Before, a personal assistant AKA "Girl Friday" or "Man Friday" was only common to the people in the business world, especially to business people who had high positions in a certain company. For instance, a personal assistant was hired by a prominent businessman or businesswoman to assist him or her in everything that he or she needed to do.



However, today, personal Assistants are being appointed for busy executives and all other persons who do not find time for taking care of their routine chores. PA's are no longer considered a status symbol. Rather, they have become an essential requirement for the proper functioning of the person.

Duties Are Not What They Were Before

The workload of the personal assistant now covers:

• Scheduling meetings

• Accepting and declining phone calls

• Taking care of mails and correspondence

• Filing, documentation and other secretarial activities

• Taking care of booking and reservations

• Taking care of domestic and international travel arrangements.

The appointment of a personal assistant is no longer restricted to the corporate world. Today, PA's are being employed on all industries across the board. Further, the term personal assistant is no longer restricted to the traditional sense.

Today, even those persons who are appointed to take care of sick persons and other persons who are incapable of taking care on their own are being called personal assistants. The term personal aide is also used to describe such persons.

Over the years, the meaning, duties, responsibilities and remuneration paid to the personal assistant have undergone a change.

Pa = Secretary And Secretary = Pa

In the field of communications, personal assistants have taken over the duties of the 'secretary.' Today, such persons are called 'PA' as an abbreviation for the phrase. Time is short and responsibilities are more. Hence, be prepared to be called a 'PA.'

If truth be stated bluntly, PA's are appointed to take care of those tasks which the employer deigns to be below his status and position.

People feel that performing tasks like scheduling meetings, making reservations, ordering and picking up food, ordering gifts and doing other such chores can be done easily by persons who are less competent than them.

Of course, the truth is that organizing even ordinary tasks and chores on a regular basis without any hitch is not an easy task. The PA is not inferior to the employer. Even the smartest persons can get lost in the confusing world of appointments and schedules.

The employers are recognizing this aspect and are employing persons with better qualifications as their personal assistants. The PA's are expected to be good enough to perform the duties of the boss in times of emergencies.

PA's are appointed because some people feel that their time is very valuable and they feel that it should be wasted on performing menial and routine chores. The employers pass on the routine duties to their PA's so that they can focus on other 'important' tasks.

You need not be a high flyer to employ a personal assistant. Simply ask yourself whether you stand to gain by delegating some routine and unimportant tasks to another person. If the answer is yes, then you need to appoint an assistant.