Personal assistant vs office manager: what's the difference?

These two professions are often confused, even though they meet different needs.

The office manager: a role focused on the company

The office manager runs the day-to-day operations of an office or organisation: supplies, relationships with the company's service providers, organising premises, sometimes a first level of HR. Their scope is collective, centred on the internal organisation of a team or a company.

The personal assistant: a role focused on the individual

The personal assistant, on the other hand, takes care of one particular person, whether in their professional life, personal life, or both. Her scope is individual and much broader: calendar, travel, personal administrative tasks, family organisation, finding service providers for private needs.

Could you need both?

Yes. An executive can perfectly well have an office manager for their company's structure, and a personal assistant to free up time for everything related to their private life and the organisation that spills over outside work. These are two complementary forms of support, not competing ones.

A personal assistant may also occasionally take on certain matters that would usually fall to the office manager, whenever they directly concern the person she supports: a business trip to organise, an appointment to coordinate with his personal calendar, or a task linked to his activity. In that case she isn't acting on behalf of the organisation as a whole, but for the person she works with.