The Power Behind the Throne

A good admin knows where all the bodies are buried

Photo by Kiefer Likens on Unsplash

Before I became a freelance copy editor almost ten years ago, I spent nearly all of my career in jobs with the words “administrative”, “assistant”, or even straight-out “secretary” in their titles. Only in my last two years of day-jobbery did I become, officially, a Grants Analyst…though I was also, not-so-secretly, still the administrative assistant to the department head.

It had always been my goal to get those dreaded words OUT of my job title. To rise above lowly admin work, to advance to a career that was actually meaningful to ME, not in support of someone else.

And yet? The most enjoyable, satisfying, meaningful few years of my pre-freelance career — though I didn’t know it at the time — were right smack in the middle of those decades of admin work. I was technically an “Editorial Assistant,” but I was the hub of the office, and I made it all happen.

Quietly. Effectively. Enjoyably.

It takes time, ingenuity, and cheerful, patient persistence to get good at bureaucracy. A huge, old bureaucracy — like the university I worked for — is like a coral reef. The layers farthest in are dead, calcified, immobile. Don’t bother going there. They’re necessary, to hold the structure together, but they can’t help you…