Here’s a great “war story” about an admin saving the day. I have a friend “Kristie” who works for a large company as an administrative assistant.  She helps about 5 executives of the company, so she’s quite busy; but she is very organized and does an amazing job for her bosses.

She works remotely, since 99% of what her bosses need is things like help with travel schedules, transcribing and editing documents, planning meetings, and that sort of thing–all work that can be done remotely.

But there’s that 1% of the work that would qualify as “in person” work–things like local errands–things that would be a lot easier to do in person.

So, recently, one of her bosses asked her to make all of the arrangements for a seminar that they were hosting. That’s usually pretty easy – book the room, book the speakers, send out the invitations, arrange the catering company, and so on.

But then, a day before the event, her boss requested that bottled water be available for the participants.

This was a last minute request, and the best option Kristie had was to buy the water locally and ship it to the meeting site via FedEx overnight!  Shipping that case of bottled water cost $90!

But guess what?  The water got there, the seminar was amazing, her boss was thrilled, and Kristie was praised for doing such a good job.

What’s the lesson here?  Administrative assistants get the job done.  They solve problems, they take on a tough assignment, figure out the logistics, and get it done.

That’s the beauty of having an assistant that can take on that kind of responsibility, and relieve you of worrying about detail.

There’s a good follow up to the story, too.  For the next seminar that one of her bosses planned, she knew ahead of time that bottled water would be needed, so she ordered it on Amazon and had it shipped to the meeting site.  Total cost?  $18.00