Inspiring Excellence in
Administrative Professionals

Since 1990

800-STAR-139
(800-782-7139)

Select the search type
 
  • Site
  • Web
Search
Underneath It All by Joan Burge
10% of all
proceeds goes to
Pancreatic Cancer Research

 

Assistant Edge

Joan Burge's Administrative Blog

Executive Assistants Beware of Being Too Busy

Posted by: Joan Burge on 11/10/2009

Did you read about the recent PepsiCo debacle? It was a big story in the news last week. Here is an excerpt from finance.yahoo.com.

“In court papers, PepsiCo claims it first received a legal document related to the case from the North Carolina agent on Sept 15 when a copy of the co-defendant’s letter was forwarded to Deputy General Counsel Tom Tamoney in PepsiCo’s law department. Tamoney’s secretary, Kathy Henry, put the letter aside and didn’t tell anyone about it because she was “so busy preparing for a board meeting.” PepsiCo said in its Oct 13 motion to vacate.” You might want to read the entire story.

The price to PepsiCo for not being in Court: $1.26 billion.

Who says that paperwork or filing is not important? Executive assistants and administrative assistants are responsible for being an information flow manager. Don’t ever take this task lightly and don’t ever be too busy to handle something that is truly important. If you are not certain of the importance of something, then be sure to ask the appropriate person.

Create a trackback from your own site.

5 Comments

    • Nov 10 2009, 2:45 PM Newbie
    • When I first read this story I believe it was a week or two ago on yahoo, my first impression was "okay, now someone wants to blame the "secretary." I have to admit that I was offended that she was called a "secretary." Then I decided to read the story to see what we have done now. To my dismay, when I read the article in its entirety, I thought, now, no EA is that careless and I couldn’t wrap my head around what Ms. Henry had done. Even at the end of the work day when you are planning for the next day hopefully you would look at the mail. All I can say is "lesson learned."
    • Nov 10 2009, 9:56 PM Lila Kalish
    • THis story highlights a fear of mine that I will miss something, no matter how careful I am, and it reinforces my practice of scanning in the mail and immediately emailing it to my boss and if appropriate, to the client.
    • Nov 11 2009, 8:53 AM TracyH
    • Wow, thank you for sharing this article. I had not seen it and it is a big wake-up call. Everyone has forgotten something at some point; however, it is not usually $1.26 billion worth of forgetfulness. This is an extreme case. Although we are quick to judge the secretary, what we do not know is her work personality, her supervisor, her health, how the document arrived - although not excuses, but something to think about to put this into perspective. Is she a hoarder, did she have help, crazy office atmosphere, was her boss a workaholic and driving her to do more with less, or one that isn’t hands on, was she not feeling well, did she file the lawsuit in a file with something else she was working on and misplace it? Did the document come by certified mail or did a Sheriff deliver it? I know when we are served here, a sheriff brings the documents and a supervisor must sign for the documents – did the supervisor sign and then lay them on her desk without her being aware the minute it was received? My boss is now over two facilities so I am doubled up on the work and she is often not on my campus. I am making more split second decisions and hoping I am not making a $1.26 billion dollar mistake somewhere. I was recently out of the office for a week with the flu and although I am healthy enough to be back to work, my cough and sinuses are driving me crazy and making me a little foggy. I will take a little more time in my work and make sure I am handling everything appropriately. I feel really bad for this secretary and hope she makes it through this unfortunate situation and learns from present and past mistakes.
    • Nov 23 2009, 11:45 AM Heather Holler
    • When I saw the article on this case, I immediately forwarded it to the other executive assistants at our company as a reminder that so much of what we do is critical to the company's success. Ironically, we were all preparing for our board meeting at the time!
    • Dec 14 2009, 7:38 AM Cathy
    • I have the same responsibilities in my job - working for the Board and preparing for their meetings - and it can be extremely chaotic depending on the agenda and time of year (everything is cyclical, but with a twist). Good organizational skills and rules of operation are the things that help me keep my sanity (and my job). One rule I try to follow is to do handle everything that comes across my desk NOW, because I never know when I will be able to return to it, one phone call or email can turn my meeting prep upside-down. Another thing to consider in the PepsiCo case is how long this admin had been doing the job before the incident. This is a job that takes a good amount of time to learn due to the unrelenting amount of details and logistics involved; it can easily overwhelm the faint of heart and inexperienced. It was a high price to pay for an oversight, but in the legal world, that's how it goes. Those of us who work for corporate secretaries and in legal departments can attest to that fact.
Leave A Comment



CAPTCHA image
Please enter the CAPTCHA phrase above.



  
Privacy Policy
Copyright 2005 | Office Dynamics 5575 South Durango Dr. Suite 106 Las Vegas, NV 89113

Built and Powered by WSI