You cannot remove our positions or downgrade our benefits and still have successful executives, says Kristine Valenzuela
I recently saw a LinkedIn post that infuriated me. It was about an Executive Assistant (EA) to a C-level leader whose company eliminated the stock grants for her position because she was considered a support function. I’ve been fuming about this ever since.
Picture me at the top of a mountain yelling this into the canyon below: Please stop categorizing EAs as just a support function! Should you run into a situation where you’re unfairly labeled, have a benefit taken away from you, or are refused something because of your title, I encourage you to use this article as an outline to help you push back. Executive leaders, HR, and compensation departments need to know why we are outliers despite our support label. Here are some things to consider:
- Everyone needs to disregard the ‘Assistant’ part of our title. We are already making waves to change our titles to something that more accurately reflects the reality of our roles, like business partners or executive operations.
- Think we don’t contribute to the bottom line? Let’s consider the implications of an executive not having the tools they need to do their job. If our position is removed or cut back, what happens to the bottom line if an executive now must spend 25-50% of their time taking care of the things normally managed by an EA? Do you think a company could hit their goals if executives are forced to take on part of another role or are distracted by not having a tool they require? As a side note, if your leader has data that supports their impact to their business (OKRs [objectives and key results], profitability, engagement scores), you should be using that same data because your existence contributes to that impact.
- If, hypothetically, our positions were removed or our productivity declined due to poor motivation, these are some of the other functions that would be lost within the executive suite: project management, IT, logistics coordinator, travel agent, budget manager, PR rep, and event planner. It should surprise no one that a typical EA position can include many or all of these functions. Let’s factor the loss of those functions into executive effectiveness.
- How would pay or benefit cuts impact an EA’s dedication to work? How would that affect anyone’s work? If an EA supports a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) whose department makes up more than half of the company’s workforce, that EA wouldn’t be as motivated or productive. The executive would be forced to add another administrative position or absorb whatever slack is created. Is that how an executive in charge of half of the company workforce should be spending their time?
- Where senior staff is concerned, would a company ever consider having fewer computers, or eliminating travel or benefits? Of course not. Those are seen as essential elements of executive function. Guess what else is equally essential? Executive Assistants. On a side note, all those components have upgrades available to make an executive more productive. Let’s give some thought as to how productive they could be with a serious upgrade to the EA function.
Our motivation, productivity, and success are directly tied to that of our leader – and vice versa – so our pay and benefits need to fall in line accordingly. Ideally, our compensation package needs to be leveled to that of our leader. As their compensation grows, ours also grows and by the same percentage. We must be offered similar protections, too, since executives can come and go. However, I’m guessing many of us would be just as happy with being properly respected (and compensated) as a critical function.
You cannot remove our positions or downgrade our benefits and still have successful executives. I doubt that can be said about any other position in the business world. We are that critical to leadership success. But first, we need to move beyond keeping our heads down and not making waves. Where is that getting us?
We are worth more than that. Let’s be like the ocean and make waves!
