Hello, everyone! Before I tell you about what is going on at work, let me tell you about where I am working. I am working at a law firm here in Socorro as a legal assistant. I have been at my job for over a year now, and they graciously are letting me work on new things like the Office Procedures Manual so that I can continue there for my internship.

Recently, I have been working on the Office Procedures Manual as we have recently hired a new administrative assistant. Because of my time at the firm, I have been given slight seniority. However, it is an interesting situation as the new administrative assistant previously worked at a position where she was above students. So even though I have been working on my manual, I will come into work to find the assistant who was hired changing my manual and leaving instructions for how I should be doing my job differently. She is obviously trying not to step on toes, but just assumed that she would be back in the role of being above the student. Because there is no overlap in our times to straighten out who is supposed to be doing what, I have had to rely strictly on my technical communications skills to leave things like memos to diffuse the situation so that it does not become a problem.

Even though I have been given seniority (a higher title and higher pay), I had to be careful not to use a lot of that seniority because I did not want to make her feel defensive. However, at the same time, I had to establish some seniority because there are times when I am have to correct her and give her instructions that must be taken seriously. After many tries to convey this through a memo, I found that it simply still was not working. So I arranged a time when I could meet with my boss to discuss what I should do.

When I met with my boss, I made sure that I was very kind and humble and did not say anything derogatory about the new assistant. Instead, I complimented the things that she was doing well and made it seem like this was my problem that I was having trouble conveying this. In the end, my boss ended up speaking to the other assistant since I am in class when she works and could not do a face-to-face. I also came out looking like I was very mature and skilled because I was able to diffuse the situation down to a simple conversation between them to help with a small misunderstanding.