Annie Croner:
Welcome to the Whole Assistant Podcast, where assistants come to embrace their badassery and discover how to show up more strategically for their careers, their executives, and most importantly, themselves. I'm your coach, Annie Croner. Join us as we dive into the skills, strategies and mindset that will help you unleash your full potential. Let's go. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I am answering a listener question. Now, if you'd like to submit your own listener question, you can scroll down to the Show Notes below and click the Ask Annie Anything link and submit your question that way. There are several different ways which you can be acknowledged.
Annie Croner:
You can be acknowledged by full name and city. You can be just acknowledged by your first name or anonymously. And today's question comes to us from Anonymous. They write, I am a senior administrative assistant who supports a C suite executive. I also handle a large number of invoices and vendor management. Unfortunately, invoicing was not disclosed during my interview process and I feel it's the bulk of my job. I feel like an executive assistant accounts payable coordinator. While it has been frustrating to balance my responsibilities and show up for my executive, I've excelled through my first year.
Annie Croner:
How can I use this to advocate for a pay raise? I'm expected to process 1,200 invoices a year, and they are complex. Am I doing two jobs? So this is a loaded question. A very loaded question. And considering how I wanted to go about answering this question, I've decided to break this down into two parts. And what we're going to address first is a question around processing 1200 invoices per year, approximately 100 invoices per month, and doing two jobs. And especially because this was not disclosed to this person prior to being onboarded, prior to taking the job, it wasn't actually addressed at all in the interview process. So I do believe that it's going to be important for us to address this frustration first before we talk about a pay raise. My first question to you, Anonymous, would be, have you actually advocated for yourself? Have you had a conversation with your executive around your workload and around how these 1200 invoices a year is actually keeping you from showing up more strategically for your executive and is actually tying your hands with regards to your executive assistant role? Right.
Annie Croner:
So that's my first kind of thing that I want to point out. We actually have to be having these conversations. Oftentimes we just assume that our executives are going to respond a certain way. But if we haven't actually had the conversation, we don't actually know for sure how they're going to respond. And perhaps there's someone else that can help support this as well. Perhaps you can tag team these invoices. Perhaps you can offload this to maybe a junior person or someone else at the company who is more suited to be able to handle these invoices. And also this is going to depend on your environment as well.
Annie Croner:
Are you in a busy startup environment and it's like all hands on deck, everybody's pitching in with everything and do you see this dynamic changing? So there's lots of things to consider when it comes to this part of processing all these invoices, but it's going to be important to address your frustration first prior to actually having the conversation around a pay increase, because the last thing you want is to point out something you're doing and ask for more money and then still be frustrated in the end. And I'm going to get to more of that in just a minute here. Another thing to consider. If you have had this conversation with your executive and this is a part of your job, and they're like, nope, this is part of your job, you need to do it. And there is no end in sight. There is no plan to off board. The invoicing is to consider whether or not your role is a want match. And a want match is basically aligned expectations for how you are to do your job and what you are supposed to be doing in your job, and the expectations of your leader on how you're doing your job and what you're supposed to be doing in your job, right? It's basically you wanting a role and wanting to operate in that role the same way that your manager or leader wants you to operate in that role, it's basically aligned expectations.
Annie Croner:
Okay? So if your expectations are misaligned, and let me tell you, there's no such thing as a 100% want match, there's always going to be some misalignment in terms of expectations. But if it's so misaligned that you feel like this role is no longer a good fit for you, that is just something to bring your awareness to. Is it enough to leave because the want match isn't so much a good fit? Or are there other reasons to say, maybe the culture is really good, maybe you really enjoy your executive, maybe you really like every other part of the role except for this invoicing piece? So just consider. Is the lack of want match with regards to the invoicing enough for you to leave? And this goes for all of us. Right? We really need to weigh our options and we need to weigh what is a deal breaker for us. Okay, now I'm going to pause for a minute and when I come back, I'm going to share with you how to actually ask for a pay raise now that we've actually addressed this frustration and hopefully some of this resentment as well. Hey there. Are you ready to play a bigger game? If so, then I'd like to invite you to join me for my upcoming free masterclass, Unlock your executive assistant Badassery.
Annie Croner:
Three steps to developing your strategic partnership. During this hour long free masterclass, you're going to discover a solid framework for developing trust with your executive. One overlooked skill that has a power to break trust and how to stop playing whack a mole and start showing up more strategically. Click the link in the show notes to pick your time. You can choose between April 16, which is a Wednesday, and April 18, so I have a couple different times for your convenience. So click the links in the show notes to learn more and register. Okay, so now to address the second half of this question, I'm just going to read it briefly again. The second half.
Annie Croner:
While it has been frustrating to balance my responsibilities and show up for my executive, I have excelled through my first year. How can I use this to advocate for a pay raise? So she's asking, or they're asking, how can I use this thing that I really don't like doing to ask for a pay raise? That's something to bring some awareness to. How can I use this thing that's eating up all of my time and taking away from the core function of my role to advocate for a pay raise? And there seems to be this underlying belief in this question that more money will make you feel better about the resentment you're feeling. But that's not actually true or accurate. Believe me, I have coached many assistants around this same thought error around money making you feel better about the thing that you're actually doing in terms of your role. And this is only true if you're generally happy with your role and your primary complaint is compensation. That's the only way that money is going to make it better. Now there again, there's no such thing as 100% want match.
Annie Croner:
There's no such thing as aligned expectations all the time. But if you're feeling like this is just draining your energy and you're spending so much time with these invoices and they're very detailed and it's a huge frustration for you, making more money is not going to make that better and making more money. Working in a role that you resent is only going to be a band Aid fix. So my question to you is this. What if you could get a pay increase adding more aligned value, meaning that you're doing the thing you were hired to do at a deeper level, you're aligned with your executive and their priorities. You actually have the ability to show up more strategically in your role for your executive. What would that look like? And so I'm a big fan of asking for a pay increase and I'm also a big fan of going above and beyond as well, of adding value in multiple ways and highlighting that value when it comes time for the talk around compensation. And if you decide that you want to stay in this role, if you decide that you enjoy your executive and the culture and the people and the only thing that is bothering you is this invoices or these 1200 invoices that you're processing per year and all of that, that's okay.
Annie Croner:
But there again, we want to free up bandwidth so that you can actually do the job you were hired to do at a higher level, right? So that you can actually get a pay increase by adding more value that feels good to you and also feels aligned with your executive and their priorities. And I'm just going to kind of go back to that question of am I doing two jobs? And it kind of sounds like you are. Right? And in certain environments, that's acceptable. In nonprofit environments, that's really common. Also in startup environments, that's really common. So you just need to ask yourself if this role is a good fit for you and then advocate for those things that you need in order to make it a better fit for you. Okay, so that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you found it helpful.
Annie Croner:
I know this is a really short and sweet episode, but there are going to be more of these as I answer more of these questions and I do hope you find this helpful. Anonymous Please write me an email at [email protected] to let me know. And please also feel free to submit your own question. Look for the Ask Annie Anything link in the Show Notes below in order to submit your question. All right, that's all for now. Hey, before you go, don't forget to grab my free Strategic Planning Session guide. This stealthy playbook will help you and your executive find clarity on their priorities so you can make a greater impact. Go to wholeassistant.com/guide or click the link in the show notes to snag your copy.
Annie Croner:
And if you're loving the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review and share with another assistant ready to level up. Thanks for listening, and until next time, keep embracing your badassery.
