So it’s the end of week and  a lazy sunny Sydney Sunday is in store for my family and I today.

Another week has crept on by at a rapid pace – more so than usual as this is the first time in 13 years that I have worked full time.   I have just completed my second week.  Not to be blowing my own horn too much, as it is only a casual arrangement for four weeks, it is very close to home and it is school hours.

I seriously, and I mean seriously take my hat off to all the Mum’s and Dad’s out there that work full-time.  Being a Mum/Dad is full-on, throwing full time/part-time work into the mix creates chaos – the key is to be organised, however this is more easily said that done!  Most of your spare thinking time is now wondering and working out which task or job to do next.

I really love working in the city – I must say that I do get a feeling of joy when I step off the train for the first time in the mornings. To hear the city clock tolling and to see all the office workers rushing to be at their desks by 9 am.

I feel quite free, quite free to be out of the Shire and stepping back into the same work life I have had since I was 17 – it is comfortable and all I know – it’s a way of me remaining the young woman I like to believe that I still am at heart.  I have a whole other life in the city that my family don’t really understand – I laugh and smile often during my working day and I work (and shop on my lunch hour) hard supporting lawyers with their pressured jobs.

Working in an office is quite exciting! There are all walks of life who come together each day – most of us have at least one common interest – which is to feel a a sense of achievement.  I love my job, just to be clear here and I work for lovely people who genuinely enjoy working with me and vice versa.  I am lucky.

A corporate environment thrives on humans having a goal to succeed and gain respect from their superiors – it’s like a jungle of politics and only the very fittest survive (or climb up the corporate ladder)  (NO!!!! This not going to be a Jerry Maguire Mission Statement! I promise).

Which bring me to the point of this blog!  I have been a legal secretary for 23  years.  It’s not the career I wanted, I did want to be a model or a movie star – but as fate as concluded, this wasn’t going to be (LOL!).   I have worked for many great and inspiring professionals and many not so great and uninspiring professionals.  Being successful in your career is one thing and treating people with respect is another.

For any professionals out there reading this blog – its not hard to make your PA or assistant feel appreciated – I will outline below:

1.  Use the word please  more often.

2.  Say thank you.

3,  Remember your assistant’s birthday and acknowledge it.

This may seem easy enough but for many it is not.

My worst secretarial experience was my very first job, I was only 17 – I worked for the managing partner of the firm, back in those days junior secretaries had to get the lunches for all the lawyers.  This particular partner asked me to get him a salad sandwich with pineapple.  This I promptly did! On returning to the office, I heard him yelling and then appeared from his stinky, dark and farty office and he threw the sandwich at me complaining it was tinned pineapple and not freshly cut!  I had a white shirt on this day and I had beetroot all over it, I was incredibly embarrassed and upset.  I went to the toilets and I cried.

I worked for this man for sometime and I was quite intimidated by him on a daily basis, but now as a 40 plus year old woman, I can see how weak he really was.  All his power came from his position in the workplace – in my opinion, whatevs mate!  If he threw that sandwich at me today, he would have had it back right in his big red nose.

So again, any professionals reading my blog! You treat your PA bad, he/she will leave as soon as a new opportunity comes along – quite simple really.

Loyalty in the workplace is very hard to find and it can’t be bought.

I found this little poem  on Google – thought I would share for all my fellow secretary buddies – thanks girls for the years of fun and friendships.Your bosses are so lucky to have you!

 

On another note, thanks to you all for your support in me starting to blog – I am loving sharing some of my stories.

NOW – GET OUT THERE AND ENJOY YOUR SUNDAY.

 

Giddy Up

 

LB