Office Manager - Anyone had this role before/know people who have?

SideWinder

SideWinder

SideWinder

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I am pondering my next career steps and basically, I love working with people.

A current colleague of mine randomly mentioned that he could see me doing this type of role so I wondered if anyone knew much about it

I've done a bit of research and it does appeal however I have no direct experience so perhaps I won't be able to go directly into this type of role...maybe something a bit less senior?
 
I'd say "Office Manager" is way too vague of a description. A lot will depend on responsibilities of the role, size of office/number of employees etc etc.

You could be in charge of a big office with hundreds of employees and many responsibilities. Versus a single unit/3 person office where you might have very little responsibility.
 
Semple said:
I'd say "Office Manager" is way too vague of a description. A lot will depend on responsibilities of the role, size of office/number of employees etc etc.

You could be in charge of a big office with hundreds of employees and many responsibilities. Versus a single unit/3 person office where you might have very little responsibility.
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Mm I've heard it can vary from arranging the stationary to events for the business, team bonding/morale activities, scheduling etc.

Guess it varies from business to business as you say.
 
Depending on the size of the place, there might also be a buildings manager, which despite its name(!) is dealing with a lot of people,
contractors, managers, deliveries etc.
 
I'd expect this role to vary wildly by company and size of business.

As a practical example for you though, I work for a company with 16 permanent staff at one location. The office manager when i joined was the long-term PA to the chief exec and in her late 50s. Most recently it has been a colleague who was a project manager and took on the role in addition to her usual duties because nobody else volunteered. No real level of seniority required and we are a small enough enterprise that it is not a full time role. Sample activities for our OM:
  • Dealing with post / issues
  • Ordering stationery and sundries
  • Arranging deliveries for our water coolers and other consumables
  • Arranging testing / callouts for our (non-IT) systems: alarms, air conditioning units, boiler, plumbing, printers etc.
  • Arranged a new AV system
  • Replacing broken equipment
  • Staff handbook updates
  • Inductions for new staff
  • Risk assessment for safe working practices re: Covid
  • Staff socials / Christmas party (more due to her personality!)
And also generally shepherding staff to pick up small-scale tasks, such as bins, kitchenette, tidying our post room etc.

That may look very different in a larger organisation with more responsibilities, potentially split between separate roles.
 
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Office Managers in my experience are synonymous with Office Karen's. Maybe building or facilities manager is something to explore as well?
 
dLockers said:
Office Managers in my experience are synonymous with Office Karen's. Maybe building or facilities manager is something to explore as well?
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That’s a sweeping generalisation. Out our company, the office managers are the people that get tasked with sorting out stuff that we need but doesn’t fall under a particular person’s hat e.g. stationary, postage, pest control, plumbing, electrics (getting trades in) etc
 
dirtychinchilla said:
That’s a sweeping generalisation. Out our company, the office managers are the people that get tasked with sorting out stuff that we need but doesn’t fall under a particular person’s hat e.g. stationary, postage, pest control, plumbing, electrics (getting trades in) etc
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Yeah my experience is definitely clouded. As an example, in my first junior IT role (first line on site support), the office manager used to try and delegate jobs like meeting room white board pen replacement etc. And then escalated when I said I was busy doing reimaging/it's not in my JD or something.
 
SideWinder said:
I've done a bit of research and it does appeal however I have no direct experience so perhaps I won't be able to go directly into this type of role...maybe something a bit less senior?
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Well day to day the office manager's direct reports would be involved with stuff like the reception desk, the confrence rooms and keeping the kitchens stocked with snacks, milk, coffee etc.. and maybe some admin people.

Essentially the receptionists, office juniors, some PAs and some secretary types (we had a travel secretary for example who'd book flights, hotels, taxis etc..).

The receptionists and PAs (at least in the city) are usually female and good looking, they man the front desk, answer the phone/direct calls, sometimes act as waitresses/collect ordered in food if there are clients in a conference room*. The office juniors are the general dogsbodies - school leavers who either quit after a year or two or end up moving into IT, they stock up the kitchen, the stationery cupboard, collect the post and are the general odd job people for the office manager.

*they also had access to a better coffee maker for this task, good to make friends with them and get the better coffee instead of the ordinary, pop a capsule in the machine type coffee.

Flaevius said:
Dealing with post / issues

  • Arranging deliveries for our water coolers and other consumables
  • Arranging testing / callouts for our (non-IT) systems: alarms, air conditioning units, boiler, plumbing, printers etc.
  • Arranged a new AV system
  • Replacing broken equipment
  • [...]

That may look very different in a larger organisation with more responsibilities, potentially split between separate roles.
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Yeah some of that - risk assessment stuff and general non-IT equipment stuff can be under a "facilities manager" rather than "office manager", though in my firm the facilities manager doesn't seem to have any direct reports aside from borrowing the office juniors when needed, he sits next to the office manager and they kinda do work together. The actual repairing of stuff like lights involves a phone call to the building facilities people, he's kinda more like a liaison when it comes to most repairs.
 
Appreciate all the insights, thank you.

I am not totally sure however I'll check jobs specs as you're all right - the role may vary depending on the business.
 
Diddums said:
I've probably got the most experience in the facilities game on this forum, feel free to ask away if there's anything in particular you want to know :)
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How you getting on with your H&S diploma. I'm over halfway now and hope to crack on and finish it before the end of the year.
 
SideWinder said:
Is exams/qualifications essential for the role? Didn't know this but it does make sense.

I guess it all varies on the company though/how big it is.
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Yes, very much so. You can start in a junior position, prove yourself and a decent company will invest in you. I've not paid a penny towards my courses. But to move up the chain and accept the responsibilities you'll need the certifications for insurance purposes.
 
SideWinder said:
Is exams/qualifications essential for the role? Didn't know this but it does make sense.
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Just to clarify and @Diddums can correct me if I'm wrong on this but I think he's talking more about the facilities side of things.

A junior role there might involve working for a building management company and being a kinda odd job person/handyman... changing lights, fixing stuff or liaising with contractors called out to fix the stuff you're not allowed to fix etc. Doing well in that sort of role could no doubt lead to running a team of guys doing that and then some sort of facilities manager role for a building management firm/big landlord or indeed as the facilities manager for a corporate tenant company in a big office building etc.

Conversely a junior role under an office manager might be a receptionist (unusual for a middle age man) or an office junior - potentially good entry level job for a school leaver* with limited quals who wants to work hard (they're very visible to execs and doing your time there, being seen as a hard worker can lead to other roles internally that you'd never have been considered for) but very low paid and would also be very odd/unusual for a middle aged man to be doing that role.


(*In a couple of cases I've seen the 18 yr old school leaver type do this role (fetching post, stocking up kitchens, setting up conference rooms for meetings) for say 3 years or so then be allowed to try some new role in the company, like start helping the IT team and then move into a full-time positon with them and a new office junior hired or even in one case in the US the office junior started spending a bit of time with a dev team then end up moving to a BA role.. simply because the guy was a super hard worker and always stayed late, always switched on etc.)
 
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