List of Stupid Things Said To or Asked Of Admins:

Whoever thinks that Admin work is “easy” has never performed that type of work.  IMHO Admins run the world’s businesses. If all admins stayed at home on the same day, the business world would shut down. Unless they are related to someone in the company (or kiss a lot of butt), most Admins work the hardest out of everyone in the office yet they receive the least amount of respect AND pay. Most Admin positions require a 2/4 year degree or substantial college work and/or experience. Yet they get talked down to and treated like they are stupid when most of them know more than the people they support.

List of Stupid Things Said To or Asked Of Admins:

1. Caller: May I speak to XYZ?

Admin: “He’s on a call right now may I take a message”.

Caller: Well do you know how long he’s going to be?

DUH!!! Who tells someone how long their phone calls are going to last?!?

2. Person: Can you see if someone has Conf. Room A scheduled for a meeting? I have it booked for 11AM but someone is in there.

Admin: Someone has it scheduled from 10 – 11 AM. The time is now 10:45A.M.

3. Person: (As they have walked by 2 copiers) Can you make a (meaning 1) copy of this for me?

4. Person (The time is now 9:30AM): Oh there you are, what time do you get in?

Admin: 8:30AM

Person: I have been looking for you since 8:40, I need your help sending a fax.

Admin: Oh I was in a meeting. What do you need?

Person: What’s the fax number?

Admin: (Hands him the number)

Person: Do you have to dial 9 to get out?

Admin (Thinking to his or herself): “You just wasted almost an hour of your time when there are detailed instructions on the fax machine on how to send a fax including what to dial and the fax number.”

Admin (Speaking): Yes, you also have to dial 1 if it is a long distance number.

Person: Ok. Thanks

5. Person (Has called or emailed the Admin): Can you email Mike and tell him that I need the XYZ report at 10 instead of 11?

Now there are 20 men with the name Mike in the company. Not to mention in the time that they took to email or call the admin, the email could have been sent 10 times.

6. Person: Do you have Pledge Wipes?

Admin (Thinking to his or herself): Why would I have Pledge Wipes? Only the Executive Offices have real wood furniture. I sit at a fabricated wood desk AND I am not on the cleaning crew.

Admin (Speaking): No, but I can get some if you need them.

Person: Ok, thanks.

7. Person: So how do you like your job?

Admin (Thinking to his or herself): “How would you like it if you were constantly interrupted, talked down to, or ignored? The title is misleading (all Admins are not called Admins). When I took this job, I was told that it was entry level to the field that I wanted to do. Next thing I know I am making copies, making travel arrangements, etc. Do you think I really went to college to be an Admin? I am qualified to do your job you incompetent schmuck. Truth be told, I DO your job while you take 2 hours lunches and can’t spell better than a 5th grader.”

Admin (Speaking): It’s fine.

8. Person: What do you do during the day? It doesn’t seem like that much.

Admin (Speaking): Actually my task list is quite lengthy. I will email it to you.

Person (After reviewing the list): Oh, you do all of this?

Admin (Thinking to his or herself): Yeah numb nuts! You are my boss; aren’t you supposed to know that? I am so glad that I track every task and request!

Admin (Speaking):Yes

9. Person: I need this by 9:00AM tomorrow morning. You don’t have to do it tonight though.

Admin (Thinking to his or herself): It is 4:55 PM. According to this you’ve had this since 10 AM this morning.

Admin (Speaking): Actually I do but I will go ahead and take care of it as I doubt that I have time in the morning as I always hit the ground running.

10. Person: Smile! Why are you looking so sad/serious?

Admin (Thinking to his or herself):

I had my performance review yesterday, scoring Exceeds Expectations on everything, and received a 1.3% raise. The CEO received a 6 million dollar bonus.

Asked about career advancement and was brushed off.

Over the course of the day, I was interrupted because:

Someone asked me to make coffee (I don’t drink coffee).

Someone complained about the coffee that I made.

Someone locked them self out of their office

Someone needed 50 double sided copies for a meeting that started in 5 mins. (the color copier is upstairs)

Someone complained that I was not at my desk during the time that I was making copies.

The boss asked me to get her daughter’s (she also works for the company) work cell phone activated because she can’t do it as they are on their way to lunch.

Someone complained that I was not at my desk during the time that I was getting the cell phone activated.

The boss called me in to her office to tell me that I need to be at my desk more and if I didn’t have enough work to do then she would make sure that I got more to do.

Admin (Speaking): It’s been a long week. I’m tired and ready to go home.

 The list can go on and on and on…feel free to share any of your experiences

My former supervisor once told me I didn't act appreciative enough of the gifts (birthday and Christmas) he gave me.  I thought I acted pretty grateful considering he gave me things like an unwrapped set of plastic, metallic blue coasters.  Apparently he was looking for tears of gratitude or a bj.

Heh. I made the mistake of telling a boss upon receiving flowers for Sectretaries' Day that I wasn't a 'secretary' I was an admin asst. I have never since received a nod, a wink or a noogie for either day.

But at least I was spared having to give the gratuity bj. :)

I have sooooooooooo much respect for admins. Seriously. The admins at my company are the ones who keep everything going, they put up with so much BS and most of them are still helpful and nice. Totally underrated.

haaaha having spent a few years as an admin for the company i currently work at, i can TOTALLY relate.

the things people would complain about here, where we are very spoiled, were mind blowing. we get free lunch 4 days a week, and they would whine about what lunch was or that they were "sick of" certain menu items. THEN GO OUT AND BUY YOUR OWN FREAKIN LUNCH YOU SPOILED JERK!

once had a guy who didn't even work for our company, but was a consultant, hand me a GIANT envelope stuffed with hundreds of crumpled receipts from his various business travels and asked me to make indivudual copies of each one.

sadly my old boss made things even worse. i was once put on "probation" because i did not order enough of the right kind of pens, and we ran out of cottage cheese. COTTAGE CHEESE. oh, and we have three different kinds of cottage cheese. we'd run out of one.

i'll never forget how badly i wanted to scream "i have a college degree!" during that meeting.

i'm sure i can think of some more gems from my admin days. i'll never go back! ever!

ohh and then there was the lady who would come into the kitchen while i was straightening up the snack cabinet, grab a box of granola bars, take one and then toss the box, wide open, back onto a different shelf instead of putting it back in it's spot. RIGHT in front of me.

that bee-otch. 

oh my gosh, these are so funny!!!  Thank you for the laugh

Not all admins are wonderful...I used to have to work with one who would claim to know everything but never managed to get anything done.  Then when I would attempt to show her how to do something from the basics would again claim to know everything and yet couldn't manage to do anything.  She couldn't admit that she didn't know everything and no matter how nicely you tried to show her she was bitchy.  In retrospect I'm sure she had a learning problem, but she could have just asked questions instead of claiming to know everything.

I was a manager of a flower shop, so I didn't have the title of "admin", but I definitely did "admin" work. I can understand your frustration, change...

I got sooo tired of women coming in and saying "I wish I had this job!" or "I bet this is such a FUN job!"......hmmm, is working for owners that have no idea what they're doing and change the rules/policies/prices every couple of days fun?...

how bout people that drive a Mercedes/Lexus, etc. who bitch and moan and want the $100 arrangement for $30?...

or people that come in and say they need help picking out something and hate every suggestion you give them?...

and don't even get me started about Valentine's or Mother's Day week..

Forgive my rant, I'm still bitter...

funny and horrifying!!!

jules817, you actually got called into a meeting to discuss running out of pens and cottage cheese? Seriously? Do these executives, managers, have nothing better to do with their time? OMG!

I had a job that was part admin, part editorial assistant. It wasn't too bad. The worst thing that drove me crazy was answering the phones. If the phone rang more than once without being picked up by the person whose line was ringing, we were to pick it up. But we didn't take written messages, we just put them into an automated voice mail system. So I never understood the point of us answering vs. letting the caller go into voice mail -- since that was what we did with them anyway. Just an unnecessary extra step that wasted time and made the staff feel more important b/c their line was being answered.

Original Post by change_in_sc:

1. Caller: May I speak to XYZ?

Admin: “He’s on a call right now may I take a message”.

Caller: Well do you know how long he’s going to be?

DUH!!! Who tells someone how long their phone calls are going to last?!?

i'm doing admin, and maybe i'm a little brainwashed and/or lucky...but i do tend to know how long my bosses calls are.  not always, but most of the time.  :) 

oh, and jules - your old boss sounds AWFUL.  wow.

I always loved those sales guys who came in to see the boss, and tried to butter me up to let them in.

"Tell your story walking, dude, the boss isn't in."

Original Post by starlitocean:

Original Post by change_in_sc:

1. Caller: May I speak to XYZ?

Admin: “He’s on a call right now may I take a message”.

Caller: Well do you know how long he’s going to be?

DUH!!! Who tells someone how long their phone calls are going to last?!?

i'm doing admin, and maybe i'm a little brainwashed and/or lucky...but i do tend to know how long my bosses calls are.  not always, but most of the time.  :) 

oh, and jules - your old boss sounds AWFUL.  wow.

 

 I currently support 8 long winded executives. Fortunately they answer their own phones but people will come in, see their door closed, and ask how long they're going to be...as if I know or care

Original Post by kathygator:

I always loved those sales guys who came in to see the boss, and tried to butter me up to let them in.

"Tell your story walking, dude, the boss isn't in."

 lol, kathy..

Sales guys would forever be coming in and our response was "We don't accept soliciting."

Of course there was always an excuse...One dude had the nerve to say"Well, I'm not selling my body..." and then proceeded on his sales spiel...

Original Post by april_bride:

funny and horrifying!!!

jules817, you actually got called into a meeting to discuss running out of pens and cottage cheese? Seriously? Do these executives, managers, have nothing better to do with their time? OMG!

 I got berated for having a bag of empty pop cans in my office (same evil supervisor).  Nevermind that I put them there so I could return them the next day and save our department some money.

Original Post by hotrebeccainmesa:

Original Post by kathygator:

I always loved those sales guys who came in to see the boss, and tried to butter me up to let them in.

"Tell your story walking, dude, the boss isn't in."

 lol, kathy..

Sales guys would forever be coming in and our response was "We don't accept soliciting."

Of course there was always an excuse...One dude had the nerve to say"Well, I'm not selling my body..." and then proceeded on his sales spiel...

WOOOOOOW... ROFL

Original Post by april_bride:

funny and horrifying!!!

jules817, you actually got called into a meeting to discuss running out of pens and cottage cheese? Seriously? Do these executives, managers, have nothing better to do with their time? OMG!

 i WISH i was making it up. there was a meeting, and a written up sheet of notes and everything.

that woman makes every unimportant thing into a HUGE deal. i'm in a different department now, and we just moved to a new space. we moved here in JULY, and she is still working on getting artwork for the space. has sent my boss like 15 e-mails of possible art options, etc.

he's like "for crying out loud, i'll just run to a gallery down the street and pick something out! we don't really care that much!"

oh, and do any of you other admins get those calls from the skeevy guys who say they are calling "from your copier company" and try to get you to give them the model number off your copiers? i loved messing with them. putting them on hold for a while and then saying i can't find the number haha

ohh i just thought of another awesome one. the exec who asked me if i'd mind "returning some suits" for him. turns out, these were Prada suits that had been sent from italy. and he'd thrown out the big beautiful specially made shipping crate they were sent in. so i had to figure out a way to use a big awkward box provided by UPS to send these $4000 suits, hanging up in the box, to italy.

OH, and i later found out this same guy has a "house manager." someone who i assume is hired to do things like RETURN HIS FREAKIN CLOTHES!

Original Post by jules817:

Original Post by april_bride:

funny and horrifying!!!

jules817, you actually got called into a meeting to discuss running out of pens and cottage cheese? Seriously? Do these executives, managers, have nothing better to do with their time? OMG!

 i WISH i was making it up. there was a meeting, and a written up sheet of notes and everything.

that woman makes every unimportant thing into a HUGE deal. i'm in a different department now, and we just moved to a new space. we moved here in JULY, and she is still working on getting artwork for the space. has sent my boss like 15 e-mails of possible art options, etc.

he's like "for crying out loud, i'll just run to a gallery down the street and pick something out! we don't really care that much!"

oh, and do any of you other admins get those calls from the skeevy guys who say they are calling "from your copier company" and try to get you to give them the model number off your copiers? i loved messing with them. putting them on hold for a while and then saying i can't find the number haha

 

 No copier guy calls, but I do get the creepy older men that want to hang around my desk and talk and talk and talk...

Most Admins do way more than answer the phone (I have databases to update and reports to run) so I am not here to entertain you while you wait for someone.

Original Post by jules817:

oh, and do any of you other admins get those calls from the skeevy guys who say they are calling "from your copier company" and try to get you to give them the model number off your copiers? i loved messing with them. putting them on hold for a while and then saying i can't find the number haha

I HATE those guys.  They stopped calling me after I totally chewed them out about trying to scam me.

Original Post by jules817:

Original Post by april_bride:

funny and horrifying!!!

jules817, you actually got called into a meeting to discuss running out of pens and cottage cheese? Seriously? Do these executives, managers, have nothing better to do with their time? OMG!

 i WISH i was making it up. there was a meeting, and a written up sheet of notes and everything.

that woman makes every unimportant thing into a HUGE deal. i'm in a different department now, and we just moved to a new space. we moved here in JULY, and she is still working on getting artwork for the space. has sent my boss like 15 e-mails of possible art options, etc.

he's like "for crying out loud, i'll just run to a gallery down the street and pick something out! we don't really care that much!"

oh, and do any of you other admins get those calls from the skeevy guys who say they are calling "from your copier company" and try to get you to give them the model number off your copiers? i loved messing with them. putting them on hold for a while and then saying i can't find the number haha

 

 Oh yeah, jules...

I remember that little scam as well as all the freakin pre-recorded messages..."You have been pre-approved for...." ARGH!...especially annoying to get those calls when you're running trying to get a million things done at once...