It's a tight job market out there, and companies are competing like never before to recruit and retain good staff. Some secretaries have brought the trend on themselves, believes Steve Hayward, managing director of European Event Decorators. There is a fast-increasing number of secretarial exhibitions where companies like us advertise. Secretaries go back to their bosses all fired up with ideas about parties to give staff an incentive boost. It's not just employees that need wining and dining on a more frequent basis than ever.
Corporate hospitality is back in fashion.
But in smaller firms, one or both of these tasks is becoming a regular part of the role of the PA, particularly of PAs to senior managers. I was asked to plan a party with an Irish theme for our 200 staff to mark St Patrick's Day - which happened to fall on the day that our company was expanding. But I'd never done anything like that before and was given little guidance. The entertainment was appalling, the food didn't show up and the turn-out was pathetic. I still cringe when I think about it now.