PAs in the news

It’s time for our regular round-up of what PAs across the world have been getting up to and this time we start off on home territory, as we look at the case of the light-fingered assistant and the aristocrat.

PA to the Dowager Countess Bathurst of Cirencester, Kim Roberts, has been charged with purloining prized antiques and art, including a Picasso sketch, with a total value of £500,000. Kim has pleaded guilty on the basis that the property was put into her car by mistake. She has also denied burgling the dowager’s London home in Chelsea last year, when she is accused of stealing a number of antique vases, as well as five further charges that include the theft of some valuable silver hairbrushes.

Another assistant who has been in trouble with the law recently is Carol Hawkins, who was convicted in 2012 of stealing almost €3millon (roughly £2.4 million) from U2 bass guitarist Adam Clayton. Carol has lost her appeal against the conviction and the court is still to rule on whether it is willing to reduce her seven-year sentence. She is said to have spent her ill-gotten gains on thoroughbred horses, shopping sprees, an apartment in New York and her children’s education.

Then we have the PAs who are more sinned against than sinners themselves. Chief among these is New Zealand’s Angela Bennett, whose intoxicated boss allegedly told her to get out using most unpleasant language and then demanded she “show her nipples”.

Angela began working at a real estate company in West Auckland for a boss who she had previously known on a friendly basis. Unfortunately, the relationship quickly turned sour as director David Sharma told her she was making too many personal calls and using social media too much.

According to Angela’s subsequent complaint to the country’s industrial tribunal body, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), after Sharma took a call from a client regarding her behaviour, he told her in front of witnesses to “shut your expletive mouth”.

Later that same day he is said to have used the phrase “show me your nipples”, a comment he explained away by saying that it referred to a joke made earlier in a social context. The judges didn’t find it so funny, however and Angela was awarded NZ$100,000 (around £50,000) after the ERA ruled she had been unfairly dismissed.

We end on a more upbeat note, with the story of Pennsylvania-based PA Tammi Oldknow who, after being made redundant when her company got rid of her after 20 years, decided to start her own business as a VA. She has been working freelance for two years now and has never looked back.

She cites flexibility as one of the job’s best aspects and urges others who are thinking of making the leap to “get your materials, do your research and, most importantly, be bold”.