When most people picture a personal assistant they imagine a woman running errands for a high-flying, big-city exec. Rarely would you conjure up images of someone working around tractors and six dogs, one of which is her own four-legged companion. As a self-proclaimed country PA, Alison Ward has a thing or two to say about the value of the work she does.
As PA to Alan Lyons, Manager of the Royal Bath & West Show in Somerset, Alison spends a great deal of her time learning about a wide variety of subjects. Part of her job is researching the hundreds of trade stands for the show and sitting in on meetings with various committees. โYou never know whatโs going to come through the door,โ she says of her typical day.
Alison and her colleagues work year round to put together the main event. She also helps run smaller shows for the various sub-committees of the Royal Bath & West of England Society, a charity devoted to supporting agriculture, arts, manufacturing and commerce. โIn the month leading up to the show, and during the event itself, weโll typically work seven days a week,โ she says. Alison also helps organise seminars for the society.
As if she doesnโt already sound busy enough, she also spent eight years as a district councillor, which gave her the opportunity to really get to know the people in her community โ a big help for somebody who works with local farmers organising such an important agricultural event. โAnything you do in life gives you something to bring to the table at your next job,โ she says.
Alison is a veteran of the administrative world; she studied at Marlborough Secretarial College in Oxford and got her start as the personal secretary for a physicist. โI learned to work on my own initiative as I continued to grow,โ she explains. After getting married and starting a family, Alison left work to raise her two daughters. Her husband was a retired Royal Marine, so the family lived in different countries around the world. Not one to stand idly by, she volunteered for multiple charities, including Well Baby Clinics in Nigeria and the American Red Cross in the US.
When she moved back to the UK, Alison took a basic computer class and worked for a boss who taught her more advanced skills. One of the biggest changes she has seen since she started her career is the development of technology. โI started on a big manual typewriter,โ she explains. โThose gave way to the electronic versions and now we all work on computers. I think theyโre a mixed blessing. It makes some aspects of the job much easier, but email has changed the way I work. Before the internet, you could plan out your day based on the phone calls you had to make. Now itโs non-stop.โ
Alison also says the way business is conducted has changed quite a bit since she was a secretary. Today she refers to her colleagues by first name, but she remembers a time when conversations were much more formal and she always addressed everybody as โMisterโ or โMissโ.
So what does such an experienced PA think of the new generation of office workers? Alison believes having a mix of age groups in a company is an advantage. โYoung people know all about the latest technology and social media, but older people know how to make communication more personal. It never ceases to amaze me how confident young people are these days.โ
Her advice to up-and-coming PAs is to โknow what you can do and do it well. Be adaptable and flexible; learn as much as you can about anything and everything. Enjoy your job.โ
Alison proudly states she has no plans to retire. โI have such a fun job and a great working relationship with my colleagues.โ Hereโs hoping we all find that sweet spot in our own career some day.
A day in the life
7am I walk my dog round the village, which gives me time to think about the day ahead. Luckily I live just a 10-minute drive from the showground.
9am My working day generally starts. However, should the show be imminent (this year it will take place from 28-31 May), my working day can start at 8am, or as early as 6am during the show itself. You have to be ready and looking smart when the curtain goes up on day one. Itโs half the fun of the job.
The first half hour or so of my day is taken up with catching up on emails and discussing any plans or queries with my colleagues, as well as checking meeting dates with the show manager.
10.30am Very often there is a meeting of one of our section committees, such as Orchards & Cider or Bees & Honey.
1pm Lunchtime. I make a point of walking my dog and a colleagueโs dog around the showground for at least 10-15 minutes. As well as giving me a break, I often notice anything that needs to be reported back to our facilities office, such as a burst pipe or a broken tree branch.
2pm Again there is quite often a meeting that I need to attend, but if nothing is scheduled I deal with emails and make phone calls, or follow up bookings and/or arrangements for any seminars that might be coming up.
5pm On a non-show day I tend to leave the office โ although during pre-show weeks I might stay until 6pm or 7pm and as late as 8pm or 9pm during the event.
Usually, I go for one last walk with the dog in the evening. Luckily I donโt have late meetings, which leaves me free to enjoy myself. I play tennis regularly, watch films or opera and West End play screenings, or rehearse for my amateur dramatics group.
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