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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?

#111

Post by dQw4w9WgXcQ »

helsinki wrote: post #69
xydinesh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What sort of salary are you paying her? Interesting idea but a tough sell on handing someone the keys to my bills and personal life knowing it would be tough to recover if they go rogue.

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

#112

Post by krapp »

totony wrote: post #107
krapp wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Why not? Isn't that most jobs?

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.

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

#113

Post by version_five »

listenallyall wrote: post #108
jw1224 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My interpretation was that the person likes doing their work and wants to outsource distractions This is true. For additional context, I’m also a single man in his late 20s, with the blessing/curse of ADHD. Whilst I can throw myself into my work (and enjoy it very much), I have little interest/motivation to follow up all the other odds-and-ends in my life. That might mean something trivial, like keeping the kitchen…

I'm certainly no doctor or authorized to give any diagnosis, but not being interested in running errands like grocery shopping, or tasks like invoicing, is not related to, or a sign of, ADHD. I think most people, including myself, find those tasks boring and tedious and would rather do other things.

Nobody likes boring tasks but some people pathologically avoid them while simultaneously worrying about the fact they haven't done them.

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

#114

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#115

Post by mgraczyk »

FpUser wrote: post #101
mgraczyk wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is that the difference here that makes this socially acceptable is that there is a large reduction in total cost when the employee uses the office printer. If an employee uses a printer, the cost is the ink and paper. If the employee did it themselves, they would either need to take a special trip to a print shop or invest in a printer themselves. The total cost of the latter is much higher, maybe $5-$10 of t…

BS. Either is stealing and your attempt at rationalization does not make it something else. We just tolerate some things and level of tolerance varies greatly. There are bosses who would nail you to the wall should you take a pen with you and I also know bosses who would tolerate that $500 cake taken by PA.

I don't think it's as black and white, and I don't think the single dimension of "toleration" works to explain the complexity.

Consider napkins at a fast food restaurant. Nobody would say you're "stealing" if you take one napkin and use it to clean your hands after eating. On the other hand, most people would call it "stealing" or at least ethically wrong if you took all the napkins that were available, far more than what you need. In this case, there's more to our ethical intuition than just "stealing" vs "not stealing". Factors include how much you need the napkins, how much you deprive others of the napkins, whether or not the restaurant would be ok with your behavior, whether or not the behavior is a cultural norm, etc.

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

#116

Post by mikepurvis »

jimmyed wrote: post #88
88913527 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it takes great effort to bestow this institutional knowledge on the EA, is it buying you that much of your time back? You already know the algorithm for when free time can be most easily made. Just a matter of flipping through the calendar for a brief, few moments, versus the hours spent with the EA getting them up to speed on these nuances.

The calendar flips don't scale as well as the EA does. The holidays are just an example, there are a million similar things that the EA can do with the same training.

Yeah, the proactive part of it could become so much more than "it's been two months since you took a long weekend— I cleared your calendar so you can have next Friday off," it might also be "and here are 2-3 possible options for gifts for your spouse / activities to do with the kids that weekend / options for date night / birthday cards to send to Aunt Flo / etc etc"

I've never had someone be this role for me, but I definitely know I waste a lot of time during the day (both working and non-working) thinking/fretting/researching these kinds of things, and I could imagine it being a real boon to be able to fully set that all aside, knowing it was in good hands. Nothing is a silver bullet on being able to focus on the things we want to focus on, of course, but it would be one more set of excuses to remove.

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

#117

Post by abstract_put »

krapp wrote: post #109
tharkun__ wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It seems like you want one person to be willing and eager to fill the role several employees, including half of your own. Or a genie.

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.

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

#118

Post by listenallyall »

version_five wrote: post #113
listenallyall wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm certainly no doctor or authorized to give any diagnosis, but not being interested in running errands like grocery shopping, or tasks like invoicing, is not related to, or a sign of, ADHD. I think most people, including myself, find those tasks boring and tedious and would rather do other things.

Nobody likes boring tasks but some people pathologically avoid them while simultaneously worrying about the fact they haven't done them.

Some people --> tons of normal, non-ADHD people

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

#119

Post by xydinesh »

lief79 wrote: post #68
xydinesh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

True, I already have a cleaning service. They come every two weeks and clean the house. Honestly, I'm not satisfied with instacart and all the hidden fees they have/had (last time I used). What is interesting about an individual is they will learn your preferences and have more context in ones preferences as time goes.

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

#120

Post by denkmoon »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #96
renewiltord wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know who does this is very successful actually. And they have high retention.

This response feels strange to me.

You've made two posts negging this idea without providing any actual rationale whatsoever.
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