Happy Administrative Professionals Week!

heather | 27 Apr 2007 - 13:56

Hooray to all those hard working Admin/Operations/HR/IT/Finance staff within nonprofits. This is your week to celebrate and appreciate your role in the organization!

Why isn't there a holiday for program staff or executives—you say?

Because we as admin/operations/hr/finance staff do the grunt work that no one else likes to do!

Specifically, we:

Pay the bills—so the organization can remain in existence
Process the payroll—so staff get paid!
Make the coffee (oh I hate doing this) :)
Order the office supplies—so we don't run out of anything.
Find new office space/make office space look nice—so the organization can entertain funders.
Make sure that the organization doesn't get sued. (ok, I do love working with attorneys)
Get under the desk and pull apart the computer if something goes wrong.
Fix many, many, many copy machine jams.
Orient new staff/keep current staff up to date with laws, procedures etc—which is quite challenging because after staff get settled in their positions they don't really like it when things like a personnel manual or office procedures are changed.
File/create spreadsheets/schedule meetings
And, anything else that is asked of us.

Phrase admin staff most commonly hear, "Can you do this, Can you look this up, Can you fax this, Can you…I respond, yes I can do anything. (Even if it is to find a Starbucks on the South Pole. :)

However, in many cases admin staff are the first to get laid off, first to be ignored—because the work is supposedly less important, first to be ill treated. (An extreme example—see how Michael treats Toby (the HR guy) on the show "The Office") and our jobs are thought to be easily replaceable.

I teach a seminar titled— "Nonprofit Operations: Strategies and Steps for Successful Mission Achievement"

During my seminar, people/managers are enlightened when they realize, oh “I can actually save my organization money, receive more funding and successfully achieve my mission if I do things to improve my operations!"

That is why I only work for organizations that already appreciate and realize how the Admin/Operations/HR/IT/Finance role ads value to the organization. In addition, although I help with fundraising and do grant writing for my clients, I don't work for organizations where I have to provide a business case for my existence or fundraise to cover my salary.

If you are an ED or manager, please take this week to appreciate your Admin/Operations/HR/IT/Finance staff! Thanks.

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Amen to that

Submitted by alan (not verified) on 21 May, 2007 - 09:44.

I think that the administrative function is one of the most overlooked parts of the nonprofit world. No one I know ever said, “I want to work in nonprofits so I can file and fax…” but its work that needs to be done.

Thanks!

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Appreciating adminstrative

Submitted by Barbara Saunders (not verified) on 27 April, 2007 - 19:18.

Appreciating adminstrative personnel is all well and good. What remains a poorly kept secret are that many of these staff jobs are held by women in their thirties and forties who have the qualifications to be managers and professionals and who are paid just little enough that they can’t afford the education, training, and professional networking that would allow them to graduate to other jobs.

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Thanks for your comment!

Submitted by heather on 28 April, 2007 - 15:43.

Barbara:

Thanks for your comment. This reminded me of something else too. I've noticed that even as a manager overseeing the operations—all the ED's I've worked for tend to ask me to help them with administrative tasks, for example book them a rental car or fax a document for them. I like to be helpful and I know I'm great at "assisting" them with things—but then there are other times when I get an ego and think to myself—"I earned my Masters and I have this high level role in the organization, yet you're asking me to do x, like fax a document because you don't have time to learn how to use the fax machine? Isn't my time valuable too?"

There tends to be a blur between managing/overseeing the operations and then doing the administrative tasks for other people. I call it my love and hate relationship with the profession I am in.

Heather

PS—I have a great relationship with my current ED and he knows about my ego :)

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