I work for a busy Middle Eastern entrepreneur, who is permanently travelling the globe on behalf of his family textile business, which has factories mainly in Bangladesh but has its Head Office in Dubai.
When I took on the role it was explained that I was expected to be on call 24/7 as a personal PA with a reasonable amount of delegated authority for expenditure for matters relating to the London Office and Mayfair apartment. I also need to manage affairs for three of the children who are in boarding school in the UK.
The job entails a fair amount of administration and bill paying as well as balancing bank accounts, credit card statements etc.. From time to time I need to meet important clients at the airport in one of the chauffeur-driven Mercedes cars based in London.
I did not however appreciate just how 24/7 this was going to be. It is not the fault of my boss as he travels across all time zones all the time and needs to call me early in the day in the time zone where he is although that can be 02:00 GMT etc.
I have been in the post for a year now and working seven days at irregular times etc. has taken its toll, so I have decided to take a one week holiday to which I am entitled. I am now in Cannes on the Croisette. (I have just been talking about the big jewel hoist which just took place a few meters from where I am staying).
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Before I left London I searched high and low for a temp relief for me, but the level of daily involvement added to the complexity of the task resulted in no takers coming forward.
I am trying to stretch modern communication technology to the full and keep an eye on things from my pad in Cannes. The problem is that I arrived here three days ago and have not yet actually and officially reached the beach as a full-blown business storm blew up with the company’s Spanish wholesale outlet.
I have had to help patch together the necessary emergency travel arrangements etc. to get the right people at the right place to sort this out. I have pointed out to my boss that this is my one week holiday and he is going to try to ease me off a little for the last four days.
A I said at the beginning I did not realise what 24/7 meant so next time you are looking for a good PA role for an international jet setter remember this blog.
People thinking of applying for such a role need to have super strong performance and motivation levels so think of a PA Performance enhancement course to lift your output.