Trusted in high places

By VIKKI BLAND


You're A high-powered executive and almost every minute of your 12-hour day is filled with appointments, roundtables, board meetings and phone calls. Problem is, tomorrow is your spouse's birthday, you need to move money to your teen's bank account for that loan you promised; you want to get to the gym before Christmas, and your shoes need repairing.

So you give a work colleague your Eftpos card, your Pin number, your online banking details and the name and contact details of each member in your family. Then you tell them to take care of it all for you.

You've lost the plot, right? Well, maybe. Every day, New Zealand business executives place exactly this level of trust in their personal assistants.

Personal, or executive, assistants commonly arrange the diaries, travel, meetings and schedules of their bosses. What's less well known is that many have access to the boss's wallet, credit cards, and electronic finances; know intimate details of their personal life, and understand the real status of a company as well as the background and future employment prospects of its employees.

It's heady stuff, this power of the PA. But is it to their heads the power goes?

It did for Joyti De-Laurey, personal assistant to the heads of London-based US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

In a well publicised scandal, De-Laurey managed to steal £4.5 million from her financially vague employers.

The fraud thrust the generally overlooked status of the PA into the spotlight and forced business executives everywhere to give at least a passing consideration to their reliance on these doyennes of professional assistance.

So what is the New Zealand PA like? Do home-grown PAs have powers to rival those of De-Laurey, and if so, what do they think of them?

Hope Halliday, executive assistant to three principals of recruitment firm Gaulter Russell, is as trusted today as De-Laurey once was. She knows how the company works, processes confidential employee files, handles the personal affairs of her bosses; and has their Pin numbers and online banking details.

For Halliday, PAs such as Joyti De-Laurey are abhorrent.

"That story makes my skin crawl. You have to be extremely confidential to be an executive assistant; even one breach of confidentiality would be hard to come back from."

Nicki Russell, executive assistant to Garth Biggs, CEO of information technology firm Gen-I; is similarly bothered.

"I have Garth's credit card details and when we read about [De-Laurey] he joked that I shouldn't bother because he didn't have that sort of money. But the serious side [of the story] is trust was broken. Being trusted to the extent an executive assistant is trusted is one of the things that make the job worthwhile."

Unsurprisingly, you need a certain mindset to be a PA. Self-sacrifice, a lack of interest in personal glory and a desire to support are described by those who feel they were born to the role.

The life of a PA can be isolated and disruptive. Russell avoids socialising with work colleagues in order to maintain discretion; Halliday has fielded calls from bosses at 2am.

To be a successful PA, it obviously helps to be caring, supportive and more than a little dedicated. And contrary to popular belief, it's not only male executives who appreciate such nurturing.

Chris Woodwiss has been a personal assistant to Telecom CEO Theresa Gattung for 10 years. Besides traditional tasks, she has been tasked with finding a cat minder and measuring the size of her boss' head.

"I need to know everything about Theresa in a business and personal sense to do my job well," she says.

Also on call 24/7, Woodwiss says being a PA at times curtails her private life; a choice she makes willingly.

She says the amount of discretion involved often goes unappreciated by those outside the industry.

"I don't talk to my husband about Theresa or what I know is happening in Telecom. When he also used to work here I found it was hard to know things he didn't."

Woodwiss is sometimes protective of her high-profile boss.

"I try not to tell people who I work for because then they want to know what she's like. Sometimes I wish [for her sake] that she could just walk down the street and not be recognised."

While good PAs will protect their charges, at times they may need protecting from them. A good sense of humour can go a long way for a PA with a boss who runs hot and cold, who doesn't cope well with pressure, or who is simply having a bad day.

Maree Galland, personal assistant to Greg Runnerstrum, marketing and strategy manager for Telecom Directories; was once given a "Calm in the Storm" award by internal colleagues. Among other things, she was congratulated for organising Runnerstrum, making him effective, and putting up with his "weird" sense of humour.

Galland gallantly describes the successful Runnerstrum as "dynamic and energetic" rather than weird and "not exactly the organisational genius" rather than ineffective; PAs are nothing if not loyal.

For some, the role can also be glamorous.

Fluent in French, Galland spent six years working in the OECD in Paris where she organised international conferences, supported country representatives, and prepared documents in dual languages.

However, she says the New Zealand business environment is more team-based.

"In the OECD there was a feeling of hierarchy; whereas [here] I am encouraged to get involved and really feel a part of a team."

Halliday says the role of the PA as glorified secretary has evolved into valued business team member.

"When I started out, PAs were the Dorises. They picked up the dry cleaning; they made cups of tea. Now there are HR components, marketing components. Today the role is whatever you make it."

However, PAs who retain old-fashioned touches may be appreciated the more for it.

"[Microsoft] Outlook is a beautiful thing, but it's still important to talk and develop a personal connection," says Halliday.

Woodwiss says there isn't a day she and Gattung don't laugh.

"It's a friendship; it has to be."

Russell says PA-wannabes should consider the type of industry they'd like to work in and then think about the kind of person they want to work for. If all that goes to plan, she says, PAs can have a spine too.

"I'm confident enough now to tell Garth he's told me the same joke at least 10 times."

THE POWERED UP PA


* Personal integrity

* Professional integrity

* Discretion

* A desire to support, rather than lead

* Advanced organising and prioritising skills

* Outstanding communication skills

* A calm demeanour

* Enthusiasm

* Perception: a little mind reading goes a long way

* Adaptability: no day and no boss is ever the same as the previous one

* A sense of humour

* A willingness to do the menial alongside the glamorous - sometimes within half an hour.

* Team building and customer facing skills

* Full computer literacy, and advanced skills in the Microsoft Office suite of applications

* DIY skills and a cool head for photocopier/printer/coffee machine failures

* An acceptance that if the boss goes, the PA might too