Working From Chanel in the Hamptons

The behind the scenes life of Executive Assistants

I texted an EA friend today asking her something, and she sent a delayed response with “Sorry, I’m in the Hamptons right now and the service here is shit”. I don’t know anything about the Hamptons other than what magazines and media have told me it is, but it seems ironic that service would suck there.

Anyway, then a few moments later, she says “I needed WiFi so I’m working from Chanel this morning”. And this made me chuckle. (Also, look at how cute this Chanel store in the Hamptons looks… so demure… is that how I’m supposed to use that word? ugh TikTok)

How often do we, Executive Assistants, find ourselves doing what we can, wherever we are, to make sure we’re able to log online and get shit done?

I wonder if our executives even know that. I wonder if they know what we do behind the scenes to make things appear so seamless, to make ourselves seem so responsive, and how much we stress when we don’t have wifi connection.

Do they know that we pull over on the street or get off the freeway so we could respond to their text right away? Do they know we take our eyes off our kids competing in a soccer game while we respond to their email? Do they know we burned dinner because we got distracted by an urgent question they sent us on Slack at 7pm?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, none of my executives have ever expected me to be responsive at all hours of the day everyday with no breaks. So I’m not mad that they (or anyone else who has never been an EA) don’t know what we do to make their lives easier.

It’s clear that the problem is me :)

I want to be responsive. This is my job after all, I am grateful for it, I enjoy my work, I want to be available and reliable, and I want to stay on top of it. I also want to show them what I am capable of and to prove that they made a good decision in hiring me (holy mother of goodness, this childhood trauma thing keeps popping up in all my writing lol).

Anyway, I don’t know what the point of me bringing this up was. I just thought it was so typical and funny of my EA friend, and EAs in general, to say she was working from Chanel in the Hamptons because that was the only place she could get good wifi, and she needed to work at that moment. When someone says they’re at Chanel, you’re not picturing an EA with her laptop, hunched over, borrowing wifi, typing away, trying to work.

We really do do whatever we can to get shit done, don’t we? Finding wifi so we can work is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the iceberg is loaded with innumerable stories that will blow people’s minds when they hear them.

Like has your executive ever flown from San Francisco to New York to spend a few days for work, and then planned on leaving for London from New York for a slew of business and customer meetings, only to realize, very late the night before they were supposed to leave for an evening flight to London, that they had forgotten their passport?

And then did you have to drive an hour to their house in SF at 5am, let yourself in because you know the code obviously, search for this passport that was in a nightstand drawer in their room where their brother happened to be sleeping because he was house sitting, and quietly without waking him, grab the passport and secretly leave the house like you’re some sort of stealth ninja thief in the night sky leaving no traces behind?

And then, did you have to drive to the San Francisco Airport, get to the United desk so you could purchase whatever flight left for New York the soonest (this was before it was very easy to purchase flights online) so that you could get on it yourself with his passport and hand deliver it to him upon landing in New York? And then plan to fly back on the next available flight?

Yes, it would have been an absolutely ridiculous story if I ended up on that plane. Actually, it’s still a pretty memorable story for me. I was ready and prepped to get on that first flight out, but lucky for me, the United attendant at the desk let me know (after I vented about my predicament) that they actually had a courier plane that could take the passport with them and deliver it to the United desk at JFK within a couple hours of landing.

I filled out all the forms and crossed my fingers and prayed to God that all would go well. And long story short, it did. My exec got to go to London on his 8pm flight that evening. And I went to the office before it even hit 8am.

Our execs (and again, anyone who has never been an EA) will never know the hoops we jump through or the things we are willing to do in order to make their lives easier. But that’s ok. We don’t need to tell the world about it. It’s just what we do. It’s what makes us good at what we do. It’s what separates us from the rest of the company. It’s why they trust us and rely on us.

Hopefully, they feel it and see it and appreciate it. I do think they may not always see or know the details, but deep down they know we take care of them and do what we can to help make them successful.

If you’re an executive reading this, remember that when things are going very smoothly, the event is going off without a hitch, everyone with their 20,000 dietary restrictions is happy with the food and drink options, your calendar looks fabulous, everyone comes to your meetings prepared, you’re able to make it to your kids’ sports games, etc. it’s because a ton of work, thought, collaboration, creative problem solving, and favor pulling went into it in the background. It’s never just smooth by accident.

Aaaanddd… if you’re an EA reading this, I see you :) Go on with your bad self!