It really isn't a culture which promotes or encourages inclusivity within the administrative group or even with other departments. There is definately a hierarchal situation between and amongst the assistants who serve the main family members and all other assistants within the company. It's a rather unfriendly environment, depending on what department you work for. Most of the assistants work incredibly hard to not interact with a chosen few of the senior assistants. If you ask most of the AAs and EAs how they've successfully maintained not only their employment but mostly their sanity, the standard response is that they keep to themselves and interact with anyone, particularly a select few, as little as possible. Also, it isn't a culture that supports or promotes professional growth for their assistant. From my vantage point, it seemed that most of the assistants' technical skills, and in some cases, their organizational and basic administrative skill set were sub par. I typically went to work every day with a knot in the pit of my stomach. In my experience, it's expected that there is always a level of cattiness in the administrative pool, but I've never experienced anything on this level. Although I was confident in my experience and skill set, I found it incredibly difficult navigating my way around overblown egos and ever-changing mood swings, even from colleagues on my level of service. Being a "team player" was not only frowned upon, it was strongly discouraged, which is really unfortunate. I think if certain members of "the family" were aware of some of the non-sense taking place within the company, they would be mortified. I liked the company as a whole. I was honored to work for such a prestigious, philanthropic family. And upon being hired, I was thrilled and had high hopes for having a long-term career there. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as I had hoped, but I still hold many people there in very high regard.
