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Comment by unknownzero | Hacker News Reader

Totally anecdotal but everyone I know at the VP level and above would be largely nonfunctional without their admin assistants. You can make a lot of noise about technology replacing this job but I just don't see it until that technology is some sort of super advanced AI capable of being talked to like a human and working 100% of the time. Otherwise it's pretty much impossible to beat a highly competent person to delegate to that knows your schedule/preferences very well. That person could very well use more advanced software to help them in those tasks, but won't be replaced by it.

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My wife is a pseudo executive assistant and I have to agree 100% with your comment. In fact I'm not even sure besides making decisions what the executive does as my wife writes everything for him including his speeches. As an owner of a tech company its so irritating to see some one with my wife's work ethic and capabilities be stereotyped, marginalized and taken advantage of in an industry that is still pretty much a white ole man club.

The executive has blocked my wife from getting promoted because of his dependency on her. Oh she could leave but she is not in the tech industry so its not like jobs are all over the place.

The worse part is that her taking the role many years ago was in large part my faulty recommendation as I thought being closer to the money would allow for greater compensation (which it did but was not worth it).

I have a friend who is an EA and has worked for many of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. She makes well over 6 figures and she loves her position. Her employers value her greatly, so she was able to command very good compensation packages including stock options, etc.

Yes the problem is my wife is not in silicon valley and although she makes plenty of money (6 figures or so) she is tired of not having a more important role. She has effectively been type-casted.

She is important, otherwise the executive wouldn't keep her even by blocking her from promotion. Six figure salary is very decent. I suggest she ask for a pay rise, if she isn't happy, but she is important.

I always found this somewhat amusing, encountering it enough.

Email to someone. Suggest meeting.

Someone's email, CC you: assistant, schedule this.

Email to assistant. Let me see when X is free (cc you, person).

Person's reply to everyone, you and assistant: tell so and so, let's do X at 2pm.

Assistant's email (cc you, the person you were talking to): we'll do X at 2pm.

I think somewhat the same about why travel agents are dying out, having to tell them exactly what flights you prefer and where, and how to not screw up your layover (and be able to easily reschedule when they are not around), it's usually far faster to just do it yourself.

That's just the sign of a bad assistant, not a problem with the role itself. Competent assistants have full knowledge of their boss's schedule and will make the appointment without their involvement.

Sure, they have access to the schedule, but seldom does someone want their calendar being filled up and someone else deciding what their priorities are.

So it ends up being more about having a status symbol.

A good relationship includes a huge amount of trust, including that your assistant understands your priorities and can do some decisions autonomously. That's what you get from paying a full-time assistant instead of a simple AI.

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