A PM Is Not An Admin (Why You Shouldn’t Always Be The One Taking Notes)

Project Managers: Take a look at your job description. Does it say “make reservations, clean up conference rooms, take ALL notes, and create others’ meetings”? Probably not. So why do we end up doing all of these things? Where does an Admin role end and a PM role begin — or are they even connected?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: someone has to do these things, but why is it often the PM, and what can we do about it when it really shouldn’t be?

RELATED: Project Manager Responsibilities (plus the podcast!)

What Is An Admin?

An Administrative Assistant (often shortened to “Admin”) or a Virtual Assistant (often shortened to VA) is someone who assists you (or a bunch of “you’s”). Their purpose, by and large, is to take day-to-day, time-suck tasks off the hands of folks who were hired to do higher level or more specialized jobs. And Administrative Assistant is an important role that can be immensely challenging — the duties an Admin does are vital, but the Admin often doesn’t have complete control over how things are done in a way that lets them do their best work (sound familiar?).

What Are The Similarities And Differences Between PMs And Admins?

PM vs. Admin: Similarities

PMs overlap with Admins in a lot of ways: keeping things organized, making sure people have what they need to do their jobs, making sure people talk when needed, and ensuring notes are kept for important meetings. It’s vital for a PM to do these things because the details, in most projects, really matter. Someone has to keep track of things or the project could easily spiral out of control.

If push came to shove, and a developer needed to either take an hour to book her travel or let the PM do it for her so she could finish installing an important code update, the PM is going to book the travel. Similarly, if the team needs a huge batch of files organized, the PM is likely to be the one to do that administrative task, not a developer or a graphic designer.

PM vs. Admin: Differences

PMs do or direct anything that needs to be done to make a project successful, in much the same way that an Admin does whatever is necessary to support the person or people they’re working for. And therein lies the difference: a PM does these administrative tasks in lieu of having someone else to do them, for the benefit of the project. An admin is doing them because that is, largely, his job. A PM is doing this to move things forward and be able to do her own job, which has a much different purview.

If it seems like the lines are blurry, that’s because they sometimes can be. My rule of thumb, though, is asking myself “am I doing this because no one else will, or am I doing it because it is important for my project?”

It’s not your job as the PM to pick up every last task that no one wants to do. You’re not the default note-taker. You don’t have to make sure the conference room looks presentable before every meeting. You don’t have to worry about who sets up the conference line next time. You can worry about these things if you have time, if you feel like it’s warranted, and if you want to take it on. But you don’t HAVE to. Make sure you’re spending your time on things that generate value for your project and your company — and, like others on the team, on things you’re the only one uniquely qualified to do. PMs are great delegators — don’t be afraid to offload tasks to people for whom it makes the most sense.

Here’s the rub: the PM can oftentimes get pigeonholed into doing certain admin tasks all the time, simply because they are looked at as the least-important member of the team, or because they feel like they have to do them since no one else will. Anyone can take notes, but not everyone can write code. Anyone can ensure the conference room is cleaned up after a meeting, but not everyone can design the front end of a website. It sometimes feels like a no-brainer: if non-essential work needs to be done, give it to the non-essential team member. Or the team member who always does it. Or the team member who doesn’t complain. Or the team member who….is female.

A Note About Notes — Especially For Women

I want to specifically call out note-taking, because it’s a Thing. And I want to call out the dynamic of women habitually being the people to take on more than their fair share of admin work, because that, too, is a Thing. Since there are MANY female digital project managers, it’s of importance to our PM community to talk about this. Don’t think it’s a Thing? Forbes does. The New York Times does. The Washington Post does. Fortune does. Lots of people do.

Your role as PM, and/or the fact that you are female, does not mean you are the default note taker. It doesn’t mean you have to figure out who should take notes. It doesn’t mean you have to take notes for anyone other than yourself. The responsibility of notes, or delegating someone else to take notes, is the sole responsibility of the person who is running the meeting. Maybe that is you! In that case, yes, take notes! Or…ask one of the myriad people in your meeting, who may or may not be on their phone or laptop multitasking, to do it this time.

At work, your gender doesn’t automatically mean you have to do anything. Your job description outlines what you do.

Women aren’t the only people who are relegated to doing the admin work no one else wants to do — entry level PMs, regardless of gender, often face the same problem. Anyone who was originally hired as an Admin or Intern and was promoted into a PM position is in danger of having this problem. And older workers, especially if they are seen as technologically incompetent due to their age are at high risk.

Read the full article to learn more:
- How To Make Sure You Don’t Get Stuck As An Admin
- How To Stop Being The Admin If You’re Already Stuck
- Next Steps

Originally published at www.thedigitalprojectmanager.com on October 16, 2018.