The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Awards were announced Oct. 13, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place virtually Dec. 8.
Next is Public Company Executive Assistant of the Year finalist Ruth-Ann Adam, who’s an executive assistant at CGI Federal. Here, she talks key achievements, proud career moments, overcoming career struggles and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2020/2021?
The key achievements I had in 2020 and 2021 were promoting team building and cohesion during a stressful time of remote work and merging the TeraThink employees into CGI Federal’s DHS Sector. In March of 2020, CGI pivoted to a remote work environment.
While productivity soared, in-person meetings became virtual meetings; happy hours at bars became happy hours in everyone’s own workspace; and kitchen conversations, which had been so important and simple, were shuffled to the back burner and mostly forgotten. Using the resources at my disposal, I started developing a plan to bring the group back together virtually.
When members started logging into meetings, they were greeted with a meme, which made them smile, and talk. And suddenly, meeting agendas were pushed to the side as people started remembering eating McRib Sandwiches or admitting to drinking potato juice (vodka). Virtual happy hours and open houses came next, and you could see the walls drop and people began to grow together as a team.
It was a slow shift, but people responded; and the team got to know each other in a new way and re-bonded during those first few months.
During this time, I started sending small gifts and care packages to members, sending over 2,000 packages since our COVID quarantine began. That same month, CGI’s acquisition of TeraThink finalized, and 250 TeraThink employees became members of CGI. For several months, the TeraThink employees were not on our calendaring system, so meeting scheduling was challenging.
Getting to know the new members took extra effort since we were not together in the same space. But slowly over time, the bonds began to form. I started reaching out to them, helping them with virtual meetings, directing them to other members that could help them with specific questions (human resources, the proposal team, the IT department, to name a few). When the teams finally started gathering slowly in the following months, it was as if we were seeing old friends after a long time;,and we grew together as a team.
What was a turning point or inflection point in your career?
In 2014 after over 16 years of employment, I was laid off as part of a reduction in force. The layoff came quickly; I had little notice; and I thought until the last few days of bench time that something would materialize and I would be called back.
I was devastated, angry and wondered why I had bothered to work so hard and give so much of myself for so long only to be dismissed as an afterthought. Interviewing was a horrid, drawn-out process with many hopeful highs and tearful lows. But I kept at it, knowing that one day, I would find a job and start over.
When I received the series of calls from CGI, it happened quickly with a phone call on a Tuesday, phone screen on a Wednesday, in-person interview on a Thursday and a job offer on Friday. The week between the offer and first day seemed like a lifetime, but I was happy to start on a new adventure.
In the years since those terrible weeks, I have often thought back to all the things that had to fall into place to get me where I am today.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
For nearly two years, I took part in developing a new database that kept the company running during a government shutdown. In 2012, with a government shutdown looming, I was given a 10,000-line spreadsheet that contained all the contract CLINs that could possibly be affected by the shutdown.
The sheet had to be divided by contract administrator, sent to contract administrators with instructions on what information they needed to provide, and after the contract administers returned the completed spreadsheets to me, rebuilt into one spreadsheet.
This activity happened daily for over a week and twice the day before the possible shutdown. It was an exhausting, time-consuming and stressful activity that was ripe for human error and computer failure. At the final hour, the continuing resolution was signed; and the contracts’ department sighed in relief.
The following day, a Saturday, leaders from contracts, HR, legal and finance gathered in a mock war room; and while our efforts with the spreadsheet were praised, it was clear that no one person could gather this data on a continuing basis for what could be weeks.
The team decided to build a database that could load the data from the financial systems and with real-time input from the contract administrator, without the back and forth of emailing spreadsheets.
Over the following 18 months, I worked closely with the database developers on exactly what data was needed for the executive reporting, how the data entry pages should be laid out, who needed access to what parts of the database and what the executive-level reports should contain.
In late September 2013, the members of the war room gathered again and prepared for a certain shutdown on Oct. 1. Watching the data as it was loaded into our new tool, seeing the reports generated, having the ability to work in other areas of the war room and knowing that I had a part in keeping the company running during this difficult time made this entire experience the most fulfilling time of my career.
What was your biggest career struggle and how did you overcome it?
When I started working in an office setting in 1994, I had no office skills. I was hired as a contractor to run the front desk at a small company. The vice president of marketing was unhappy with his current admin and let everyone know it. He offered me the job after interacting with me for several months, and I accepted.
I bought a copy of Microsoft PowerPoint and taught myself the basics over the weekend. Over time with help from many other employees, I was able to keep up with the workload and learned Excel and Word along the way.
After working for that manager for several months, he left the company, and I had a new boss. He had no idea how I had struggled to keep up with the work. To this day, I consider that a success.
What is your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Show up early, be ready to work, be ready to learn. Your efforts will be appreciated, you will have a head start on your day, and your eagerness will be rewarded.