The Disappearing Executive Assistant
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing. I'm J.R. Whalen at The Wall Street Journal in New York. Look around the office. Chances are there's one kind of co-worker you see a lot less of, executive assistants. The number of secretarial and office support jobs has dropped dramatically in the past 20 years.
Why are executive assistant jobs disappearing from U.S. offices?
In their place, many workers are finding jobs that are more physically demanding. and pay less.
They were so busy doing more executive expense reports and playing kind of like with their calendars all day because they're supporting more executives than they used to that they don't have time to learn those little preferences of their bosses or really bond with them.
That's Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Feinzig. She'll explain why a job that used to offer a promising career path has been disappearing, and she'll discuss the skills that are needed for the jobs that have cropped up in its place. That's next.
For decades, the executive assistant was part of the circulatory system of the office. It's often a highly sought-after job, one that offers security and an attractive salary. But things have changed. More often, offices are being run without these workers. Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Feinzig is on the line with us to discuss. So, Rachel, executive assistants were at one time plentiful in the workplace.
Yeah, we've seen more than a million of these jobs fade away since 2000. It's been widespread across the country, across industries, kind of in little drips and drabs quietly.
What's been the main cause of the pullback on the jobs?
I would say technology and automation.
How has technology and automation changed the executive assistant role?
I mean, it's both changed the things that there are for assistants to do. You know, there's no like big file boxes to be lugged from storage. fewer landlines to be picked up. But there's also this sense that I got during my reporting that executives, they're able to do some of this stuff themselves. They'd rather do some of this stuff themselves. They can book their own flights with the click of a button. So I think those changing attitudes are also contributing.
Who's most impacted by the job losses we've seen since 2000?
Which workers are most affected by the decline in assistant positions?
I talked to a lot of women in their 50s and 60s who were having trouble finding work. The data also shows that the number of women with college degrees, the number of people with college degrees, just happens to be a very heavily female workforce. The number of people with college degrees in this profession has risen substantially since 2000. So those are kind of the big demographic changes we're seeing.
And for some who left or lost executive assistant jobs, they experienced a sort of culture shock when they moved to another company.
I mean, so much of this is about how work is changing. So, you know, these women would go to a new office and they would be open offices without private offices. And there wouldn't be as many physical papers and filing cabinets and there wouldn't be landlines.
How did firms like EY restructure assistants with remote and low‑cost staffing?
And they were kind of a little bit lost.
And you mentioned that the people of the executive assistants once worked for could do a lot of the work on their own, but that around the clock support system is not there anymore.
Yeah, that's true. That's what I heard from people. You know, at UI, I was told that kind of that personal support was fading away, that it was more of just this is your business support and these are the hours that they work. And it's not 24-7 anymore. And I think for some older leaders, that is a shift.
Now, Rachel, how did the U.S. division of the accounting firm EY, Ernst & Young, transform the executive assistant role?
They moved to more of a remote model. So they ended up shedding some of their kind of more traditional executive assistants who are in the offices, usually sitting close to their bosses, through attrition and also through a buyout package. And then they started ramping up staffing of these remote assistants who are in five low-cost cities in the U.S.,
And for many former executive assistants, even outside of Ernst & Young, they told you about not only a culture change and being in a different company, but there's a different kind of fabric to the job in the sense that it was difficult to really develop close relationships with the people that they worked for.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:22
2
Why are executive assistant jobs disappearing from U.S. offices?
0:22–1:41
3
How has technology and automation changed the executive assistant role?
1:41–2:10
4
Which workers are most affected by the decline in assistant positions?
2:10–2:54
5
How did firms like EY restructure assistants with remote and low‑cost staffing?
2:54–4:30
6
Where do laid‑off executive assistants find work and how does their pay change?
4:30–5:24
7
Will executive assistant jobs return or continue to decline in the future?
5:24–6:04
Speakers
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