📨 The Office of the EA

Agenda

• Welcome

• 💐 EA Expectations vs. Reality

• 🏆 EA Spotlight

• 📊 Keep the Receipts: Why Tracking Your Wins = Power

• 💥 We’re Not Asking for Flowers—We’re Asking for Credit

• 🥲 Things That Made Us Emotional (but like, in a professional way)

👋 Hi, I’m Christel but you can call me Chrissy!

I’ve been an Executive Assistant for over a decade, supporting execs at scrappy start-ups, public companies, and everything in between. I’ve worn every hat (sometimes all at once), caught every curveball (despite questionable hand-eye coordination) 🫣, and quietly held it all together behind the scenes.

I created Office Of The EA because it’s the kind of space I wish I had earlier in my career: honest, supportive, and actually useful. A place where EAs, Chiefs of Staff, and office pros aren’t just seen, but celebrated.

Here, you’ll find weekly insights, career confessions, inbox therapy, and just enough sarcasm to survive your exec’s fourth reschedule of the day.

Because let’s be real: you don’t need another bland leadership newsletter. You need this one, the one that gets it.

✨ This week, as we celebrate Administrative Professionals Day, let this be your reminder: you are not “just” anything. You are a leader, a strategist, a force. 💪 Whether you're booking travel or shaping strategy, you make the impossible look easy, and you do it with style. So keep going. Keep believing in your voice, your value, and your vision. We see you. And we’re just getting started.

With love, and lots of coffee,

Chrissy

🏆 EA Spotlight

Janice Bryant Howroyd: From Executive Assistant to Empire Builder

Before founding The ACT•1 Group, a global workforce solutions company with over $1 billion in revenue, Janice Bryant Howroyd got her start as a secretary.

Let that sink in…

She turned what many still underestimate into a launching pad for legacy. Janice didn’t just break ceilings, she redesigned the whole damn blueprint.

Why we’re spotlighting her:
Because the EA role isn’t a stepping stone, it’s a command center. And Janice is proof that when assistants are empowered, they don’t just support power… They become it.

📊 Keep the Receipts: Why Tracking Your Wins = Power

Administrative Professionals Day is one day. But you're delivering year-round.

And while we don’t do this work for recognition, the truth is: the EA role is often siloed, and impact goes unnoticed unless we document it. That’s where your win tracker comes in.

💼 Why it matters:

• Visibility = Leverage. You can’t negotiate with silence.

• Impact = Influence. When you document your work with context, it becomes business value, not just busywork.

• Documentation = Defense. When orgs restructure, receipts talk.

💡 Pro Tip: Track the Ripple, Not Just the Win

“Rescheduled meeting” → Reclaimed 20+ team hours
“Booked travel” → Enabled attendance at $2M client pitch

This mindset shift turns admin into strategy.

🧾 Start Here, Stay Ready

We made you a branded, editable Win Tracker you can use all year long: 📥 Download it now (Google Sheet) Prefer the Excel version? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll send it your way, because we love a tailored experience.

And yes, feel free to share it with your EA crew, because shared receipts = collective power. 💪 

📣 Ready to level up? Once your wins are documented, it’s time to use them. 👇️ 

💥 We’re Not Asking for Flowers—We’re Asking for Credit

Admin Day is nice. Appreciation lunches are cute. But for many of us, they feel a little like… 🎭️ theater.

Because when the day is over?
You go right back to doing high-impact work that’s still mislabeled as “support.”
You manage calendars that shape company strategy.
You anticipate problems before they hit leadership’s radar.
You run the show behind the show.

And still, recognition often comes in the form of a mug that says “Thanks a Latte.” 🤨 

📊 The Reality Check:

So if you’ve ever felt like you’re doing executive-level thinking in an “assistant” title, You're not imagining it. You're just ahead of the system!

🔁 Admin Day Isn’t the Goal, Structural Recognition Is.

If you’re tracking your wins (and we hope you are), take it a step further:

• Ask for a title that matches your scope

• Negotiate based on business impact, not just tenure

• Share your success stories company-wide, not just with your exec

• Push for seat-at-the-table visibility in hiring, planning, and leadership meetings

🧠 And Let’s Redefine “Recognition” While We’re At It:

It’s not a card.
It’s a compensation conversation.
It’s a project with your name on it.
It’s decision-making power, not just decision-following.

You deserve credit, influence, a platform to build something bigger. And if no one’s offering it? Build it anyway. You’re already doing the work. 👏

🥲 Things That Made Us Emotional (but like, in a professional way)

Because sometimes a quote hits harder than a performance review.

Sandra, we love you. Everyone else, print this and tape it to your forehead, or your monitor, whichever gets more visibility.

📬 We Want to Hear From You

Loved it? Skimmed it? Laughed once and called it a win?

Tell us what landed, and what we should leave behind like last year’s OKRs. Your feedback helps shape this newsletter into exactly what you need (with fewer buzzwords and more real talk).

👉 [Click here to share your thoughts]

We'll read every word (probably while ignoring an internal Slack ping).