A day without admin

Administrative services workers matter. Imagine what a day in your workplace would look like without administrative support

We’ve imagined it and it’s not an appealing image. It would be like a missing piece of a puzzle. A day without administrative services workers means important tasks won’t get done. Everyone else’s productivity will fall.

The work of administrative support benefits colleagues, managers and the public. They're professionals, problem-solvers and innovators. They have the answers when nobody else can help. They get the job done. Yet, they’re routinely overworked and underpaid. Their value to the workplace is often unrecognized.

The BCGEU represents more than 12,000 administrative services workers in a wide range of jobs with government ministries and independent employers, such as health care, education and community social services.

Administrative services workers do important work. They make valuable and significant contributions every day. They deserve respect. Our workplaces couldn’t function without the support of administrative professionals.

Tell us what a day without administrative services workers would look like in your office. We'll share the story with our members.

Take a look at what they've shared with us.

Showing 24 reactions

Adell Eichmann commented 2023-03-20 21:41:07 -0700
Mathilde Will commented 2023-03-20 21:38:24 -0700
Kirsten Breitenberg commented 2023-03-20 21:36:25 -0700
Rhonda Campbell commented 2019-07-12 17:33:16 -0700

Wow! Everyone wants access to information, insure their privacy is protected, government accountability of decision making, hanging on to historical information, etc. This is all done through Administrative Services Component workers that work in information, privacy, and records management areas throughout the government and agencies. If there wasn’t us…. where would protection and collection of information be (both personal and business? So very thankful for Adminstrative Services Component Staff! We are the Wheel Component that keep everything moving effectively, efficiently, and accurately! :)
Jennifer Bonderoff commented 2019-06-28 20:49:41 -0700

Been there, done that. We had no admin for a good month at my office and it was really bad. I always appreciate our admin staff!
Sue Frith commented 2019-06-28 19:52:59 -0700

My entire office is comprised of various administrative services workers so a day without admin would shut my office down 😳
Tj commented 2019-06-19 15:57:43 -0700

A day without administrative assistants in our office would be just another day at the office. I’m sure with us away, Director’s would make the next level above a Clerk 9 do all the administrative work usually completed by the lower level classification. As one of only a handful of guys in my office, its often delegated to me to lift all the “heavy” cartons of paper, heavy boxes of supplies and anything else that is normally too heavy for others to lift due to previous injuries or other personal reasons. The office would also suffer as there’s no one to notify Building Managers of lights out, toilet paper missing, plugged toilets or arranging WSI contractors to complete work orders on behalf of Manager’s & Director’s decisions. Hopefully one day the BC Public Service will recognize the amount of work Admin Assistants do in their respective offices and perhaps its about time they look at reclassifying those like myself who have worked for the past 2 decades.
Dawn Dreher commented 2019-04-24 19:44:01 -0700

As the fish &wildlife permit officer if we were gone ….There would be no permits guide licences trapping licences no hunting and fishing tags licences. Essential livelihoods would be in an emergency situation. Millions of dollars would be lost for clients and the goverenment.
Kim commented 2019-04-21 00:36:18 -0700

all emergency calls would go unanswered and files would be lost and incomplete! There would be no one to greet clients or set up coordinate rooms and cars.
Leslie S commented 2019-04-18 10:08:25 -0700

In my Ministry/Office, no one would be able to spend dollars, for clients, employees, pay for supplies or services, approve payroll/travel expenses or anything .. it would be a big horrible gridlock !
wendy boden commented 2019-04-18 08:01:06 -0700

A day without Admin would be like a ship

Without compass. It can move and move really fast even.

Likelyhood of getting lost and sinking..,, pretty high.

we’d all be just rearranging deck chairs and playing nearer my god to thee as we sank….
Rita McPhee commented 2019-04-17 11:46:47 -0700

A day without administrative workers would be very funny to see! Some staff wouldn’t be able to get into the building because they lost and/or forgot their access card! No security to help. No one to arrange meetings or travel plans. No one to move that letter for the Minister’s signature through the approval process, and imagine how many typo’s there would be! No one to process that contractors invoice. The list is endless. It would be fun to be a fly on the wall to watch the madness!
Dianna Cameron commented 2019-04-17 10:56:56 -0700

The story that should really be relayed here is Administrative Services Workers salaries should be re-evaluated and raised up. They’re often the hardest most dedicated workers and receive one of the lowest salaries in government. In addition, government should bring in a gradual tier system/increase in moving Administrative Assistant’s up from Clerk 9’s to Clerk 11’s and 14’s etc. when they are given additional tasks that are considered beyond the scope of the Clerk 9 role instead of simply expecting that these workers will continue to feel engaged and appreciated as more and more responsibilities are asked of them.
Jade C commented 2019-04-17 10:49:04 -0700

Administrators are the backbone of the Affordable Child Care Benefit, making up the majority of the program! We issue benefits, receive applications, provide technical support to parents and caregivers, maintain casefiles, and after hundreds of phone calls all across the province. Without admin, this program would be functionally nonexistent, and tens of thousands of parents would be left without childcare. This would have a massive knock-on effect, with tens of thousands of parents being forced to stay home, jobs all across the province would have missing or absent staff members.
Cynthia Bowles commented 2019-04-17 10:42:16 -0700

Have you ever seen a sports team without a coaching staff at a big game – that is what a day without Admin would be
Grace McInnes commented 2019-04-17 09:05:01 -0700

Historically on Admin day, a day to recognize and celebrate the work that admin staff do, our supervisor (who is also an admin) would cover the desk for lunch so that the team could go for lunch together. Even going without admin for 1 hour seemed to be too big of a challenge for management. They could not go 1 hour without admin, let alone a day.
Jason Singh commented 2019-02-19 09:25:08 -0800

A day without administrative services would be a work day that doesn’t happen. Admin staff are an integral part of the justice system. We make the wheels of justice turn – like the spokes of a bike wheel. You can’t imagine a racing cyclist in a championship with one or two spokes missing from the wheel. The wheel is going to be wonky and it’s not going anywhere. There’s no more race. In my job, every task administrative staff do is like a spoke in a wheel.
Faith Johnston followed this page 2019-02-13 09:32:14 -0800
followed this page 2019-02-13 09:30:25 -0800
Faith Johnston commented 2019-02-13 09:07:31 -0800

A day without admin in my office would be chaotic. It would create an added workload to my colleagues who are also busy with their mandates. It would also cause them stress. We all have a specialization in the work we do and we work together. We’re professionals and part of a team. Missing part of the team would have a big impact on services in the form of supporting the clients and making sure their needs are being met.
Charmaine Fines followed this page 2019-02-13 08:59:12 -0800
Charmaine Fines commented 2019-02-13 08:56:46 -0800

A day without administration staff in my workplace would bring chaos. Admins are the connection between the public and the health staff. There would be no one to greet the clients. They wouldn’t know where to go or how to get to where they need to be. They’d be lost. The ability of non-administrative staff to provide service would be delayed. There wouldn’t be anyone to help them or stock their rooms.
Maria Middlemiss followed this page 2019-02-08 12:28:18 -0800
Maria Middlemiss commented 2019-02-08 12:04:31 -0800

A day without administrative workers would mean closed businesses and the province coming to a grinding halt. Nothing would get done without us. We’re in every single office, every single ministry, and in every alternative service delivery office. We’re everywhere. There would be a lot of confused people walking around not knowing what to do. There would be none of the government services that people rely on every day. The provincial government couldn’t run without us. We’re as valuable as anyone else in the workplace.

adaywithoutadmin