EA Anonymous….A day in the Life (Part 1)
This story is entirely fictional - a playful glimpse into the life of Krystal, a dedicated Executive Assistant in an Australian School. Inspired by the unsung heroes who keep schools running smoothly, Krystal and her world are products of imagination. Blending humour, heart, and a touch of chaos, this tale celebrates the resilience, wit, and warmth of EAs everywhere. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Step into Krystal’s office and enjoy her wonderfully messy, endearing world.
Driving into work, it’s a Monday and although a quieter weekend, I am already exhausted, thinking about the week ahead-Final Assemblies, Speech Nights, Muck Up Day (now retitled Celebration Day).
My phone beeps with a text, it’s the Boss. An accident on the freeway means he is going to be half an hour late, can I rearrange his schedule for the day?
Back to back meetings now need to be rejigged and my plans for a quiet start to planning the week are out the window. Lucky I did two hours last night, cutting and pasting Kinder photos of all our Year 12’s into the slideshow.
Coffee…the first of the day. My local knows my order and all I need to do is stand at the counter. ‘Looks like a big day ahead’
Entering my office, the phone is already ringing, 8.05am. One of the buses has broken down and we have students stranded in a nearby suburb. Time to don my superhero costume and find a solution. I make my first call of the day.
A problem averted, another bus diverted.
Phone rings. It’s our friendly neighbourhood complainer, a student has parked their car out the front of their house and what are we going to do about it. Many thanks for your comments Mr Smith, I will ensure that the car is moved (for no apparent reason other than keeping the peace) can you please provide me with the rego number. “all I saw was a student in a red blazer parking a car.” Thanks sir. Phew. Our blazer is brown, looks like the problem of school down the road.
‘Miss, my student card is lost.” A Year 7 student at my door, tears welling in his eyes. ‘How do I catch the bus home at the end of the day.” “Have you checked everywhere James?” Yes Miss. What about your pockets? Wow here it is he says. Another happy customer, student card found. Is there anything I can’t do!
Confidence shattered, Boss rolls in. He’s not happy. ‘Don’t speak to me,” he rages, swearing about the time it has taken on the freeway he more commonly refers to as the car park. “Cancel everything today.” I give him the space he needs to calm down before poking the Bear. “So how was your weekend?”
This is either make or break. “It was great, how was yours?” Ok, we are back on track. “I have rearranged your meetings, Mr and Mrs Jones have been resecheduled for tomorrow.” ‘What’s that about?” he replies.
“I’m not sure, you asked me to invite them in and didn’t give me any further details” I wanted to suggest that mind reading has never been included in my PD but probably not a good idea at this stage of the day.
“Ok, can you find out what that’s all about” he responds, mind elsewhere as he flicks through the 300 emails that I have already read, flagged, deleted and filed. ‘For sure,” I say, returning to my desk.
“Not much in the email,” he says. If only he knew...
The day has started well. Time for my second coffee 8.45am. This time a short black.
Assembly followed by recess.
“Assembly went well I thought.” It sure did as we sit down as a team to debrief. “Everything was pretty smooth today folks, well done.”
Yes of course it was. I had spent hours on the schedule, the script, the speaking plan, wrote a speech, ensured all the seats were name tagged. “You handled that hiccup well.”
Hiccup, what’s the term for a gigantic technical blow out? 500 students, 100 guests and the projector goes off. That’s ok, not missing a beat I rebooted it and had it up and running before the end of the second verse. Crowd hardly noticed.
The Bosses speech went really well, lucky I had read it beforehand and reminded him this was the final assembly, not speech night and it was the Class of 2024 not 2023. Recycling at its finest.
Now to my own emails. Only 250 since I last cleared it 5 minutes ago. This is a good one. A teacher has written an essay concerned about a stray cat on the grounds of the school. Do we have a policy on stray cats and how should we manage it? Mmmm…I haven’t come across this one before. Is this for the Risk Management Committee as the cat may be dangerous or is it for the oversight of Occupational Health and Safety Operations group as what do we do if someone falls over said cat. I guess it doesn’t really matter, I could raise it at both groups as my Boss is the Chair and I attend both. I update the agenda, Stray Cat sighting and policy. Phone rings. It’s Sharon from our Café. “There’s a cat down here and the students are feeding it. Can you come down and remove it?”
I start drafting a stray cat policy...
