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Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

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Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#61

Post by sillysaurusx »

Kranar wrote: post #57
sillysaurusx wrote: post #7

If you need a personal assistant for your day to day life due to how much you're working, consider the idea that perhaps you're working too much. CEO or not, no one needs to let their work consume their life. It's your job to set an example for the rest of the team. Others might see how much you're working and assume that they need to, too. I've seen it happen a few times. EDIT: Sorry, I failed to mention, my comment…

>If you need a personal assistant for your day to day life due to how much you're working, consider the idea that perhaps you're working too much. Isn't that exactly the point? That OP did consider that they're working too much and are looking to delegate some of that work to someone else.

You're right, I phrased that poorly. I added an edit to clarify. My mistake.

What got to me was the idea that people want a personal assistant to run their lives, rather than their business. That seemed like a red flag, but it sounds like a lot of people disagree.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#62

Post by errantspark »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #51
londons_explore wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet expensing $470 for a custom cake for an important client who's birthday party you have to miss because you're heading up the shareholder meeting may be money very well spent. As long as most of the $470's are well spent, and total value for money is better than someone else could achieve, I don't actually mind who's boyfriend gets a fancy cake. But I do need to have confidence that I'm seeing enough of the pi…

WTF? I would absolutely NOT be OK with blatant, unambiguous theft from my PA.

I think most people assume it's okay to for example, use the office printer to print a return slip for a package you're going to mail back on your lunch break.

If the volume for your line of work is tens of thousands of pages, maybe printing 470 return slips is just y'know, fine, gets lost in the noise and makes everyone's life easier to just let it happen.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#63

Post by newsclues »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #17
sulam wrote: post #8

I’ve had an EA for three years dedicated to me (before that in my career it was always shared). They are definitely a super power, but only if you trust them. They really have to have a lot of context to do things you’d normally be doing. Without that trust you aren’t going to be getting the full potential out of the role. I’ll give one example. My EA is aware that I have a desire to take some time off through the re…

That's interesting. Are you saying that instead of telling her "I want to take next Friday off," she tells you "I cleared your schedule for next Friday so you can take off?"

She doesn’t schedule things on Fridays and if it were required for something important she would communicate it to you.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#65

Post by helsinki »

walrus01 wrote: post #40
1123581321 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I think you just misread, then. They seem to have realized what the arrangement looks like after the fact.

this is why I said "unconsciously", I'm asking them to reflect on whether or not they would have hired an equally-or-better qualified male for the same duties. or whether they went straight to "i'm gonna hire a housewife" without thinking about it as a specific choice. if by some chance the original poster here is not a dude, it's a whole lot less sketchy in my opinion.

Ah, I figured the housewife comment would wreak some havoc, but I can’t really think of a better way to describe. There is no emotional or romantic attachment. If anything, it is friendly, at best. Nothing to really read between the lines on this. It’s a transactional, platonic relationship.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#66

Post by Teever »

londons_explore wrote: post #30
randycupertino wrote: post #11

Oversight is extremely important for a PA. We had one at one of my old firms charging 10k of personal charges to her boss' cards and then just approving it herself because she did the invoicing and his approvals. If I recall, she billed a $470 custom tiered birthday cake for her boyfriend to the card and also had her Equinox membership on it. EAs are safer ground and less risk but with PAs they can become too entrenc…

And yet expensing $470 for a custom cake for an important client who's birthday party you have to miss because you're heading up the shareholder meeting may be money very well spent. As long as most of the $470's are well spent, and total value for money is better than someone else could achieve, I don't actually mind who's boyfriend gets a fancy cake. But I do need to have confidence that I'm seeing enough of the pi…

This kind of analysis may make sense with an employee who handles cash like a bartender or a waitress but I'd think twice about applying it to a trusted position like personal assistant.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#67

Post by helsinki »

1123581321 wrote: post #37
walrus01 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying this person seems to have specifically chosen a person for the duties of what they described as a 1950s housewife, which is rather suspicious in my opinion.

Ah, I think you just misread, then. They seem to have realized what the arrangement looks like after the fact.

Correct.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#68

Post by lief79 »

xydinesh wrote: post #52
helsinki wrote: post #4

I found my personal assistant on Craigslist. Very happy I found her. I put up a simple posting, ‘computer programmer seeking personal assistant’. Turns out she was tired of being an au pair and decided this would be a better fit. It’s really life changing. I highly recommend it. She pays my bills, responds to emails, cleans up the apartment, walks my dog, manages grocery shopping and occasionally cooks, etc. It’s not…

This is really interesting. I wish if I can hire someone to clean my house and do grocery shopping for me. If you don't mind me asking, how many hours/per week she works for you?

Housecleaning is a very common stand alone service, and grocery shopping/delivery is fairly easy now too.

Do you really want an individual, or just a service?

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#69

Post by helsinki »

xydinesh wrote: post #52
helsinki wrote: post #4

I found my personal assistant on Craigslist. Very happy I found her. I put up a simple posting, ‘computer programmer seeking personal assistant’. Turns out she was tired of being an au pair and decided this would be a better fit. It’s really life changing. I highly recommend it. She pays my bills, responds to emails, cleans up the apartment, walks my dog, manages grocery shopping and occasionally cooks, etc. It’s not…

This is really interesting. I wish if I can hire someone to clean my house and do grocery shopping for me. If you don't mind me asking, how many hours/per week she works for you?

It varies based on her schedule. We aim for 25-30 hours per week. There is a lot of downtime on her end, which I am fine with.

Re: Ask HN: I’d like to hire a personal/executive assistant – any tips or advice?

#70

Post by lyt »

Disclaimer- Wife works as a consultant for them [0]

I would recommend you consider platforms that do all the hunting, vetting and training for you. This gives you some liability protection as well as saves you the hassle of looking and interviewing multiple people.

The platform I have in mind does all that, and has a pay as you go model, dealing with US based VAs.

The costs are in line with what others recommend, starting at 30$/hour. They only hire VAs who have more than 3 years of experience being an EA/PA so it should fit the bill. Plus you can always change or get more VAs as you need, depending on the skill set required for that task.

From what I know, most of the clients are CEOs who want much of their non essential chores (calendar management, email management, personal shopping etc) taken care of. And once you train one VA, they document it and you don’t have to train new ones anymore.

[0] https://www.hibyron.com

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