I've got through the first week!!!

So the stabilisers are off and I’ve done it – my first week as PA to the Directors all on my own!   

It’s been a fabulously … okay week. Jeremy and Kate have been very patient. They have high standards and I’m enjoying their demands: I love being kept on my toes and I certainly won’t be given much chance to slack here!  But it’s so strange being the newbie and I’ve found myself missing the comfy familiarity of my old work friends.  Particularly when I hit my two stomach-sinking issues this week and had no-one to go freak out to. Still, I suppose that’s not such a bad thing when I’m still trying to convince everyone here how wonderfully cool and professional I am.

My two stomach-sinking issues this week have actually turned out to be valuable lessons, although they were both pretty tough love:

1.      Lesson One: Always double-check every detail of every diary entry!

On Tuesday morning I sent Jeremy to an important meeting in completely the wrong part of London.  The company had moved and no-one had updated the contacts database so while I rang up and checked that the meeting was happening, I didn’t double-check the address.  Jeremy was completely fine and reasonable about it, but it felt like a terribly inept start.  As a result, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon checking that all the meeting locations and the meetings themselves were correct for the next few weeks, and updating the database when I found errors.

When I ask the Project Co-ordinator, Lena, when the database was last updated, I faced Lesson Two.

2.      Lesson Two: Not everyone will like you. 

It’s hard when you come from somewhere where you have good friends and colleagues who know, respect and trust you, to go into an environment where you are the stranger. Most people are open to strangers, but some people are wary.  I’m hoping that this is what the situation is with Lena because when I asked her about the database she actually snapped at me.  I’ve not had anyone snap at me at work before and while I didn’t react, it stung.  I’ll have to keep an eye on things next week. It’s tough but I guess this is what comes with being a manager.

Apart from that, the Shared Diary and I are on better terms. While I don’t think I’ll ever prefer this over individual diaries, I can see it makes some sense: everyone can see what everyone is doing so it minimises clashes.  However just now I noticed that someone had put a meeting in with Kate without checking with me first.

I’m sensing that some things are going to have to change round here …