During my 27 ish year career as an EA, most of which supporting at the most senior levels, I experienced some really challenging times.

Mergers, acquisitions, public relations catastrophes, IPOs, changes in leadership, Royal Commissions, House Economics Committee appearances, the GFC, a pandemic, bullying, sexual harassment, unreasonable requests, demanding executives and some lean times with serious cut backs.

I also experienced some really amazing, happy, cruisy times.

Here’s the weird thing. The happy, easy times weren’t the moments in my career that brought me the most growth or opportunities.

Somewhere on the career hamster wheel of working hard toward the next promotion or pay rise we began sacrificing what we need to fulfil the needs of others. It’s a habit that’s hard to break, particularly for Executive Assistants whose roles exist primarily to support the needs of others, to support the success of others.

If left unchecked this is a detrimental way to exist and it bleeds out beyond the working week into life itself. I talk a lot about the dark side of EA work because it isn’t shared openly enough. It’s a dirty little secret and burden many feel they have to carry alone.

I was a senior EA for over 27 years, I know this first hand from personal experience and through conversations in the community throughout my entire career and now in this business.

If you’ve ever arrived into a role feeling excited, motivated, desperate to make a great first impression only to be let down by your predecessor or the organisation’s preparation and onboarding, you’ll know it’s rough.

Unfortunately, particularly in the administration profession, handovers are a mixed bag and the problem is often the knowledge base of the person leading the handover. If they don’t know what they don’t know, or have never experienced a great handover themselves, its a recipe for disaster.