Girlfriend at Work
Topic: Corporate Info
One of the most difficult things that women have to deal with in Corporate America is... men.

And the role of the assistant is a particularly dicey one.

Most people want an assistant to be their "friend." Most of the time, that's not appropriate, and will almost always lead to problems.

Everyone has different rules about how their personal relationships should go. For example, I'm not real uptight about people calling me back when I leave them a message. I just keep calling back, until I get them. Unfortunately, that means I'm also pretty relaxed about returning calls. And sometimes (on my home phone) I'm even relaxed about listening to my messages.

I'm sure this must make my friends and family crazy. In fact, just recently, my mother left messages with the building security where I live. "Tell her to call her mother, I haven't talked to her in much too long." (I'm sorry, Mom!)

Friendly happens much too quickly in most office environments. First, before we become friendly, let's establish a solid, respectful, professional relationship. After all, that's why we are in each other's lives. And professional courtesy is a great place for us to get to know each other's likes and dislikes, work methods and ethics, mood swings, etc. After all, we're both human. We probably will not get along famously everyday. But the relative safety and neutrality of a professional relationship is the right place to work out any rough spots between your style and mine.