So it's recently become kind of 'in' to get yourself a PA to do all the **** you don't want to do. I've recently realised that to maintain my edge as a respected HSNL poster i had to get one too; adapt or die. I hired her today, she is 21, chinese, church-goer, flexible schedule. Seems pretty perfect, we will see. She is worried i wont be able to find her enough stuff to do, but i have guaranteed her only 8 hours a week, i think i will be able to keep her busy!

The intention of this thread is to talk about things you recently got your PA to do that might not be normal (researching weird things, cooking new batches of certain types of food that are easy to cook a lot of and store, things you got them to shop for that aren't obvious, etc).

What are you paying?
How many candidates did you interview? Post your original craigslist submission so others can copy paste it when they want to hire!

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I am a young professional that works from home. I am looking for a personal assistant to help me catch up with all the things I no longer have time to keep up with. Tasks will include, but will not be limited to running errands, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping, and occasional simple cooking.

Applicants will be expected to work Saturdays but your hours can be flexible. I am not sure how long it will take you to get things done, but I will guarantee pay for 8 hours per shift for the first month. If you complete your duties in 4 hours then great, you can just relax and read a book or something.

Pay will be $15/hour, for 8 hours every Saturday. I work out of my townhouse which is located in Canada. If you're interested, email me a resume and short explanation of why you think you'd be good for the job to canadaPA AT gmail.com and i'll get back to you soon. If you have a problem doing any of the things i've listed, please specify which in your email - (if anyone had a problem doing any of the things i listed, i just ignored their email, i think this was a good filter!)
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I actually ended up asking for 2 4 hour shifts since i got about 100 responses and knew someone would be willing to do that. In reality, i think i would just say 'looking for someone willing to work 9-10 hours spread over 2-3 days a week', so many people want this kind of job that you can get whatever you want really. Also, i interviewed at a coffee shop rather than my place which is pretty obvious thing to do but i guess poker players do stupid things all the time so there's a hint!

ok that's it..i'm getting one also. to good a deal...

thanks ninja u just made my life a lot easier

Oh also i told her she would be on a trial basis for first 2 weeks which i wouldn't have done if someone hadn't recommended it, but I think this makes it a lot easier to 'fire' the person if they suck.

what section did u post it in? admin/office?

this is a fantastic idea

In the corporate world most people are on probation for 3 months where you can let them go without much reason. I would extend the trial period IMO.

wat? if she really sucks, i'd pay a bit more.

pay weekly or monthly imo. makes life way easier, although it does cost you more... but the idea behind getting a pa is to pay to make ur life easier so you can focus more on other aspects of life (often returning that amount of money easily)

+ From the moment you get one, it can be a good idea to start writing things you would not do by yourself during the week. Save these things for her shift(s). I think you get a great value of a P.A. when, like durrrr said, you gain time to do others things. But also when it gives you the opportunity to try things you would'nt have if you were alone.

Boring personnal exemple : I always wanted to learn web programmation but was to lazy to do it. I asked my P.A. to find someone who'd teach me. She did and the guy in question turned out to be really cool. I completely changed paths and now work with him. No more poker.

Good luck and hope you'll like your experience.

Great idea for a thread. I'm looking forward to the responses.

posted it in ETC/part time. i dont have a maid and wanted my PA to do most those duties (all those duties really...) so admin/office wouldn't work for me personally.

jeez, tears in my eyes. somebody get nick cassevetes on the phone ASAP

I recently hired a PA, but as a fulltime assistant, including to come live in the house in vegas during the wsop. I pay 6k/month plus all expenses/food etc, but the hours and duties are openended and up to me, primarily driving, cooking, cleaning, shopping. I told her that the most important thing is pulling me away from the bj table when I'm drunk or bored, that should save me 200k+ for the summer.

lol i dont need a personal assistant thats what my gf is for

i hired one for myself a few months ago with my roommate. we pay her $300/week and she would work 6days a week. some days she would have alot of stuff to do and some days she would have less **** to do. you should put on the craiglist that she must have a drivers license cuz it would be really hard to get someone that can't drive.

if anyone who has a clue about this stuff can list a couple stuff they make em' do cept shopping and cleaning it'd be great .

Ya sooooooooooo this.

Never had a PA, just a cleaning lady that comes to my apt once every two weeks. A PA would be pretty sweet. I think id feel a little guilty though, even though cleaning lady is like the same thing, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

i have a personal assistant, its sweet. she comes 5 days wk, around 6 hrs a day. she cooks a lot and random bs i dont wanna do. so nice not being on hold anymore, or being stuck in traffic to go to something i don't wanna do in the first place.

my question is about taxes. do i have to report anything about her income? would i have to pay the IRS something or would she? or is it just way eaiser to pay her under the table since i only have 1 'employee'.

You should just bet the the PA an amount identical to her proposed wage that she won't do what you tell her for the proposed amount of time.

When you most likely lose this unfortunate bet, then her wage will be a direct write-off against the poker winnings you are paying taxes on.

I think part of being more awesome and having a better life is getting people to do **** you don't want to do for you and then rewarding them for it. everyone wins. i am in the same boat though, even if i was paying someone $50 an hour to clean up after me i'd still be like 'oh is that ok?'. But i hope this changes at some point. Nothing is gained by by being a little girl and worrying about their feelings (realistically, they probably AREN'T going jeez my boss is such a slob, they're probably going 'oh god, i hope he thinks i'm working hard enough' or even 'i wonder if greys anatomy is on tonight?'); they are never going to express their opinions to their boss (why should they, they're doing what you hired them to do), so they might as well not exist.

Be like Phil Ivey, and get the masseuse to go make you a sandwich; he sure as f4ck doesn't care that she might feel overqualified for that, and she sure as f4ck isn't going to say anything, so what's gained by caring?

i'm thinking of everything i need to do and don't want to do and now suddenly, i want a PA

This is an awesome thread.

I have a cleaner/housekeeper who comes once a week and I couldn't live without her. But obviously a PA is different because they also perform certain "intellectual" tasks like finding you a guy who would teach you computer programming. So I guess they would need some education and preferably they should be a college student or something.

Big bonus obviously if they are hot.

Do you give preferential treatment to hot girls?

Do you befriend them?

Don't you consider losing the ability to do those 'menial' things further distancing yourself from reality?

Isn't this 'lack of self worth' issue you nl dudes keep whining about further inflamed by then hiring someone to distance yourself from the 'average persons life'.

I guess it depends what you want really, and many of you guys seem really bad at working that out...

JT

Obviously.. would you not give preferential treatment to hot girls if you met them at a party or at work?

Who is talking about losing one's ability to perform these tasks?

This is about freeing up more time for yourself to focus on activities that add more value to your life and your net worth. It's an entirely +EV proposition. Why do managers hire secretaries instead of typing letters and answering phone calls themselves? Do you think their companies allow them to do so purely to stroke their egos?

And why would getting hired help necessarily result in losing one's ability to do anything? Do managers with secretaries lose the ability to type? If you live in a big city and commute by taxi to save time, does it mean you lose the ability to drive?

How in the world is this related to lack of self worth?? You're not making any sense I'm afraid.

I hire a housekeeper and send my laundry to the drycleaners to save myself time and hassle, not because I am consciously trying to distance myself from the average person's life. I treat my hired help with a great deal of courtesy and respect because they are honest hard working people and above all because they are making a positive difference in my life. There is no element of condescenion whatsoever, our dealings are professional and based on a business contract between myself and the employee in question. Why is this so hard to grasp?