"Man the desk at all times. Got it."

~~ Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada

Let’s talk about what they don’t warn you about being an admin: No matter how great your department is, no matter how capable the people you work with are, you will periodically be set up to look like an absolute ass. The individual competency of the people you support will affect the frequency and severity of this, but it is GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU.

There are the minor incidents that I call “YOU be the messenger”. You know, the last-minute IMPOSSIBLE requests for you to make something happen that lead to phone calls beginning with “I’m reeeeally sorry to ask you this but…” and “I know you require 48 hours notice but…” and end with “Oh my gosh, you’re an angel” and “Thank you sososososo much. I swear this will never happen again”. This has even resulted in me buying Timbit bribes. I hope the people on the other side of this type of request realize I’m not completely disorganized/impertinent/out of touch with reality. Sometimes these are the result of poor planning and I can sigh and wish my coworker had just mentioned something earlier, but sometimes things really do come up last minute. I get that. That is necessary ass-ness.

But then there are people who constantly put you in awkward positions because they simply are not good co-workers. Most offices have a weak link (I bet you’re thinking of one right now). If you are scheduled to meet with someone and they show up and you are nowhere to be found AND totally unreachable…we have a problem. Oh, actually, I guess just I have a problem. Because I’m the ass who has to face the person. If our manager wants the team to have something ready and we delegate it to you because everyone else has 5 million other things to do and you just don’t do it…we all get blamed. Hey, I somehow effed up at a conference when I wasn’t even the same province as the event!! It’s part of being a team. Your successes and failures are shared. But somehow the admin gets to be the poster child for the flubs, not the achievements.

I’m very lucky to have a fantastic boss who appreciates me. I can’t imagine how much worse it is for the admins who don’t have that respect. Solidarity my friends!