Career Advice Blog

This video is an excerpt from a live Q&A session with Chrissy Scivicque, Career Coach & Corporate Trainer. The full video is available in the Career Success Library.

A participant in our recent Q&A (Ask the Career Coach) session asked:

My executive treats me like a servant rather than a business partner.

I’ve told him in previous conversations regarding him being late to appointments/interviews, that I’m looking out for his brand, and he has told me that is not necessary.

When I started working for him, he sent me for coffee and to Walmart for cream of wheat & lotion. He even had the nerve to ask me to buy his deodorant and then changed his mind.

I have worked for him for just over 5 years and the personal errands have pretty much stopped; however, with our current situation (COVID19) it took him 3 weeks with me working from home to even ask me how I was doing, and it was in a meeting with other people.

He expects me to be available to him 24 x 7 365 days a year. He’s called when I’m in the restroom, and I’ve told him, I will not answer the phone when I’m in the restroom (even if he does). I told him I don’t want to have to answer my phone while I’m on PTO, but that doesn’t prevent him from calling/texting when I am. The other day, I walked away to go to the restroom and the fridge for a drink. I was gone from my computer about 7 minutes, and came back to an IM that said, “I need you to be on top of IM and Phone. WFH is hard enough, but the few times I reach out please be alert”.

He waited until 5 minutes before his meeting to reach out to me to ask me to move it back 30 minutes. This is my first official job as an executive assistant, so please feel free to let me know if I just need to suck it up. If not, do you have any suggestions about how to approach an executive like this? He claims he doesn’t know what he would do without me, but he has a funny way of showing it.”

Watch the video to hear Chrissy’s answer, and feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments below.

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