The 21 Office Nightmares Only an Assistant Will Understand 👻

They say ghosts aren’t real. But those of us in administration know better.

We’ve seen projects rise from the dead, calendars that haunt our dreams, and “quick chats” that drain the very life from us.

This Halloween, light a candle, clutch your coffee, and prepare yourself for the horrors only an EA can truly comprehend. 👻

1. The “quick chat” that somehow becomes a two-hour strategic meeting with no notes and no outcomes.
2. The travel booking changed after check-in.
3. The mystery meeting that appears on the calendar with no organiser, no context, and no clue.
4. The executive who says, “I didn’t know about that,” even though it’s been in the calendar for six weeks.
5. The “Can you just…” at 5:29pm on a Friday.
6. The calendar block mysteriously overwritten by someone who “didn’t see it there.”
7. The inbox search that pulls up every email except the one you need.
8. The executive who swears, “I sent it to you!” (you both know they didn’t).
9. The spreadsheet that corrupts after weeks of getting it perfect, five minutes before you need it.
10. The document called Final_FINAL_V9_USE_THIS_ONE_PLEASE.pdf
11. The system update that takes your laptop hostage right before a presentation.
12. The executive who books over the focus time you have carefully set aside for them to get the work done. Again.
13. The meeting that could have been an email – and the email that should have been a meeting.
14. The “reply all” to a confidential thread.
15. The IT ticket marked “resolved” that took you three days to get them to look at in the first place and absolutely isn’t.
16. The executive who cancels your carefully planned offsite on the morning of the offsite.
17. The forgotten password. The expired password. The wrong password. The password you only have 60 seconds to reset. The password that turns out to be the correct one once you have completed the process of resetting it.
18. The office printer that jams on the day before the board meeting.
19. The event that you’re project managing, that takes over your life, but you never actually get to attend.
20. The urgent request for a report that was due last week, but you’re only hearing about it today.
21. The meeting that starts with, “We’ll just wait five minutes for everyone to join…” and there are 15 people on the invite.

What would you add?