Administrative Professionals Day is Upon Us

Bosses Everywhere Listen Up: Be Good to Your Assistants!

The month of April not only brings us rain showers, Easter bunnies, pastels and everything Spring but it also marks another Hallmark card holiday; Administrative Professionals Day. For anyone who works in the white collar world as an assistant to any type of professional, be it accountants, attorneys and business executives, Admin Pro Day is supposed to be a day of recognition for a job well done. Some assistants get luncheons, while others get flowers, chocolates and gift certificates. All of these things are a nice gesture of the boss's appreciation for doing a fantastic job throughout the year. However, there is a number of administrative assistants who are often overlooked by their respective busy, self-important boss who probably view this day as any other day, including their kid's birthday, wedding anniversary or Mother's Day.

You know that A-type boss as seen in movies and television. The overpaid, too-busy-to-know-what-day-it-is unless my BlackBerry tells me professional whatever. He or she takes for granted that their assistant is their second pair of eyes, the savior of their collective ass when there is a time crunch and a shoulder to cry on when the politics of the business get to be too much, making the assistant not only their personal shrink, but perhaps their only friend. This is the same type of white collar professional who desperately need their assistant for every little detail in their sleep deprived day-to-day lives. They search high and low if their assistant is away from his/her desk, possibly going as far as sending someone in the restroom to see if they are in there. God help that assistant if she or he ever take a sick day! It's good to know that one's worth is highly valued, but not even an infant is this demanding. And being a stay-at-home parent would be much more rewarding in the end. So this simply begs the question of where is the incentive for this type of under-appreciated professional administrative assistant? When, if ever, do they get their day of recognition if not on Administrative Professionals Day?