Administrative Assistant's Update - sample

5 Administrative Assistant's UPDATE By George Pearson AAU Editor For us at Administrative Assistant's Update, every day is a good day to hon- our the contribution of admins to their organizations and their profession. Admins' special day, Administra- tive Professionals Day, always falls in April (Wednesday the 25 th this year). So this month, to mark the event, we're remembering some of the many admin professionals we've interviewed, once again marveling at their skills, perspicacity, ingenuity and collaborative genius. Just the representative few on this page offer a flavour of the diversity and depth they bring to work every day. Admins, we salute you. Sue Dunn, administrative coordinator Michael Garron Hospital, Toronto EA to several top executives, Sue Dunn anticipates "potholes," a word used by Irene An - dress, vice-president of patient experience, who also credits Dunn with prodding her to try new ap- proaches to ongoing tasks and issues. "It's knowledge work, it's not task work anymore," says Andress. "Task work I can get from an application." Dr. John Abrahamson, chief of med- icine, says of Dunn: "She understands completely the personalities [of physi- cians]," which enables her to organize meetings for him, a task Abrahamson characterizes as "like herding cats." "It makes me much more efficient at what I do." Cheryl Westcott, executive assistant Sorbara Group of Companies Still new to her position of EA to the executive vice-president, Greg Tan- zola, Westcott spotted an email that she felt would upset him, so she said (Tanzola's words) "I don't want you to respond, because … you're going to blow up … I want you to read about it and get back to this guy tomorrow." This deeply impressed Tanzola. "For someone who knew me maybe a couple months to kind of size me up, size up the situation, defuse the situation and protect me from over- reacting, I just felt that's loyalty, that's teamwork." Taunya Semken Proudlove, corporate records business lead City of Edmonton Taunya Semken Proudlove's loss of her right arm at the age of six contrib - uted to her being stuck in short-term jobs on and off for years until she went to work for the City of Edmonton. Sup- plied with a Dvorak one-hand keyboard, she zoomed from 45 words per minute to 75. She since has thrived and was recently promoted. She is also enrolled fulltime at Yor- kville University, working to complete a Bachelor of Business Management with a Project Management Profes- sional designation. Taunya: "Amputation is not an ob- stacle to leading an accomplished life." Melissa Haddad, virtual assistant Efficient Business Solutions Downsized twice as an administra- tive professional in the corporate world, Melissa Haddad had had enough. She started MH Virtual As- sistant Services (since rebranded) online and has achieved growth in each of the three years she has been in business. She has become more specialized, with her focus be- coming operations management. She has brought on pro- fessionals in areas such as Wordpress, copywriting, logo and marketing material design, social media marketing and more. "I want my children to see that you can be whatever you want to be, but you must work hard for it," she says. Jonathan Brickwood / Vern McLaren administrative professionals Bucking the stereotype of the admin professional being female, Jonathan Brickwood, who works for the Ontar- io government, and Vern McLaren, who works for Enbridge in Edmonton, are doing the work they love and are good at. Brickwood: "You have to put the job above the personal- ity and make sure you are supporting the position, not nec- essarily the person." McLaren, early in his career, felt he was not getting noticed when he applied for jobs, so he joined the International Associa- tion of Administrative Professionals to gain certification. "That's when things really changed," he says. Admin Pro Day? How about every day . . . Sue Dunn Cheryl Westcott Taunya Semken Proudlove Melissa Haddad Jonathan Brickwood Vern McLaren

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