Let me preface this memo with a little caveat:  I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been in the job force since 1985-ish in one administrative capacity or another and believe me, I've seen it all.  I’ve had amazing bosses and asshole bosses. I’ve had some that I worked “for” and others I worked “with” (an incredible, amazing difference, by the way).  And lately there seems to be a trend that I’ve noticed among employers, managers, supervisors and the like, which is really starting to grind my gears:

<insert annoyed expression here>
​“there are errors on this draft; why are you giving me a draft with errors on it?"

This seems to be a popular foible with younger managers and supervisors especially, but no worries--I've written this memo to help set the record straight on just what to expect when you receive a draft document from your administrative assistant.

What Is A Draft Document?

According to the history of, well, ever (and dictionary.com), a draft document (i.e., letter, email, spreadsheet, slide, et. al.) is, for all intents and purposes, a “working document”.  "A first or preliminary form of any writing, subject to revision, copying, etc.".  That means if your admin hands you a document that was NOT in its final form but rather in a preliminary form, there’s a very good chance said document will contain a mistake or two.  This "work in progress" may contain a rogue comma; a misplaced hyphen or a transposed number, because unfortunately, spell and grammar check can only do so much.  And if your admin is feeling especially rushed or pressed, there is an even stronger chance this may happen. You know why? Because they’re human and shit happens.

Oops.

As literary geniuses Hanz and Franz once said:  hear me now and believe me later:  mistakes of any sort on a draft document DO NOT--in any way, shape or form--entitle you, dear employer/manager/supervisor, to pitch a hissy fit at your admin.  Nor is it cause for a 10 minute discussion on how he or she needs to be more careful because y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶5̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶o̶f̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶a̶m̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ you are super, super busy and just don’t have time to monitor everything they do, and why does this keep happening?

Really, bitch? How ‘bout you just take that handy dandy red pen of yours and
cross out that accidental hyphen and we’ll move along, yeah?

I remember a while ago, when word processors were still a thing, I worked for a super busy, super successful marketing research firm.  The admins were responsible for drafting up skads of documents all day every day on those bad boys, then hand it all over to the boss-man for review.  And while I myself tried to keep the typos down to a dull roar, the other admin used to give them up with HELLA typos on them. I know this because I distinctly remember seeing the mark ups and asking her what in the cornbread hell happened.  It was almost as if there was an understanding between her and the boss: Sure, I’ll give you this fast AF, but don’t expect it to be pretty. And you know what? He didn’t! He marked it up, made his changes and edits and gave it back for her to fix--and betcha by golly wow--don’t you know her 2nd "draft" was always clean, neat and “error” free?

In my opinion, if you’re not working in tandem with your admin on proofreading and editing, maybe you should just create the document yourself.  In fact, here's a trust exercise you can do with your admin:  Have her give you a handwritten document and you create a Word doc out of it.  Or a spreadsheet or a slide; I don't care.  Just do your best (just like she does), give it a preliminary proofread (like she does), and hand it back for review.  Let's see how perfect you get it on the first try.

If you insist on pitching a fit over "errors on drafts",  just know this:  it makes you look really, really bad--not your admin.  Pounding your chest like Harambe over the fact that she missed a word between "pusillanimous" and "aposiopesis" isn't going to make the chance of it happening again any less.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you're not inept at proofreading and editing, so why the fuss? Correct the typos, add your edits and make your changes, give the draft back to your admin and let him or her do their thing.  She’s just as busy as you are, and her time is no more or less valuable than yours.   She has better things to do than listen to you whine about a comma.  Be a mentor and a leader, just don’t be a dick about it.

Dick.

With all this being said, I'm not unreasonable.  if you believe your admin is incapable of producing an error-free final document, then by all means, have a discussion, because errors on a final product warrant a conversation.  And if creating error-free, final products is truly an issue, there should be, without a doubt, consequences.  Because for that, there is no excuse.  But for you to be upset over “errors” on drafts?   Nah.  Just cool your jets and save yourself the temper tantrum, because this should NEVER, EVER, be a thing.

Just look at how easy this is!

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