Maybe thats the 'executive' part of 'executive assistant'? They are taking action based on a abstract goal rather than a concrete wish. At least, that is my interpretation!
If you think about it, this feels like the assistant version of a good developer. From a good senior developer I expect initiative. I expect them to have a high level view of the system while still working on the 'in the weeds' stuff. They proactively create a ticket for later to do that refactoring they think is really needed but we don't have time for right now and they ninja it in on Friday afternoon because they were done early with the work on the feature. Did I have to say anything about that? Nope! They just did it and I give them positive feedback about it when I notice it on Monday.
I get that you want to down vote this, no worries there.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment though. I work with many such individuals and it's exactly how I got where I am today. By being one of those guys that care. I love working with these guys. It's a pleasure to do so. I really love that I'm at a company right now where we have a lot of these kinds of individuals working together.
Yes I have a label of "manager" on my forehead. All that means is that I have to do some stuff most guys would rather not deal with and that's fine. It means I code less. That's fine. I enjoy the mix. They code more and I enjoy seeing them make decisions by themselves, create tasks to make visible what they are doing and why, so that I can defend them against upper management easily. I can shield them and I do so with pleasure.
On the other hand there are developers that I need to basically do the work for. What's the point of doing 80% of the work myself and then transferring over to them to spend 80% of the time for a task to do 20% of the work? At that point I'd rather not have that person on the team and do the work myself.
And to tie this back to the exec assistant topic: if the CEO has to do 80% of the work, what's the point of the executive assistant?
A personal friend is this form of executive assistant. I think that's effectively exactly what they signed up for - a very wealthy couple pays them to do whatever needs to be done. Delegating everything explicitly seems like it would significantly reduce the value of an assistant.
My understanding is once the trust is built in these kind of roles, the assistant is a professional/personal boundary crossing extension of the employer and is prized for their ability to resolve concerns without those concerns having to surface. Agreed that it can be a demanding, temperamental, unpredictable job.
There are a lot of people in this thread who seem outraged because someone is expected to have skills they don't have. I personally know both people who are, and people who have, this type of help.
There are people in this world who are very good at empathizing and very good at organizing, and those people can make a ton of money as what used to be known as being a majordomo.
This is definitely a weird thread in that regard. Maybe people aren't appreciating how many people will do all sorts of things for money? The more outrageous requirements require a more trusting relationship between employer and employee, certainly, and a skilled EA (or majordomo, it seems) is hugely valuable.
My EA-style friend is in a major US city right now supervising the construction of a house - that absolutely wasn't in their employment contract, is not something they have experience in, but it's something their employer wanted. It's hard to get too up in arms when the position is well paid, exciting, and voluntary.
People that think like that are setting themselves up to be a lifelong loser.
Paying an EA is no different than paying McDonald’s to cook for you. Outsourcing things you can afford to is how we have a productive society.
If someone can make $800k a year pouring their life into their job and delivering tons of value for customers, that’s great. They should do that even if they spend $100k on an EA.
I’d take 50 highly productive people over 50 clock punchers any day. Demonizing them is just tall poppy syndrome.
That’s the bog standard description of senior software engineers at any top tier companies. You get paid a shitload of money because you’re not just parsing requirements in the bare minimum and building the wrong thing. That’s what outsourcing companies are for.
No, the 'executive' part of 'executive assistant' refers to the assistant typically working for an executive, or performing more advanced executive duties as opposed to an administrative assistant, whose role may be more general across a company. No one's livelihood should depend on having to read the room like a geisha.
>No one's livelihood should depend on having to read the room like a geisha.
Why not? Isn't that most jobs?
Seems to me a lot of jobs require you to "read the room" in one way or another. If some work doesn't need that, then a machine should just do it since that's what human excel at.
Imagine asking a software engineer why they shipped code so slow it made a system unusable when “don’t slow the software down 1000x” wasn’t explicitly in the requirements.
This is exactly the same thing. Assistants are there to help people and to know what to do with high level directives.
“I want to take a stay at home vacation next week” should not require explicit instructions to reschedule everything and notify people…
Maybe some people are flexible and just like to have a random day off every once in a while and don't care so much exactly if it's a certain day or not
Why would they do that in this scenario? There is a world of difference between trusting someone to clear your schedule and tell you that you are taking a day off, and silently expecting them to do that on a specific day.
No. In most jobs, employees know specifically what their employers' requirements are, they have specific tasks and itineraries and boundaries. "Know what I want before I want it" isn't an appropriate expectation to have of any assistant.
At a certain price point, it certainly is an appropriate expectation.
Even at my job, where all my work is laid out for me in the form of Jira tickets, fulfilling unsaid (or unknown) desires is hugely beneficial for my team, company, and career. Sure, I’m technically paid to solve problems, but really I’m paid for the ability to think creatively and execute autonomously.
I certainly would expect, for example, a senior or staff engineer to have far more autonomy in setting the requirements, specific tasks, and boundaries. Being able to predict the technical needs of the company before they are needed is a big part of those roles.
Most jobs like you described are super low paid. The more agency you're supposed to use in your job to take decisions, generally the higher paid you'll be. It's like you want everyone to be a drone or else they're being exploited.
