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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?

#191

Post by kortilla »

neoncontrails wrote: post #177
yc-kraln wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find calendly depersonalizing and extremely insulting. I.e. the shift of power when someone says "Hey, let's find a time to chat" and the answer is "Here is my calendly link, good luck". I usually break off the conversation there.

You're the second person I've heard say this lately. To me, using Calendly feels like demurring to the reality that you have times that work for you, these are the times that work for me, my respect for you is so strong: pick any one of them, and I'll be there. If anything, the posturing seems submissive.

Nope, because if you are a heavy calendar user there are tons of things that could be trivially shuffled. A calendly link is “I will fit you in only if it’s extremely convenient for me”.

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

#192

Post by krageon »

Krisando wrote: post #187
krageon wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a reality your employees will steal from you at some point, unless you pay them truly astronomical amounts (and even then...) When you have just one, perhaps you will get lucky. With multiple it is a matter of time.

I've spent more than half of my life working, I've never stolen from my employer and I don't recieve "truly astronomical amounts" in pay.

I literally just said "if you have just one, you might get lucky". With that, I was trying to prevent exactly these responses - if you run a company with a reasonable amount of employees and any kind of inventory (or those employees work for you in/around your house, where your stuff is the inventory), some of it will disappear.

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

#193

Post by Cthulhu_ »

wodenokoto wrote: post #171
piaste wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you find it counterintuitive? "Pay them well to encourage them to stick around" seems intuitive to me.

Most people’s gut reaction is probably to hire someone under intern like conditions. Ie a young candidate whose main motivation is getting something on their resume and therefore will suck up to you and go the extra mile. OP recommends the opposite: someone who doesn’t go the extra mile, but will be stable and reliable for a very long time.

Think about it. People going the extra mile do it because they want to go beyond what they do. They risk burn-out - in which case they can't do their job anymore - or they move on - in which case you lose an employee and have to find another one.

"Intern-like conditions" has an undertone of exploitation to it; nobody should be exploited.

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

#194

Post by kortilla »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #183
koliber wrote: post #170

This 2 hour video from David Perell is a phenomenal explanation of all the things you ask about. It talks about hiring, onboarding, and working with a personal assistant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ug9fey6GhE

Curious to why this is "unlisted", and in fact it has only a bit more than a thousand views.

Because it’s really popular to hate people with money right now. “How to hire a personal assistant” is a problem only people with money have.

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

#195

Post by kortilla »

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.

> I'm asking them to reflect

Give how absolutely little you know about this situation, that was completely out of line and asinine. You jumped to a conclusion to polish a hobby horse, completely derailed the conversation, and got downvoted for it.

I’m asking you to reflect on how condescending and presumptuous your original comment was.

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

#196

Post by kortilla »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #61
Kranar wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Because you consider some things to be part of your “personal life” that many people don’t want to be part of their life at all.

I love butter but I don’t want to churn it. So I just buy it from the store. Is that paying the store to run my life?

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

#197

Post by onion2k »

jwr wrote: post #167
rewgs wrote: post #138

Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood, land of personal assistants. One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful ra…

Ah, based on my experiences with assistants, that is exactly the problem. You either get someone who is under-qualified and does not fulfill expectations, or someone who is great, but wants to pursue a career. It is extremely difficult to find a "stable" assistant.

but wants to pursue a career

Being an executive assistant is a career.

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

#198

Post by termy »

onion2k wrote: post #165
rewgs wrote: post #138

Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood, land of personal assistants. One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful ra…

Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood The diverse nature of HN readership never ceases to amaze me. That's really cool.

Talking with IRL can lead to meeting cool people as well;)

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

#199

Post by randycupertino »

pyuser583 wrote: post #143
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…

I did not know there was a “fraud triangle.” Interesting.

It's an accounting term, I think I first heard about it in a white-collar crime book. https://www.brumellgroup.com/news/the-fraud-triangle-theory/

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

#200

Post by onion2k »

termy wrote: post #198
onion2k wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood The diverse nature of HN readership never ceases to amaze me. That's really cool.

Talking with IRL can lead to meeting cool people as well;)

This sounds like a trap.
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