What more delightful way to spend a Saturday afternoon than having a flutter on the gee-gees? Not that I condone gambling of course, but you have to make an exception for the institution that is Ascot. What a fabulous place to take clients for a hospitality experience that combines glamour, excitement and world-class cuisine. I […]

Buying presents can be fraught with potential disaster at every turn. I’ll never forget that incident with the Gucci bag, when an acquaintance said he could get me one cheap for my sister-in-law’s birthday; well, how was I supposed to know he was referring to a plastic carrier, rather than the actual handbag? It’s bad […]

The other day as I was dragging myself into the office after hitting the snooze button a few too many times, my mind drifted off and I started wondering about the standard eight-hour working day. It’s been the norm for as long as anyone can remember, but who can we blame for the monotony of […]

What do you do if your boss acts like something out of Mad Men and won’t trust you with anything more responsible than a light spot of photocopying? You could fashion a voodoo doll, sob down the phone to your bestie, or even stalk him online, becoming one of those vicious Twitter trolls who wounds […]

Here’s an interesting titbit of information for you: research shows that 96% of PAs say they are responsible for booking business travel. I know it’s a big part of my job, which is exactly why I couldn’t wait for this year’s Business Travel Show at Earl’s Court. I hope those of you who have slogged […]

It’s an age-old scenario in many an office around the world: one person tells somebody something in confidence, then they blab to another employee and before you know it, everybody knows this so-called “secret”. I’ve seen it happen to so many of my co-workers and as much as I hate to admit it, sometimes the […]

Riddle me this, my exceptional executive assistants: what do a personal trainer, a beer brewer and a Sherlock Holmes aficionado have in common? It’s a real brain-teaser that one, so before you tie yourself up in mental knots trying to work it out, allow me to enlighten you: they are all sure-fire ideas for making […]

Being a PA can often be quite isolating, as I’m sure my dear followers know only too well, so I was thrilled to be invited to PA Life’s fabulous networking event last night at Voltaire. It was great to meet so many fellow readers and get the inside scoop on what PA Life has planned […]

There’s nothing worse than being stuck professionally when it comes to your career. We’ve all had those moments – either now or in a past role – when we feel there just isn’t anywhere to go. What if you were on your company’s hit list for the next round of layoffs and you didn’t know […]

I do love to mingle with the great and the good whenever I get the chance and an event I attended this week gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. Those delightful people at Performing Artistes, JJ and Matt, plus their PR guru Alec, invited me to a speakers’ drinks party in the refined […]

I count myself lucky that my role as venue-finder supremo, looking for lovely new places where Mr P can take his important business contacts, allows me to do the rounds of some rather famous chefs. Recently, I had the pleasure of dining at The Ritz, overseen by the MBE-awarded John Williams, and I also dined […]

Now that the New Year is well under way, this is the ideal moment to turn your attention to that traditional January pastime of self-improvement. Allow me, therefore, to share with you some top tips guaranteed to make you more indispensable than ever – your boss will thank me. Restrict the time you spend checking […]

Happy New Year to you all – it’s back to the grindstone this month with a vengeance for most of us wage slaves, I imagine. January of course is infamous for being that time of year when all of our best intentions go into overdrive as we devise a fiendishly clever list of entirely unobtainable […]

As management assistants, we are often called upon to go above and beyond the call of duty. I remember a friend telling me in horrified tones of how she had to accompany her female exec to a fertility clinic, as her husband was out of town at the time, and hold the woman in question’s […]

Season’s greetings, my lovely readers. I’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit the past few days. I wonder if it has anything to do with a certain amount of time off just around the corner… Anyway, I attended a lovely Christmas drinks reception with the Westminster Collection of venues last night at One Great George […]

It’s that time of year when the jolly, fat man in the red suit might pay you a visit if you’ve been good and people take stock of what’s gone on over the last 12 months. Professor Sydney Finkelstein of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in New Hampshire has decided it’s the perfect […]

As I get to visit a fair few restaurants in my capacity as PA extraordinare, I can vouch for the fact that, sadly, many of them seem to have been fitted out in a bland, identikit type of way – interior design 101 if you will. Imagine my delight, then, when I was invited to […]

Speeches can be inspiring, motivating and moving – think of the powerful impact of Martin Luther King’s words “I have a dream” in his historic address to civil rights supporters, which still resonate 50 years later. At the other end of the scale, of course, we have corporate presentations, which are often as dull as […]