As I look back over my life I can see where women in the movies and on TV have paved the way for me to be where I am right now. I grew up at a time when women were not really being welcomed into the main stream of life. They were starting to make strides into the work place and showing that they could do the same work as a man. But to some extent women were still expected to be home with the kids and if they did find a way to step out of the house wife role they still had to make sure the household and family were taken care of above all else. Traditional family roles No matter how I look at it if it wasn’t for those women stepping up and trying to push the envelope I am not sure where my career would have gone. Especially at that time in history individuals were pushed in to gender roles and coached to act a certain way. Boys would become men who would take care of providing for the family. Girls would do the child rearing and take care of the family home. This was just the accepted way of things. For many of the early years in our country women were not even allowed to learn things like reading and writing. Because those skills were not befitting a young woman, these were for the man to do since he had to provide for the family. All the women had to do was to look pretty and keep the home and family in good order. But even then women wanted more out of life and snuck behind the barn to learn reading writing and arithmetic. Traditional women’s roles were changing But, not be held back, women were starting to gain more ground in life and on TV where they were being represented in much different roles. We were treated to the strong fictional female roles of Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, Agent 99 and many others. In real life women were breaking in to traditionally male areas such as racing and different types of industry. It was also the beginning of the time when women were being encouraged to further their education and explore areas they had not been able to before. Women who were my role models

As I grew up I heard and read about women like Shirley Muldoney (the fastest women on earth at the time), Marie Currie and many others and I wanted to be like them. I grew up as an only child of parents that never stifled my curiosity and to some extent encouraged me to be whatever I wanted to be. So I explored life from every angle and was really fascinated by math and science. Age makes a difference Unfortunately there were many areas that I wanted to go into that I was just too young. So I had to be satisfied with watching and learning from different aspects of my surroundings. One thing that was really good was that my dad was into Sci-Fi stuff and we faithfully watched Star Trek every week. While the escapades of Captain Kirk were always good, I was more interested in the women in major supporting roles. Look beyond the clothes Yeah they still had to dress in those skimpy clothes and all that. But they were professional, smart and most times didn’t’ take any gruff from their male counterparts. They were also treated with respect and seen as equals in any situation. Without question the women were allowed to go on “away missions” where their expertise was valued and sought after. This is one theme that was carried through all of the Star Trek movies and shows. Even pushing the envelope and making some women Captains of some of the Starships. The one that really stands out in my mind is Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager. The lady new her stuff, didn’t take anything from anyone, definitely had command of the ship but never lost her femininity. She really was a force to be reckoned with and finally got her, the crew and a few strays they picked up along the way home. Lessons learned So what did all this show me? It let me know that you had to try things, take that step into the unknown and give it your best shot. You had to take whatever was thrown at you and find a way to make it your own and never let it get you down. It didn’t matter if you tried and failed you at least tried. If you use the failure as a learning tool then it wasn’t a failure. You needed to take the lessons learned and apply them to all aspects of the next adventure and run like the wind. But the most important thing was that no matter what the situation you had to keep your wits about you and always remember your humanity. Even if you were facing creatures that no one had ever seen, and above all stay true to yourself. These lessons have carried over in anything I have done in my life. Instead of taking the easy track I found things to challenge me. I looked for new opportunities when other people were saying that those things could never be done. I worked with my dad as his assistant mechanic and my mom as her assistant cook. I took home economics in school. Where I learned to cook, sew and do crafts, all the while looking to the world of business, math and science to satisfy my need for adventure. The road to new things These adventures eventually took me to college and I earned an associate’s degree, but was unable to attain anything further in that area because of other commitments. It wasn’t
easy but, as Captain Janeway did I made the best of my situation and worked through the trying times. So after I took care of the needs of family and friends, I found a time when I could return to school and see just how far I could go and this is when my career really started to take off. I was introduced to the wonderful world of virtual learning. Technology to the rescue Through the internet and computers I could go to school, work and still have a home life. With support of my family I not only completed my bachelor’s degree I went on to attain my master’s degree. A feat I might say that no one else in the family had ever done before. But that was not
the driving force behind what I was doing. I had to find out if I could do it. I wanted to see if I really had the guts, brains and fortitude to tackle something of this magnitude. Thanks to my role models I did. As I have said they taught me that you should finish what you start no matter how long it takes and that failure was not the end. Where to go from here But now I had the knowledge and the drive to do what I wanted what was the next step? After going through all that and coming out much the wiser how did I go back to the mundane work a day world where you really aren’t the lead dog because the view doesn’t change much at all. The answer came from the idea of being able to learn on-line. Our best virtual assistant services to the rescue Around this time telecommuting was being discussed as a new way for many companies to save money and the idea of working from home was even being showed in the movies. So, in my mind, this was the next natural step to take and I figured there had to be a way I could do this and make it work for me. They all told me I was crazy, there couldn’t be any legitimate jobs you could do from home and on-line. I told them there had to be. The hunt begins So I put my new found skills to the test and started looking for new opportunities and ways to grow both my knowledge
and experience. One day I found a web-site that was talking about Virtual Assistants and I followed a few links and finally found what I was looking for. I real job I could do from anywhere at any time and could really get paid for it. Talk about a major win. Can this really be true? When I finally was hired at my first virtual job, I was excited but my husband was skeptical. He said what happens if you don’t get paid. I said that it didn’t matter all I had invested was a little time and energy. But it wasn’t long before I was waving a shiny new paycheck under his nose. Which made him happy, except for the fact of the, “I told you so” shine in my eyes. Even after finding that first on-line job and perusing it to its fullest, I have continued to “explore new worlds”, finding other jobs that gave me more of a chance to expand my knowledge while earning a few bucks. That is really the wondrous thing about working virtually. You get the chance to work with new and exciting individuals who all have something interesting to bring to the plate. Each new client has a different business and a way of working that is unique to that individual. Of course some of the basics are the same. Like office skills and such. But this type of work is never boring or routine. If that is not enough, I get to work with individuals from around the world. This gives me a chance to learn new cultures and further expand my knowledge of how things are done in different countries. Where would we be without them? Thank goodness for those early pioneer women who were strong enough to not only step out of the norm, but to push for the acceptance of women for who
we are. If it were not for them striving to show that women have a lot to give to the general knowledge the world would be a much different place. We owe a debt of gratitude to women like Hedy Lamore who refused to be another pretty face and shine for women everywhere.

So for me if it wasn’t for a silly Science Fiction show called Star Trek, a lifelong need for learning and a supportive family I am sure that my career life would have been vastly different. More than likely we probably wouldn’t be talking about a career in the sense that we know it right now. I am sure there would have been something like a house with a white picket fence 2.5 kids a husband, dog and cat somewhere in there. But I also believe I would still be looking at the stars wonder what else is there in life. But alas, as they say, the rest is history. I have become a very self sufficient person and love my life and career. I have learned many life’s lessons and hopefully will continue to learn and grow for the rest of my years. Also because of those early factors in my life and the advances in technology, I know I can continue to work and grow in a way that wouldn’t have been possible, not too many years ago. Maybe, one day, I will be one of those ladies that some young girl will look at and say she is glad I took the time to push the boundaries just a bit so that she can have the opportunities that might not have been possible otherwise. That would be a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

Don’t be rude – I can take constructive criticism, really I can. But when you deliver it with nasty comments and bad language, I tend to turn a deaf ear to what is being said. Treating me like a child or inferior doesn’t help either. I am a well educated, motivated individual and whether you believe it or not I deserve to be treated with professional courtesy if nothing else. Besides I am much more likely to do a better job if you treat me like a human. Don’t take it out on me – I know you may be having a bad day and someone is giving you grief about something, but it wasn’t me and I don’t deserve to take the punishment. Because you don’t know what kind of day I am having or who else has dumped on me that day. Getting things off your chest is a good thing and I can deal with that. But don’t cuss me out because you need to strike back at someone and you feel I am the one to do it to. Even though I am at the other end of the Phone Answering Service or computer doesn’t mean I am any less human. I do have feelings too.

I am not sure if saying these things to clients would make for better working conditions but I know that most virtual assistants would like to just once in awhile. Actually many other people would like to say this and more to a lot of people. The main problem is that we get caught up in our own lives that we forget how we can affect other people around us. Some time we have to widen our scope of thinking and consideration to see what others are seeing from us. We are all clients of each other I think we all tend to forget that we are all customers or clients of one another, at some point during the day. We have all kinds of interactions with many individuals on a consistent basis. We pass each other on the street or in the hall and most times don’t even notice the other person. Too many times we take that
casual greeting or lack of for granted. The same is true with our friends, family, bosses, or co-workers. Everyone is a client or customer of someone.

You may ask, how do you figure that friends and family are clients. After all they are friends and family not someone in a business situation. One of the definitions of a client is: (in ancient Rome) a plebeian under the protection of a patrician or one that depends on the protection of another. So loosely translated that could cover your friends and family. Either way the point is that each person you encounter deserves to be treated with some form of courtesy. Sure people are going to make you mad and so on but when the day is done we all need to look at our roles as customer or client in a different way. How do we make the change? Once we start to see the true relationship people have between each other we can start to make the changes needed to be better clients or customers. When we start treating people as a client we might see that projects are completed better and quicker. Things in the office flow and people, may not be happy, but will have a different attitude when approached to do things. Virtual assistants will feel more comfortable doing a project for someone that gives them the needed information and time to do the project. They will not hesitate to go to the client to ask a question because they know they will not get their head bit off for asking. In a very big way the flow of information and work would be better stabilized just because one or a few people took the time to treat them with professional courtesy. What is professional courtesy? The definition of professional courtesy is: A form of mutual respect among people in the same line of work. It doesn’t say you have to like someone to treat them well. You just have to have a mutual respect for one another. Face it if you are in the same line of work or at least in the same business there are mainly a couple of reasons why you are there. Everyone has some level of expertise in that field and the company thought that your skills were worthy of being used. So that means to some extent you have the similar status in the company. The same is true with a virtual assistant. You hired this person because he or she can produce the required work you need done. If the virtual assistant services were in your company you would train them to do the job you needed them to do and then let them do it. Working virtually is no different. There may be a little more required in the form of communication, but the basics are the same. So whether you are a client or the assistant try a little professional courtesy between each other. What all this boils down to is that people forget that they need to work together to get anything done. Assistants,
no matter what the job is, should be treated with professional courtesy at the very least. People will have problems no matter what happens. Virtual assistants as well as clients will have something to complain about whether you treat them right or not. But, when all things are considered, treating someone with a little understanding and kindness and remembering some of these complaints you will find that many things are not as bad as they could be.