Last week, I received a message from an EA friend on LinkedIn (where most of my “this can’t be sent from my company email” messages originate).
She wrote, “Hi Sunny, I wanted to see if you’re aware of any senior Admin open positions in the area. I am looking for a new opportunity. Long story here, but the bottom line is when I requested pay for the extra job I’ve been handling, I was told no. They don’t want to set a precedent.”
A precedent. Of paying someone for doing an additional job. The job of two.
This isn't a new problem in the Admin Profession. Some of you reading this right now are living it. Admins are routinely asked to cover for colleagues on maternity leave or medical leave and are often asked to absorb open roles while companies search for replacements. And I know more than a few Executive Assistants who have effectively carried pieces of vacant C-level roles until those positions were backfilled — and done it extraordinarily well.
But here’s the reality: covering another full-time role always comes at a cost. To the Admin. But rarely to the employer.
The Admin's cost is longer days, more pressure, more context switching, less time for your own work, delayed priorities and sometimes months of performing two jobs while the company enjoys the convenience of paying for one.
There is a little bit of the famous I Love Lucy chocolate factory scene in all of this. The conveyor belt keeps speeding up, more and more chocolates keep coming, and Lucy and Ethel just keep scrambling, stuffing chocolates in their mouths, down their shirts and into their caps to absorb the volume rather than stopping the line. Then the supervisor comes in, sees what looks like a clear conveyor belt and says, “Fine, you’re doing splendidly!” before shouting to the conveyor belt operator to “speed it up a little!”
Sound familiar?
That is exactly what can happen when a highly capable Admin absorbs another role. The work keeps getting done, so from the outside, the arrangement appears to be working. Meanwhile, you're metaphorically stuffing chocolates into your pockets just trying to keep up.
Then, somewhere down the road, you finally say, “I think we should talk about compensation for the additional responsibilities I’ve taken on.” And suddenly the organization wants to talk about precedent.
There's an important lesson here, and it's about leverage.
Leverage is something you have only when someone has something to lose.
The best time to negotiate additional compensation isn't after you've already proven you'll do the additional work without it. It's in the space between “Can you cover this?” and “Yes.”
That is where your leverage lives.
I know that can feel uncomfortable. Admins are natural helpers. Someone is out. The team is scrambling. Your exec needs you. Of course you're going to step in.
But stepping in and negotiating the terms of stepping in are not mutually exclusive.
One response to this request might be, “I understand we need to cover the role, and I’m not against it, but let’s talk about scope, duration and if the additional responsibility will be compensated.”
But honestly, if it were me? I’d assume compensation is already on the table and the obvious next part of the conversation.
My response would be, “This is actually great timing because our AC unit is on the brink, and the extra compensation will help me cover the repair.”
Or, “Perfect timing. I’ve been saving a lifetime for a Gucci bag, and this will finally get me there.”
Ballsy? Maybe.
But so is asking someone to do two jobs for the price of one.
And compensation can mean many things. Financial comp is the obvious place to start — temporary additional pay, a stipend, a bonus or an adjustment for the period you're carrying extra responsibility. But there may be other forms of value worth negotiating too.
An additional week or two of vacation.
Extra bonus points on the company’s incentive platform that you can use toward a trip or a new patio set.
That vacation house your boss has? Ask to use it.
True story: I have a friend who is an EA/PA whose boss asked him to drive his dog halfway across the country to their vacation house. He said yes — if...in return, he could stay there and invite some friends for a long weekend. His boss said sure, and then he and 10 of his closest friends got to hang out together on the coast.
That wasn't even a request to take on a second job. It was a favor that most Admins might have simply filed under “other duties as assigned.”
Don't ask, don't get.
The point is not that every company or exec will say yes to every request. The point is that if you are being asked to absorb more, there should at least be a conversation about what comes back to you in return.
That's not being difficult. It is not being disloyal. It is not failing to be a team player. It is recognizing that there is a difference between helping during a busy week and absorbing another job. And that distinction matters, because once you have been performing two roles successfully for three months, the company has already learned something very useful: you can do it at the current price.
Competence can hide the true cost of a staffing decision.
There is also something else I want Admins to get more comfortable with: you do not have to solve the company’s staffing problem before the company has decided what solving it is worth. A vacancy is a business problem. A leave of absence is a business problem. A delayed search is a business problem. Your capability may be part of the solution, but your willingness to help should not quietly turn the company’s problem into your unpaid obligation.
And when someone says, “We don’t want to set a precedent,” I think there is a perfectly reasonable question hiding underneath that statement: what precedent do we want to set instead? That people can take on substantially more responsibility without additional recognition? That the most capable person in the room is the easiest person to load up? That helping once means absorbing indefinitely?
Those are precedents too.
So the next time you are asked to step into another role, even temporarily, resist the instinct to answer too quickly. Ask about the scope. Ask about the duration. Ask what comes off your plate. Ask how the additional responsibility will be recognized.
And ask before you say yes.
Because your willingness to help is valuable. So is your leverage.
Don’t give away both at the same time.
And remember, no is also an answer (and a complete sentence).
P.S. Are you now craving chocolate? Don’t forget to register for our upcoming Holiday Gift & Experience Showcase for a shot at winning one of two $500 See’s Candies prizes. Register here!
Sunny Nunan is the founder of Admin Awards, widely regarded as the Administrative Profession's highest honor celebrating Administrative Professionals since 2012.