Executives Lose a Coveted Status Symbol—Their Assistants

Ms. Balensiefen, 38, says she understands why the ranks of executive assistants have been thinning for decades. Software can automate many administrative tasks, and office management is less intensive in the hybrid era.

Still, that doesn’t mean executive egos don’t bruise when admins are taken away.

“It’s a pride issue,” she says. “Most people can handle things for themselves. They just don’t want to.”

A full-time assistant has long been a mark of importance, a signal to others that an executive’s time requires a gatekeeper and is too valuable to be spent managing a calendar or, heaven forfend, filling out an expense report. But with apps like Calendly to book appointments and ChatGPT to draft messages using artificial intelligence—plus budget constraints amid recession fears—many businesses are telling their executives to share assistants, use remote EAs or go without.

Large banks and professional-services companies have trimmed administrative positions in recent years, sometimes on the advice of consultants. Now McKinsey & Co., one of the biggest consulting firms, is set to lay off as many as 2,000 people in the coming months, including some in support roles.

Anyone who’s ever been downsized is excused for chuckling at the prospect of partners at a big consulting firm fetching their own coffee and fumbling with whatever app reserves the conference room, though it’s unclear how many assistants and admins will be part of the staff reduction. McKinsey declined to provide details.

“The perk of having a fully dedicated administrative support person is very rare these days,” says

Jerry Maginnis,

a senior adviser at Centri Business Consulting and former managing partner of KPMG’s Philadelphia office. “Even partners share.”

From 2000 to 2021, the number of executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants plummeted 63% to 508,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which forecasts another 20% decline by 2031.

Mr. Maginnis says young professionals are more tech-savvy and self-sufficient than their predecessors, and companies are generally happy to have them continue handling their own small tasks as they advance. Some emerging executives say they like the sense of control and privacy, since having an assistant can mean sharing a lot of personal information. Startup CEOs often work without assistants to demonstrate they are humble and know how to run lean operations. 

Matt Johnston, chief executive of the software company GitKraken in Scottsdale, Ariz., says he books his own appointments and travel—and files his own expenses, too. He expects the rest of his executive team to do the same, even as the business has grown to more than 100 employees and become profitable.

“I would always rather invest in that next engineer, support person or customer than in an EA,” he says, adding that the company does employ an office manager for some administrative duties.

Others maintain they work better with an assistant’s help.

Moritz Plassnig, who works in Boulder, Colo., as chief product officer of the cybersecurity firm Immuta, had an EA when he founded a previous company, which he later sold. Now he doesn’t. He doesn’t mind keeping his own calendar but hopes to start another business someday and says he looks forward to having an assistant again—ideally a chief of staff who knows him well enough to function like a second brain.

Those who’ve never had EAs don’t know what they’re missing, but those who have loved and lost the support of admins can find the change painful.

“If you went to a 600-attorney law firm 25 years ago, every attorney had their own assistant, if not two, and now you don’t necessarily have somebody answering the phones,” says Charlie Cain, managing director and executive vice president of the administrative placement firm Beacon Hill Associates. Lawyers seldom pick up the phone, anyway, he quips. “So who needs someone to answer it?”

Wasn’t the appearance of being too busy and important to take the call (“Tell them I’m in a meeting!”) part of the fun having someone else answer it? Alexa, Siri and Cortana attest to the joy people derive from delegating to an assistant, regardless of whether such a helper is necessary—or even real. TikTok is rife with tales of people who claim they’ve scored exclusive restaurant reservations or airline upgrades by pretending to have assistants, thereby inflating others’ perceptions of their status. 

Executive recruiters say people at the top of major companies’ org charts still can safely assume they’ll get their own assistants. For now. 

“I could see this becoming a hot-button issue with candidates,” says Ash Wendt, president of Cowen Partners Executive Search. “This is something to keep an eye on.”

Bo Burch, chief executive of Human Capital Solutions, says the desire to have an assistant is more practical than egotistic for the leaders he recruits. Time spent on administrative tasks could be better used on strategic planning, they say, or they could become so inundated by calls and emails that they lose control of their communications.

Mr. Burch credits his own assistant with keeping him on top of messages that demand prompt attention.

“Without an EA to manage the communications and scheduling of important meetings, an executive will dig a hole and lose his or her credibility,” he says.

Good aides can extend the tenures of business leaders by keeping them fresh, adds Angel Walsh, 30, who is interviewing for executive-assistant roles in the Detroit area after her position at a previous employer was eliminated last month. She contends that companies trying to save money by laying off EAs may regret their decisions later if they lose strong executives to burnout.

“Having your right hand suddenly cut off is a shock,” she says.

Write to Callum Borchers at [email protected]

Ms. Balensiefen, 38, says she understands why the ranks of executive assistants have been thinning for decades. Software can automate many administrative tasks, and office management is less intensive in the hybrid era.

Still, that doesn’t mean executive egos don’t bruise when admins are taken away.

“It’s a pride issue,” she says. “Most people can handle things for themselves. They just don’t want to.”

A full-time assistant has long been a mark of importance, a signal to others that an executive’s time requires a gatekeeper and is too valuable to be spent managing a calendar or, heaven forfend, filling out an expense report. But with apps like Calendly to book appointments and ChatGPT to draft messages using artificial intelligence—plus budget constraints amid recession fears—many businesses are telling their executives to share assistants, use remote EAs or go without.

Large banks and professional-services companies have trimmed administrative positions in recent years, sometimes on the advice of consultants. Now McKinsey & Co., one of the biggest consulting firms, is set to lay off as many as 2,000 people in the coming months, including some in support roles.

Anyone who’s ever been downsized is excused for chuckling at the prospect of partners at a big consulting firm fetching their own coffee and fumbling with whatever app reserves the conference room, though it’s unclear how many assistants and admins will be part of the staff reduction. McKinsey declined to provide details.

“The perk of having a fully dedicated administrative support person is very rare these days,” says

Jerry Maginnis,

a senior adviser at Centri Business Consulting and former managing partner of KPMG’s Philadelphia office. “Even partners share.”

From 2000 to 2021, the number of executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants plummeted 63% to 508,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which forecasts another 20% decline by 2031.

Mr. Maginnis says young professionals are more tech-savvy and self-sufficient than their predecessors, and companies are generally happy to have them continue handling their own small tasks as they advance. Some emerging executives say they like the sense of control and privacy, since having an assistant can mean sharing a lot of personal information. Startup CEOs often work without assistants to demonstrate they are humble and know how to run lean operations. 

Matt Johnston, chief executive of the software company GitKraken in Scottsdale, Ariz., says he books his own appointments and travel—and files his own expenses, too. He expects the rest of his executive team to do the same, even as the business has grown to more than 100 employees and become profitable.

“I would always rather invest in that next engineer, support person or customer than in an EA,” he says, adding that the company does employ an office manager for some administrative duties.

Others maintain they work better with an assistant’s help.

Moritz Plassnig, who works in Boulder, Colo., as chief product officer of the cybersecurity firm Immuta, had an EA when he founded a previous company, which he later sold. Now he doesn’t. He doesn’t mind keeping his own calendar but hopes to start another business someday and says he looks forward to having an assistant again—ideally a chief of staff who knows him well enough to function like a second brain.

Those who’ve never had EAs don’t know what they’re missing, but those who have loved and lost the support of admins can find the change painful.

“If you went to a 600-attorney law firm 25 years ago, every attorney had their own assistant, if not two, and now you don’t necessarily have somebody answering the phones,” says Charlie Cain, managing director and executive vice president of the administrative placement firm Beacon Hill Associates. Lawyers seldom pick up the phone, anyway, he quips. “So who needs someone to answer it?”

Wasn’t the appearance of being too busy and important to take the call (“Tell them I’m in a meeting!”) part of the fun having someone else answer it? Alexa, Siri and Cortana attest to the joy people derive from delegating to an assistant, regardless of whether such a helper is necessary—or even real. TikTok is rife with tales of people who claim they’ve scored exclusive restaurant reservations or airline upgrades by pretending to have assistants, thereby inflating others’ perceptions of their status. 

Executive recruiters say people at the top of major companies’ org charts still can safely assume they’ll get their own assistants. For now. 

“I could see this becoming a hot-button issue with candidates,” says Ash Wendt, president of Cowen Partners Executive Search. “This is something to keep an eye on.”

Bo Burch, chief executive of Human Capital Solutions, says the desire to have an assistant is more practical than egotistic for the leaders he recruits. Time spent on administrative tasks could be better used on strategic planning, they say, or they could become so inundated by calls and emails that they lose control of their communications.

Mr. Burch credits his own assistant with keeping him on top of messages that demand prompt attention.

“Without an EA to manage the communications and scheduling of important meetings, an executive will dig a hole and lose his or her credibility,” he says.

Good aides can extend the tenures of business leaders by keeping them fresh, adds Angel Walsh, 30, who is interviewing for executive-assistant roles in the Detroit area after her position at a previous employer was eliminated last month. She contends that companies trying to save money by laying off EAs may regret their decisions later if they lose strong executives to burnout.

“Having your right hand suddenly cut off is a shock,” she says.

Write to Callum Borchers at [email protected]