No Raise For Peggy, Still!

In this Twitter Tweet, the author is describing an Administrative Assistant (he said her name was Peggy and she was an older woman of about 51 years of age) at a University where she's overworked and under appreciated and is quite the ignored important person at the college. I can't relate to the part about working at a university, but I sure can relate to being an Admin at a corporation. To me, it's all the same!!!


​Now, I will tell you about an Administrative Assistant who worked for 'H...' company in Chicago for 30 years. Ironically, her name was Margaret; which the name 'Peggy' is short for.

The short story...

Peggy's (Oops, I mean Margaret's) boss was the CEO for all of the 30 years she worked there. Tragically, the CEO, got into a car accident and died As a result of that tragedy, Margaret became displaced in the company. The CEO Interim didn't want Margaret to remain as head over the Administration Department. Suddenly and without warning, Margaret was on the verge of being fired...

How did I know all of this? She confided in me (I was the new person at cooperate). I had worked at another building for this company; however, at the time, I had been at headquarters for approximately six months. 

Here's the shock...

My title was 'Maintenance Clerk' despite the many meetings I officiated over, in my supervisor's absence, and minutes I took when I filled in at board meetings! But, that's besides my point! Well, almost! 

The day Margaret told me about  how her job was in jeopardy, she told me that the reason why was that she spoke with a Spanish accent. I recall that she did have a strong accent, and many times, at Administrative Assistant meetings and on phone calls, I often had to ask her to repeat herself. But that wasn't a good reason, I pondered, to fire her. She was good at her job (this was a large company) and she was in charge of everything! Now, they wanted her to take my position and become a clerk!!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! 

It was also around this time when H... company was about to merge with another company that HR gave her notice of its pending decision and a thank you for working with us for 30 years letter. Are you kidding me? I asked her! They could have given you a going away thank you gift! I felt sorry for her... Her facial expression was of a sad, worried countenance. Of course I didn't want her to take my job, but I was still sad to watch her struggle with all that was happening to her.

I don't know where Margaret went from H... company. I was amongst hundreds of other employees who were subsequently laid-off six months after the merger. But, I got that two-months severance pay even though I was set up a few times (My guess is that the CEO Interim had something to do with it to keep from having to pay me severance pay ) before I was laid-off, they tried to out-right fire me first!

By Catherine Davis
Founder of  Listen & Study Services

Universities pay staggering salaries to Presidents, Chancellors, VPs and provosts by the dozens, etc and in every administrative office there is a 57 year old woman named Peggy with a title like "Admin Assistant II" and that's the person who actually runs the university.

— Ed Burmila (@edburmila) September 28, 2022