Thread regarding T. Rowe Price Group Inc. layoffs

@qs maybe in the works already

@1ka Lol. Not just WAVE…we need to spend less time attending any of those BRG events. How about we focus on doing some real FINANCiAL work instead of spending time on all of these woke events. I wonder what the next group that they create will be called. Perhaps we can do some Bible study next.

@1j5 Don’t forget the finance beta boys. Men walking around with soy lattes and eating anything thrown into a bowl. Extra points for chopsticks or the TRP sustainable made in china lunch kit, while attending the latest wave event. Definitely a low testosterone building.

@p2 lol admin Karens

AI will likely take the jobs of many a PA in the not too distant future

@OP it was announced that KPMG outsourced the majority of the assistant roles in my country to the Philippines. Maybe TRP will do the same?

@OP most of the admins in my office are alright and hard workers but there’s from time to time a Karen or drama queen who often displays at least one of a few characteristics:

• think the job is beneath them
• positioning themselves for other roles
• gossip, gossip, gossip
• loves a chat and often, yep, it’s gossip
• deflects blame onto others
• always says too busy but went out for coffees and chats half the day

Most of the time this unprofessionalism doesn’t get corrected by management.

@jr your comment is lost on Americans where the labour laws and employment terms are different

@g7 it looks like they sit on the fence when an assistant resigns, whether to replace or not. Also if they replace they may just replace a full time permanent role with a short term contract. A sign perhaps that they want slow contraction of the workforce that then spirals when people realise no one is going to get replaced.

@gh

Agreed, staff should be uploading their own receipts, and some definitely do, but many others don't. And those others have admins. who are expected to do that task for those they're supporting, because that's the nature of the job...you do what is asked of you, whether staff should be doing it themselves or not. That level of staff's time and position within the company has been deemed to be "important" or of value enough, that others have been designated to take "mundane tasks" off their plate. It's not that the admins. are caught in the past, it's that they're there to assist, so when asked, they do it.

Eventually AI should phase out all admins. anyway, so what does any of it really matter? It should be some sort of app. that can be linked to the company card when it's in use, the person running up bills can just automatically have those receipts issued, stored and uploaded as they go, routed to the corresponding expense report template, until the person OKs for it to then be automatically submitted by a certain date.

Maybe some day soon...

@ff you’re caught in the past. Staff should be uploading their own receipts.

I haven't heard about any Admins getting laid off - has anyone else? That may be the one smart decision they have made as some admins keep departments afloat and while it is OK to subject us to Accenture, managers don't want to subject themselves to an Accenture worker. I imagine any bad admins can be AI'ed...but some here have been here decades and know where the bodies are buried (so to speak) and why stuff is done a certain way.

Regarding expense reports, people demand to be reimbursed on time, but wait til the last minute to send receipts to their admin. They think the deadline for submitting the expense report is the deadline for them getting receipts to their admin.

No, the admin needs time (optimally, days) in advance of the deadline day to input the data and cross-check info. and upload all receipts before they can submit the expense reports for everyone. And if an admin. is doing this for 12 people, if even "just" 1/2 of them wait until just before the deadline to send the admin. what's needed, then the admin. is still slammed with work on deadline day.

People should send receipts to their admin. ongoing, as they rack them up, and let the admin. know which biz trip or code the receipts are for. This way, the admin. can get each expense report going, and just send out a reminder email to everyone they support, a few days before deadline day for any loose ends/remaining receipts to be sent so they can be added in. Don't deluge your admin. with dumping everything on them to start from scratch at the last minute.

Respect people's time.
Work with them not against them.

@am yeah I can see this in some of the younger admins in particular. Some have unrealistic expectations.

It's probably a bit of both.
She may be one of those types who isn't able or willing to adapt to changes well, or who can't manage her own time well, or who just outright doesn't want to put in a full day's work on a regular basis.

She also might very well be experiencing being pulled in literally a dozen different directions, where her workload is too overloaded, and it doesn't take a lot of people one supports for this to happen. All it takes is one or two "higher ups" who take advantage of haing an admin. where they assign tasks which are total timesucks for an admin's schedule, ability to come through on time with deadlines/deliverables, and things get thrown off-kilter...and then it snowballs, until no one's happy.

Also, when doing expenses, sometimes an admin. has to chase down the people she's supporting, for receipts. It's a PITA, especially when dealing with disorganized or disinterested "higher ups" who don't bother to supply the admin. with those, which are required, in order to enter-in and submit expense reports. The receipts are requested, the request is ignored, the admin. follows up, gets ignored again, then promised that they'll be sent, but they never are. The admin. has to hound the "higher ups" again for receipts, then finally gives up, and then has to play detective with each vendor (hotel, restaurant, etc.) to try to procure the portfolio/receipts from them directly. It's a total nightmare having to pull teeth, but this is what some admins. have to deal with, because the people they're supporting are cluelessly disrespectful toward those they deem to be "beneath" them.

So doing expenses for 12 people can be a lot, especially if even just a few of those people are as described above, and definitely if there's a lot of travel involved. But the admin. should advocate for her/himself as well, by speaking directly with the people they're supporting, and letting them know what they can accommodate in terms of bandwidth, time, etc. Ask them when they need something done by, instead of just saying yes, with no deadline. Communicate with them as you're working on something you need more information on to complete the task, and let them know you need to hear back from them by a certain time/day. Keep it all in writing, and pull that up if needed, to light fires under a55es!

This admin. might be overburdened, but she might be burning out, because the people she's supporting aren't helping her, in order for her to help them. Admins. are often underappreciated, but a lot of them (the good ones) are the glue that holds it all together!

@av meant to say *they also did a lot of business management like budgeting and presentations.

@ak agree with this. I’d actually say most of the admins I’ve interacted with were amazing and also did a lot of business . Unfortunately TRP has slowly gotten rid of a lot of admin support over the last 5 years and I hate that. It especially gave good paying, steady jobs to folks who often are overlooked in the corporate work environment, including people who may not have graduated college, women, older women, and women of color. Also I knew some really smart women who started as admins and went on to sales and other positions because they were so smart but didn’t have the typical financial “pedigree.”

Yet another way TRP is closing the door for a lot of people in the community.

@OP as a former admin, they love to complain when they have about 3-5 hours worth of work to do daily. They dont know how good they have it until you transfer to other departments or roles.

I had several admins in my time at TRP; some were absolute rockstars and others would be overwhelmed by two or three requests. So, like many things, I'd anticipate a huge variance across different admins.