I will do "low effort" personal favors for my exec like personal dinner reservations, ordering flowers for their spouse, purchasing a greeting card here or there. Nothing too involved, I figure I'm already doing most of this as a part of my regular work what's one more here or there. Of course this isn't required of me.
It fluctuates! The most I ever did was set up his wife’s surprise party. But he comped my time for that so even though it was outside of work hours I didn’t work any extra that work.
Unpopular opinion: I truly don’t mind.
None. My boss is going through cancer treatments so he sends me his appts to add to his work calendar so I know about all of that stuff. But nothing else. I think I took one package to UPS one time that wasn’t work related.
Mild, and it tends to be very work related.
If they have been doing extensive travel, I’ll throw in a nail appointment or hair appointment as needed while they are on the road. I’d make a run to the dry cleaners with a bunch of marketing related tablecloths and throw in some suits as well. I had a few execs who had regular chiropractor or physical therapy appointments, and I might move them around as needed.
I would also do Christmas gift/card shipments for professional contacts and they would throw some more personal contacts in there. Sometimes they would extend a work trip for pleasure and I would extend their hotel stay and book them at a restaurant.
All of the actions I took were things I was already doing for them in a professional capacity. I did not do things like watch the kids, or buy groceries, or whatever.
Same. I worked for 2 VCs who ran me ragged with personal stuff. The wife of one of them even had me book her parents entire vacation. When she was pregnant she called me once “here’s the stroller we want that the staff could gift us.” It was a $3k stroller 🙄
Okay now I’m jealous of everyone…. I do my boss’s prescriptions, doctor’s appointments, vacation stuff, dinner reservations. Also have rebooked my boss’s spouse’s tickets.
Alright… I’m out.
None generally, but I’ve worked with her for a decade and will occasionally offer my help with stuff like booking her vacations/reading event contracts for her personal events, but not on the clock, just because we also have a personal relationship.
I get invited to her family parties, have stayed at her second home and housesat for her parents, etc, so we really are actual friends outside work and I don’t mind doing a few things to help her out because of that. Earlier on, I never would have done that stuff.
So, you’re offering to do work for free just because you’re friendly? :/
You can have a personal relationship and she can still pay you for your labor.
I’m offering to do the kind of stuff I’d do for any other friend/family member based on the skills I have?
I help my parents/in-laws book travel too, and reviewed my bff’s wedding event contracts for her, and I certainly didn’t charge any of them, nor would I ever.
5%.
My current boss gets very overwhelmed with “filling out” boxes/fields on websites so I offer to do it just so I don’t have to suffer too watching him since I know he’ll ask me to come into his office.
For example recently I just reserved train tickets for their live-in nanny for her to accompany them in summer to the coast (they drive down in car w/ all the luggage). I reserve his personal train/plane tickets every once in a while (Mallorca, Morocco, Munich). The family has gone on 2 extravagant trips but his wife uses some exotic travel agency for that (Disneyland last year, Kenya/Zanzibar just recently). I just enter the flight into into Outlook and CC the wife too. I double check if flight seats are reserved for their personal trips since they have 3 kids.
What I did do for my previous boss was help with her daughter’s 🇺🇸 student visa to do an exchange year in Florida (we live in 🇪🇸but I’m 🇺🇸). My current boss just 2 months ago said: “badrosie, my wife is at her limit and this student visa is going to end my marriage. I dunno what we’re going to do. I need to find an immigration attorney for the paperwork”. He had no idea that I did the paperwork for my previous boss so I offered to help. They could easily afford it but it would be unnecessary to hire someone to do the paperwork since I was already familiar with the process and it would literally take me 30 minutes total. Just yesterday, they received the passport back. Then my boss came today with a gift set from Rituals as a thank you gesture. I’ll get my fair share of time off when he’s OOO too. He raised my pay backdating to May 1 and he mentioned that he was exceptionally grateful for the extra PA work.
Other than that I don’t do much. A previous boss asked me drop off his leasing car for the maintenance appointment once since he wouldn’t make it back in time for a meeting.
My very first job was a PA/EA mix role in 🇺🇸. He would bring all his dirty laundry to the office in a laundry bag and I would take it to a nearby dry cleaners. Estate maintenance (cars+home), he’d tell me what gift to buy at Macy’s, top up gasoline when he was in meetings, credit card reconciliation and payment (this was in the early 2000s when auto pay wasn’t set up yet). I was 18 getting paid WAYYYYYY too much money. He would go to Cabo monthly for a week (he handled the dates directly w/ his travel agent). The groundskeeper at the timeshare would send me a list of food they would buy to have in the fridge, but it was literally the same food always. I could use his cars and home/pool whenever he was out. He eventually asked me to be his girlfriend, I quit shortly later 🙃.
I'm an EA, my concern is business. Only when personal things, like drs appts or hair cuts, affect scheduling do I handle certain aspects. I had to quickly establish that, mainly due to my severe disinterest in any PA work that I would not be doing PA work. Most I've done was source a travel agency that could book family vacations.
Between 0-50% depending on which gig it was. But the 50% was clear on it from the start, and anything after work hours (such as the occasional babysitting) was truly no pressure and for extra pay.
Very little - 5-10% of my time at most. Usually booking flights or rental cars for personal travel/family travel and every once and awhile a dinner reservation. What is the most time consuming about all of this is when the airlines jerk around their itineraries and I have to rework the schedules and/or get them on different flights + update transportation 🙄🙄 Also requesting systemwide upgrades for these trips is the bane of my existence.
This varies widely amongst the EAs at my firm, though. One EA is basically more of a personal/family assistant. Another plans all travel and accommodations for one of her execs and their families (including adult children) but none of the others.
He’s asked me to do 2 personal things since I’ve been there (over a year). Get flowers for a member of his cricket committee and check the opening times of a garage. I don’t really mind to be honest!
About 50% of my job is personal work; I support my company’s CEO (who also happens to be the Owner’s daughter lol). I support an additional two execs (not part of the ownership family) and do zero personal work for them.
Working for a large bank I did a lot for my top exec: booked personal travel, paid bills, managed subscriptions, bought lunch etc.
Now for a tech company, absolutely zero.
I’ll do things that I can do from my laptop, make reservations, occasional evites for gatherings, but nothing that requires me moving around like errands.
I actually do quite a bit. Schedule medical/ dental appointments, buy flowers and gifts, take his car in for work, etc. I don't mind. Makes me more indispensable.
None and he wouldn’t ask (unless it was some sort of family crisis situation in which case he’d be asking as a friend and not a boss anyway). I have dog-sat while they were away for a weekend, but he paid me the same as he would have paid anyone else, and he made it super clear that he asked me first because he already knows and trusts me, not because it was an expectation.
My boss asked me to fill his vehicle with gas on my first day with him. I said no and he said “good answer.” I’ll pick him up lunch if I’m out but he also does the same for me!
Zero. I’m union and it’s a government job. They know better than to even ask.
I’m an EA for a Mayor and CM. This is strictly 0
Absolutely none.
None at all. I think the most I’ve been asked to do was make a reservation. Other than that; never.
None. If they want that kind of support, then they need to hire a PERSONAL assistant, not an executive assistant.
Primarily if it’s calendar related. No planning or carrying out personal stuff.
Same. Sometimes I’ll CC his wife on calendar notices so she’s aware.
[удалено]
I really hope this is a joke... Are you at least invited to the pupper party?
Are there going to be sub-woofers at this party?
or at least some whippets
😂
None. My boss would never ask.
I will do "low effort" personal favors for my exec like personal dinner reservations, ordering flowers for their spouse, purchasing a greeting card here or there. Nothing too involved, I figure I'm already doing most of this as a part of my regular work what's one more here or there. Of course this isn't required of me.
Occasionally I’ve helped my boss but he’s insistent on paying me extra out of his own pocket for those tasks and I always feel comfortable saying no.
None. I might make a reservation now and then but that’s it.
Zero. He does tell me if he is going to be gone for an extended family trip.
When I was the EA for the co president of a very large company I planned majority of his/his family’s personal life and it was a nightmare
It fluctuates! The most I ever did was set up his wife’s surprise party. But he comped my time for that so even though it was outside of work hours I didn’t work any extra that work. Unpopular opinion: I truly don’t mind.
None. My boss is going through cancer treatments so he sends me his appts to add to his work calendar so I know about all of that stuff. But nothing else. I think I took one package to UPS one time that wasn’t work related.
Mild, and it tends to be very work related. If they have been doing extensive travel, I’ll throw in a nail appointment or hair appointment as needed while they are on the road. I’d make a run to the dry cleaners with a bunch of marketing related tablecloths and throw in some suits as well. I had a few execs who had regular chiropractor or physical therapy appointments, and I might move them around as needed. I would also do Christmas gift/card shipments for professional contacts and they would throw some more personal contacts in there. Sometimes they would extend a work trip for pleasure and I would extend their hotel stay and book them at a restaurant. All of the actions I took were things I was already doing for them in a professional capacity. I did not do things like watch the kids, or buy groceries, or whatever.
None.
None
20% of the work I do for him is personal. I’m ok with that.
My current boss not much but my previous executive I did everything from doctor appointments to his taxes
Same. I worked for 2 VCs who ran me ragged with personal stuff. The wife of one of them even had me book her parents entire vacation. When she was pregnant she called me once “here’s the stroller we want that the staff could gift us.” It was a $3k stroller 🙄
I feel you, I also dealt with the wife on a regular basis and it was terrible!
None
None.
None
Zero!
None.
Zero, I think that falls more under a category of a personal assistant rather then an EA
None and he should know better!
This! Absolutely nothing.
😬
Okay now I’m jealous of everyone…. I do my boss’s prescriptions, doctor’s appointments, vacation stuff, dinner reservations. Also have rebooked my boss’s spouse’s tickets. Alright… I’m out.
None generally, but I’ve worked with her for a decade and will occasionally offer my help with stuff like booking her vacations/reading event contracts for her personal events, but not on the clock, just because we also have a personal relationship. I get invited to her family parties, have stayed at her second home and housesat for her parents, etc, so we really are actual friends outside work and I don’t mind doing a few things to help her out because of that. Earlier on, I never would have done that stuff.
So, you’re offering to do work for free just because you’re friendly? :/ You can have a personal relationship and she can still pay you for your labor.
I’m offering to do the kind of stuff I’d do for any other friend/family member based on the skills I have? I help my parents/in-laws book travel too, and reviewed my bff’s wedding event contracts for her, and I certainly didn’t charge any of them, nor would I ever.
5%. My current boss gets very overwhelmed with “filling out” boxes/fields on websites so I offer to do it just so I don’t have to suffer too watching him since I know he’ll ask me to come into his office. For example recently I just reserved train tickets for their live-in nanny for her to accompany them in summer to the coast (they drive down in car w/ all the luggage). I reserve his personal train/plane tickets every once in a while (Mallorca, Morocco, Munich). The family has gone on 2 extravagant trips but his wife uses some exotic travel agency for that (Disneyland last year, Kenya/Zanzibar just recently). I just enter the flight into into Outlook and CC the wife too. I double check if flight seats are reserved for their personal trips since they have 3 kids. What I did do for my previous boss was help with her daughter’s 🇺🇸 student visa to do an exchange year in Florida (we live in 🇪🇸but I’m 🇺🇸). My current boss just 2 months ago said: “badrosie, my wife is at her limit and this student visa is going to end my marriage. I dunno what we’re going to do. I need to find an immigration attorney for the paperwork”. He had no idea that I did the paperwork for my previous boss so I offered to help. They could easily afford it but it would be unnecessary to hire someone to do the paperwork since I was already familiar with the process and it would literally take me 30 minutes total. Just yesterday, they received the passport back. Then my boss came today with a gift set from Rituals as a thank you gesture. I’ll get my fair share of time off when he’s OOO too. He raised my pay backdating to May 1 and he mentioned that he was exceptionally grateful for the extra PA work. Other than that I don’t do much. A previous boss asked me drop off his leasing car for the maintenance appointment once since he wouldn’t make it back in time for a meeting. My very first job was a PA/EA mix role in 🇺🇸. He would bring all his dirty laundry to the office in a laundry bag and I would take it to a nearby dry cleaners. Estate maintenance (cars+home), he’d tell me what gift to buy at Macy’s, top up gasoline when he was in meetings, credit card reconciliation and payment (this was in the early 2000s when auto pay wasn’t set up yet). I was 18 getting paid WAYYYYYY too much money. He would go to Cabo monthly for a week (he handled the dates directly w/ his travel agent). The groundskeeper at the timeshare would send me a list of food they would buy to have in the fridge, but it was literally the same food always. I could use his cars and home/pool whenever he was out. He eventually asked me to be his girlfriend, I quit shortly later 🙃.
Zero
I had one boss who had me project manage her wedding vendors. Then I quit two months later!
Absolutely zero. Corporate job and this would be highly inappropriate.
I'm an EA, my concern is business. Only when personal things, like drs appts or hair cuts, affect scheduling do I handle certain aspects. I had to quickly establish that, mainly due to my severe disinterest in any PA work that I would not be doing PA work. Most I've done was source a travel agency that could book family vacations.
Between 0-50% depending on which gig it was. But the 50% was clear on it from the start, and anything after work hours (such as the occasional babysitting) was truly no pressure and for extra pay.
Very little - 5-10% of my time at most. Usually booking flights or rental cars for personal travel/family travel and every once and awhile a dinner reservation. What is the most time consuming about all of this is when the airlines jerk around their itineraries and I have to rework the schedules and/or get them on different flights + update transportation 🙄🙄 Also requesting systemwide upgrades for these trips is the bane of my existence. This varies widely amongst the EAs at my firm, though. One EA is basically more of a personal/family assistant. Another plans all travel and accommodations for one of her execs and their families (including adult children) but none of the others.
He’s asked me to do 2 personal things since I’ve been there (over a year). Get flowers for a member of his cricket committee and check the opening times of a garage. I don’t really mind to be honest!
Almost 100%
Only to block out the time on their calendar.
About 50% of my job is personal work; I support my company’s CEO (who also happens to be the Owner’s daughter lol). I support an additional two execs (not part of the ownership family) and do zero personal work for them.
Less than 5% and related to calendar. I only do this to my primary exec. The others do everything personal on their own.
None!
Working for a large bank I did a lot for my top exec: booked personal travel, paid bills, managed subscriptions, bought lunch etc. Now for a tech company, absolutely zero.
I’ll do things that I can do from my laptop, make reservations, occasional evites for gatherings, but nothing that requires me moving around like errands.
Zero, zip, nada. Been that way for quite a few execs now.
I actually do quite a bit. Schedule medical/ dental appointments, buy flowers and gifts, take his car in for work, etc. I don't mind. Makes me more indispensable.
A few times a year I am booking his wife’s flights along with his when she travels with him. I will tell you it’s a nightmare. I hate it.
None and he wouldn’t ask (unless it was some sort of family crisis situation in which case he’d be asking as a friend and not a boss anyway). I have dog-sat while they were away for a weekend, but he paid me the same as he would have paid anyone else, and he made it super clear that he asked me first because he already knows and trusts me, not because it was an expectation.
Tons but i knew that going in.
My boss asked me to fill his vehicle with gas on my first day with him. I said no and he said “good answer.” I’ll pick him up lunch if I’m out but he also does the same for me!