Since I'm on vacation . . . I've lined up some guest writers (that's right . . . I called you writers, not bloggers) to keep y'all busy in my absence.
Today's guest writer is Patty Sawyer!
Without further adieu . . . Please enjoy this post by Patty Sawyer!
The Overqualified Admin.
Yes, once upon a time, for far longer than I am willing to admit, I was her. Equipped with a bachelor degree, I was stuck in a black hole of admin work I just couldn’t get out of. The work was dull, menial, and insulting.
I think the worst of it was when I worked in the HQ of a large retail company that shall not be named (but trust me, you’ve probably been there at least once this week, meaning to run in for one item and coming out with $100 worth of stuff). I didn’t want to be an admin any longer when I took the job, but I figured “hey! It’s a huge company! I’ll just go in as admin and work my way up!” Poor, dear, misguided Patty.
You see, being an admin carries the stigma of having an IQ that isn’t quite in the double digits. Add to the fact that I worked on the Engineering team, and there you have it. I was officially stupid in their eyes. I also hated my job with a burning, undying passion, and made no qualms about hiding it. Sure, it wasn’t polite, but come on! On a regular basis, I would have men coming over to my desk outside our VP’s office and say things like “The 3rd stall in the men’s room is plugged. Do you plunge those?” To which I say “No, NO, @#$%^ NO!, you dirty nasty man, you!” Or having people contact me all the time to order their pizza for team lunches. Please people! You didn’t get to be a manager of a huge corporation’s Engineering team by being stupid! Pick up the freakin’ phone, tell the pizza company you want 10 large pizzas, and to have them there by noon tomorrow. Done and done. Remember here, I didn’t even work for these people; I worked for our Vice President, several rungs above these butt kissing middle managers. I also had a senior group manager who I was trying to butter up to potentially move to her team look around at a large 250 person meeting I arranged with all sorts of goodies like soda and treats and tell me “Patty, you’re so good at this!” I don’t think I have ever come so close to bitch slapping someone at work, and trust me, I’ve gotten close. I mean, no shit, bitch. All you do is call up the bakery in the next building and ask them to have assorted treats for 250 and give them the time and date. It ain’t brain surgery!
Yes, being an admin is full of all sorts of humiliations, like the time someone came over with their broken, un-repairable stapler, and tried to give it to me. Why, thank you! How did you know I have a collection of broken staplers at home! Tell you what, honey, you just throw it in this nice circular bin I have under my desk (notice I said you throw it away, not me, no, no, though I may be forced to order your pizza I will not throw away your garbage for you. I mean, DAMN) and I’ll treasure it forever and ever!
Yes, the daily life of an Overqualified Admin certainly has its big shares of humiliation, boredom, and nausea. What makes it worth it though? Well, honestly, nothing. What makes it semi-bearable so you don’t run out the window? Here’s a short list:
I think the worst of it was when I worked in the HQ of a large retail company that shall not be named (but trust me, you’ve probably been there at least once this week, meaning to run in for one item and coming out with $100 worth of stuff). I didn’t want to be an admin any longer when I took the job, but I figured “hey! It’s a huge company! I’ll just go in as admin and work my way up!” Poor, dear, misguided Patty.
You see, being an admin carries the stigma of having an IQ that isn’t quite in the double digits. Add to the fact that I worked on the Engineering team, and there you have it. I was officially stupid in their eyes. I also hated my job with a burning, undying passion, and made no qualms about hiding it. Sure, it wasn’t polite, but come on! On a regular basis, I would have men coming over to my desk outside our VP’s office and say things like “The 3rd stall in the men’s room is plugged. Do you plunge those?” To which I say “No, NO, @#$%^ NO!, you dirty nasty man, you!” Or having people contact me all the time to order their pizza for team lunches. Please people! You didn’t get to be a manager of a huge corporation’s Engineering team by being stupid! Pick up the freakin’ phone, tell the pizza company you want 10 large pizzas, and to have them there by noon tomorrow. Done and done. Remember here, I didn’t even work for these people; I worked for our Vice President, several rungs above these butt kissing middle managers. I also had a senior group manager who I was trying to butter up to potentially move to her team look around at a large 250 person meeting I arranged with all sorts of goodies like soda and treats and tell me “Patty, you’re so good at this!” I don’t think I have ever come so close to bitch slapping someone at work, and trust me, I’ve gotten close. I mean, no shit, bitch. All you do is call up the bakery in the next building and ask them to have assorted treats for 250 and give them the time and date. It ain’t brain surgery!
Yes, being an admin is full of all sorts of humiliations, like the time someone came over with their broken, un-repairable stapler, and tried to give it to me. Why, thank you! How did you know I have a collection of broken staplers at home! Tell you what, honey, you just throw it in this nice circular bin I have under my desk (notice I said you throw it away, not me, no, no, though I may be forced to order your pizza I will not throw away your garbage for you. I mean, DAMN) and I’ll treasure it forever and ever!
Yes, the daily life of an Overqualified Admin certainly has its big shares of humiliation, boredom, and nausea. What makes it worth it though? Well, honestly, nothing. What makes it semi-bearable so you don’t run out the window? Here’s a short list:
- All those fancy office supplies people like but work won’t supply them? Guess who had them. That’s right, baby, that’d be ME. Ordering supplies does have its advantage. Like the time I ordered my own little mini fridge to keep under my desk, compliments of Unnamed Retail Company
- Sitting in Starbucks every morning for 30+ minutes because you have nothing worth doing at your desk
- Being able to complete all your menial work in 5 hours every week so you can run out to Barnes and Noble whenever you need to and browse books for an hour.
- Middle managers look up to the VP so much that when they come by your desk, asking you to do something degrading like make copies for them, you don’t even have to lift your head from the computer screen where you have spent the last 2 hours looking up random information on Wikipedia to snap “Can’t do that right now. The VP gave me an urgent project. You’ll need to do it yourself.”
Good thing the VP really liked me or I would have been in a heap of trouble rather than promoted. Ahhh…it’s all in who you know, not what you do.
5 Fabulous Comments:
great post and too true!
So I'm assuming you've moved on to a job that more suits your qualifications. It's funny, because I've been in the secretarial field and either a) I could run circles around the managers who seemed "helpless" or b) several of us were looked down upon BECAUSE we were in a secretarial jobs because we chose to due to the hours, raising kids, etc., even though many of us had 4 year degrees. I think the bottom line is just taking pride in your job, and respecting others.
the last line is so true...our VP had the best admin when i worked in the biz world. i tried to stay on her good side, being in with the VPs admin helps when it comes to promotions too...
I was an Engineering type that went into technical sales(specialty metals). With only an Associate's Degree, and a few Certificates (SME, AMS, etc.) I had plenty of Bachelor Degree types asking me for tech answers from all over the country.. One time, I was sent to get a bunch of sandwiches for an in house meeting- I was pissed.. I drove around until all the food was stone cold, then went back to the meeting..
i enjoyed your post sooooo much, i just got to have you on my blog list so i wont miss a thing when you next post!
All you said.. TRUE TRUE and TRUE!!!
~Silver
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