a vacation. She loves to travel, but she fears going away for a week because she knows upon return the office will be a mess and her desk will be piled high with work. She also must be near death before she calls out sick, for the same reason.

8. She has come to expect the unexpected. One former administrative assistant, whom we’ll call Elizabeth, relayed that on her first day at a labor union, she was shown around the office and her attention was called to a baseball bat kept in one corner “in case she needed it.” She never dreamed that she would one day chase an unruly client out of the office with it. Your administrative professional is at the ready to handle any crisis so that the minutia of the day doesn’t keep you from doing your job.

9. Some days she feels like a therapist. Other days she feels like their mom. What doesn’t change is that she listens, responds appropriately, encourages and bandages every boo-boo. She is the rock on which the office is built.

10. She is unbelievably resourceful. She inherently knows where to find things and how to navigate just about any situation. She can find the cheapest travel or the nearest coffee shop. In five minutes she can track down the caterer from a recent breakfast to find the bakery that made the muffins you fell in love with. She learned to interview new employees by Googling interview questions. She mastered how to build desks from IKEA.

One resourceful office manager’s quick recall got her back in the office when she was locked out with no hope of opening the steel door. She remembered that a worker with a criminal record that the office had once helped to find gainful employment had a record for breaking and entering. She called the client and he got her back into the office “lickety-split.”

Yes, there could be days when her job is so overwhelming or frustrating that she desires to run, screaming, from the office and never come back. However, there are just as many days when your administrative professional couldn’t imagine doing any other job. Although it’s sometimes thankless, she likes being the glue that holds the office together. Let your admin have some laughs and allow all the crazy stuff to roll off her very strong shoulders. Let her change her email signature to “office goddess” for the day and kick her feet up on the desk for at least a few minutes. She deserves it!