Office Administrator AKA Office MacGyver

Posted on 18/01/2016 by Laura Harvey

What makes a good administrator? Hot administration skills, fast typing speed, a strong work ethic and the ability to juggle multiple tasks at once? Yes, all of these tasks will assist in succeeding in your role as an ‘Office Administrator’. 

Although, in my experience of being an ‘Office Administrator’, there have been many other duties that I’ve done that are not admin related or fall in the job description.  Therefore does this job title really articulate the role administrators play in the office or should an ‘Office Administrator’ actually be called ‘Office MacGyver’?

Tasks such as fixing fax machines and photo copiers are just the start. When no one else can seem to figure out this beeping, jammed up and non responsive machinery – somehow we (administrators) are the repair expert. Opening trays, pulling out parts and broken off bits of paper and getting covered in ink are all in a day’s work. Like the magician of the office, we pull a couple of swift moves and tad-ah! It’s working like new again. 

When the door handle to the office is loose and falling off and the carpet is stained, lifting or damaged, no worries – we come to the rescue. Being handy is most definitely an area we specialise in.  

What if the water cooler has flooded the entire office floor? That’s okay we know exactly what to do.  Organising blower fans to dry the carpet and organising the recarpeting of a whole office floor is easy!

Plumbing is also one of the many hats we administrators wear; when the ladies toilet is leaking and the soap dispenser is not working, there is no need to call anyone to fix it as we have it up and running again in no time. Without a call out fee!

Disaster strikes and one of your team members is having a bad hair day? Well lucky we can be hairdressers and setting up an ‘office desk hair salon’ is a breeze! We have our colleagues looking glamorous and ‘client meeting ready’ before they know it.  We can even remove a stubborn belly button piercing with pliers because that’s how multi-skilled we are! 

Who says you should never work with animals or children? Babysitting whilst a consultant has dropped into work to finish that last minute report is also a part of this important role; distracting and entertaining children comes as second nature. 

There are many other responsibilities administrators naturally do such as cutting scratchy clothing tags off work dresses or work pants, tacking up hems with pins, running an exercise group in the office when it’s quiet or fixing runs in stockings. Just like a modern day MacGyver (minus the mullet) we can fix just about anything with a paperclip and clear nail polish.

These are all things I have actually done in my office and will continue to do, because I’m the Office Administrator AKA MacGyver and I love it! 

Tell me about your stories of being an ‘Office Administrator’.