Jersey_Girl_Rides
Member
That is about the only analogy I can make for it.
My job is very stressful. I am an Exec Asst. for a very, very busy Sr. VP for Research at my company, which deals with education services and policy issues. My boss is constantly criss-crossing the country giving presentations, closing business deals, and playing politics. He is usually in the office only a handful of days a month, and in that time I have to prepare dossiers, update his calendar, his blackberry, review his mail, his emails, his invitations, his appointments, get his signature on stacks of paperwork, pay bills and plan meetings. I really, really like my boss, and I respect and admire him very much. He knows what a strain managing his professional and personal activities is on a person and really appreciates me and everyone else on his staff.
The caveat is his research partner of 10 years and co-author of his many books and papers. She is demanding, hard-nosed, incredibly well-organized, intelligent, shrewd and very careful about playing politics - to the point where sometimes, things do not get done because she is so cautious about making sure things are said/done the right way and only to the appropriate people. I admire her too, for her work and her research. But she is personally impossible to deal with at work. She used to be my bosses Office Administrator while she was getting her PhD. Administration is a huge strongpoint for her; not for me. I DETEST administrative work but I am stuck with it for now while I am getting my change of career started. The tiniest thing that I do wrong is a huge issue; an email sent before she reviews it becomes the end of the world. Mail not immediately opened and addressed becomes the focal point of a rant about how I cannot stay on top of keeping my boss's schedule intact.
For example, the other night I placed the stack of mail I received that afternoon on my desk so I could open it the next day. She must have come by my desk at some point that night, because it was all opened and left for me. She took an invitation the boss received and answered it for him before I could even bring it to his attention, and she e-mailed me, the boss, and our office supervisor about it. She also noted that the boss's credit card bill was not paid - not true; I pay his bills online, and the online payment had not been credited to the paper statement. It was a big uproar over nothing. I had all the paperwork to back me up and prove the bill was paid, and she refused to admit she did anything wrong or to apologize. She just reiterated that I have to be more organized and responsible, because my boss's career depends on it.
Call me crazy, but I think she is secretly in love with him, and she is jealous of my position as his assistant, and that I have more knowledge of his whereabouts, his schedule, his personal appointments with his family, and his professional relationships, than she currently does. His research focus has broadened into areas that she does not focus on, so she has lost touch with some of his activities. In other ways, she knows more about him than I do, and uses that as leverage to point out my shortcomings in managing his time and his assignments.
So it feels like being caught in a love triangle. It is very uncomfortable. At least she is not in a position to push me out of an airplane with a faulty parachute...
My job is very stressful. I am an Exec Asst. for a very, very busy Sr. VP for Research at my company, which deals with education services and policy issues. My boss is constantly criss-crossing the country giving presentations, closing business deals, and playing politics. He is usually in the office only a handful of days a month, and in that time I have to prepare dossiers, update his calendar, his blackberry, review his mail, his emails, his invitations, his appointments, get his signature on stacks of paperwork, pay bills and plan meetings. I really, really like my boss, and I respect and admire him very much. He knows what a strain managing his professional and personal activities is on a person and really appreciates me and everyone else on his staff.
The caveat is his research partner of 10 years and co-author of his many books and papers. She is demanding, hard-nosed, incredibly well-organized, intelligent, shrewd and very careful about playing politics - to the point where sometimes, things do not get done because she is so cautious about making sure things are said/done the right way and only to the appropriate people. I admire her too, for her work and her research. But she is personally impossible to deal with at work. She used to be my bosses Office Administrator while she was getting her PhD. Administration is a huge strongpoint for her; not for me. I DETEST administrative work but I am stuck with it for now while I am getting my change of career started. The tiniest thing that I do wrong is a huge issue; an email sent before she reviews it becomes the end of the world. Mail not immediately opened and addressed becomes the focal point of a rant about how I cannot stay on top of keeping my boss's schedule intact.
For example, the other night I placed the stack of mail I received that afternoon on my desk so I could open it the next day. She must have come by my desk at some point that night, because it was all opened and left for me. She took an invitation the boss received and answered it for him before I could even bring it to his attention, and she e-mailed me, the boss, and our office supervisor about it. She also noted that the boss's credit card bill was not paid - not true; I pay his bills online, and the online payment had not been credited to the paper statement. It was a big uproar over nothing. I had all the paperwork to back me up and prove the bill was paid, and she refused to admit she did anything wrong or to apologize. She just reiterated that I have to be more organized and responsible, because my boss's career depends on it.
Call me crazy, but I think she is secretly in love with him, and she is jealous of my position as his assistant, and that I have more knowledge of his whereabouts, his schedule, his personal appointments with his family, and his professional relationships, than she currently does. His research focus has broadened into areas that she does not focus on, so she has lost touch with some of his activities. In other ways, she knows more about him than I do, and uses that as leverage to point out my shortcomings in managing his time and his assignments.
So it feels like being caught in a love triangle. It is very uncomfortable. At least she is not in a position to push me out of an airplane with a faulty parachute...