Source
r/ExecutiveAssistants•
spookycat78

Difficult Executive Assistant

In my company, there is a higher ranking assistant that is not a people leader in any way. Theresa is constantly stirring up drama. She has her executives favor though. She tells me to not spend money on lunch, dinner, gifts, any non run the business items, but she spends tens of thousands of dollars a month. No exaggeration. I follow the guidance. I buy no swag, minimal lunches, have been on zero dinners, outings, etc. with my team that I have supported for 1.5 years. This one Karen complains that I don’t buy the expensive brand coffee for my floor. I tell her that I am just following orders. Karen complains to Theresa, and Theresa puts a suggestion box on my floor. This just went down after I left today. What are my next steps for tomorrow? Confronting Theresa? Email Theresa’s boss to ask for proper guidance on spending? Ask my boss? Ask HR?

This is one on a thousand examples. I am so fed up!

Posted May 10, 2023, 12:12 AM UTC

63
hahahamii•

Talk to your boss. You don’t report to Theresa. If your boss doesn’t have a problem with your expenses, none of this matters.

9
thewitch2222•

I would start talking to your boss. Detail all the guidance you have been given on spending. If you have emails to back the guidance up, include it.

7
Technical_Stretch_96•

Is Theresa authorised to tell you how to spend budget? If not, I would ignore her and discuss directly with your exec. instead. If your exec. authorizes it, then you can go ahead and spend more money on your team.

If Theresa asks why you are spending money, you say you discussed with your boss and they authorized it.

I would be clear on who is the decision maker in this scenario: it seems it's the EA and their executive. In that case Theresa has no authority to make decisions for your team. I think it's good to question "orders" if they don't make sense and be clear on who decision makers are.

If Theresa is the decision maker, then you have to follow that. And Karen has to discuss directly with Theresa and not you (as you did not make this decision) Hope this helps! Let us know what you decide to do and how it turned out.

3