For those people working in London, has anyone noticed that most secretaries/EA's/PA's working in the City or Canary Wharf in banks/funds/advisory firms seem to be blonde girls from Essex? It's been true at most firms I've worked at and when I've asked around friends working at other institutions, others seem to report the same thing that their secretaries are primarily blonde Essex girls.
Anyone else noticed this?
Yes and it’s because Essex is a pool of unqualified cheap labor that can easily commute into London.
Brutal but truthful
Hey! That's not true - some of them also rent flats together and commute from Notting Hill. It's like nests for fake nails and hair extensions.
Dunno, I was there last year, met 3 heads of dept, all had a black woman for secretary.
Yep, decent turnover as well. Keeps things entertaining.
Strongly disagree. Ours is brunette.
This is very true, they're usually fake blonde haired and fake tanned. But also attractive.
When I briefly rotated thru London I was warned about Essex girls who hang out at the nearby pub (Cortney & Barrow) who were just trying to latch on and grab a banker husband.
Would you rather have an attractive EA/PA or an unattractive one? Most of the time (read: always), they’re fake nice/chatty, so might as well have someone pleasing to the eye is all.
I was good friends with the CIO at my last job, and the # 1 piece of advice he gave me was to have an unattractive EA. He said that there was enough bullshit in our day to day lives and giving your partner even a small nugget of doubt in their mind was not worth it. If you want pretty girls to serve you, there are places for that.
I agree 100%, but I can see now how my comment can be misinterpreted. And of course if I were an MD/person who would require/hire a EA/PA for himself, I would never hire an attractive one. I was referring to having an attractive one for the entire team certainly doesn't hurt (from an Analyst/Associate/VP/non 1:1 relationship perspective), because she's there for the whole team and not directly "serving" anyone on an exclusive basis.
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