Message #79418

[Katie G]

In my job, I actually have pretty regular dealings with someone's PA.  (I'm in the US.)  Apparently, it's not what the average person might think.

The person the PA supports is the wife of one of the city's major business leaders.  Mrs. Business Leader has her own small business and is also a rainmaker in the local philanthropic/civic/arts scene.  Her PA has a small office in their (very large) home, and she handles just about anything and everything from travel to light bookkeeping for the business to scheduling to event planning and management to, yes, occasionally picking up the dry cleaning. 

However, she does not follow the wife around like a lady-in-waiting, with Starbucks in hand.  The PA often acts as her stand in for things like meeting with florists/caterers for a gala event, or meeting a plumber for an issue in the house, or running errands (with use of the couples spare car) for the business or events. 

I get the impression that she is well compensated, and gets some nice perks, but her life pretty much revolves around the couple's and I don't know how long I could live my life like that.