By Priscilla Bouwer
In business or personal contexts, we as the Office Professionals are the people who provide services that relieve his or her employer from tasks that are associated with managing one’s personal and/or business life. We assist with a variety of life management tasks, including running errands, arranging travel (e.g., travel agent services such as purchasing airline tickets, reserving hotel rooms and rental cars, and arranging activities, as well as handling more localized services such as recommending a different route to work based on road or travel conditions), finance (paying bills, buying and selling stocks), shopping
(meal planning, remembering special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries and purchasing gifts) and fitness (exercise monitoring and motivation, as a personal trainer may do).
We ‘The Office professional’ are required to do any task that our Exco Member or Manager requires whether personal or professional. We are sometimes required to work long hours to deliver their daily duties or if there is a late meeting, to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Office Professionals (PAs) often act as the Manager's first point of contact with people from both inside and outside the organisation. Here are only a few of many critical tasks that we are faced with each business day:
- devising and maintaining office organizing and attending meetings and ensuring the manager is well prepared for meetings;
- systems, including data management and filing
- arranging travel, visas and accommodation and, occasionally, travelling with the manager to take notes or dictation at meetings or to provide general assistance during presentations
- screening phone calls, inquiries and requests, and handling them when appropriate
- meeting and greeting visitors of all levels of seniority
- organising and maintaining diaries and making appointments
- dealing with incoming email, faxes and post, often corresponding on behalf of the manager
- taking dictation and minutes
- carrying out background research and presenting findings
- producing documents, briefing papers, reports and presentations;
- organizing and attending meetings and ensuring the manager is well prepared for meetings;
- liaising with clients, suppliers and other staff.
In addition to supporting our Exco Member / Manager, their team and departments, many Office Professionals also have our own personal workload and responsibilities. The scope of our role can be extensive and additional duties may include:
- carrying out specific projects and research
- responsibility for accounts and budgets
- taking on some of the manager's responsibilities and working more closely with management
- deputizing for the manager, making decisions and delegating work to others in the manager’s absence;
- being involved in decision making processes