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Rise of the super-PA: meet the virtual assistants who can run your life for you

Christina Wooderson, who works as a virtual assistant after serving as Sam Branson's PA for six years
Christina Wooderson, who works as a virtual assistant after serving as Sam Branson's PA for six years

Christina Wooderson says there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her clients. Buy a birthday present for their wife? No problem. Plan and book a holiday for their family? Of course. Find a school for their child? Yes, even that.

Wooderson, 31, is what you might call a super-PA, though she prefers the title “virtual assistant” (VA). Part of a growing number of self-employed helping hands, she charges a flat fee of £30 an hour to do, well, whatever you want her to. “No task is too big, too small or unusual,” runs the motto on her website.

After working as a personal assistant to Richard Branson’s son Sam for six years, she now juggles freelance work for a number of different clients. “A lot of people don't have time on their hands, and that's where I fit in,” she says. “It means people can concentrate on the stuff they want to do, such as spending more time with their family.”

Room to Breathe, a small UK-based virtual assistant agency, offers a similar selling point: “Imagine a world where you come home and spend the evening focusing on yourself and your family, rather than the ever-increasing to do list you've been putting off for months,” runs the blurb on its website. “Life is not about time, it's about choices.”

Where once the PA would be found on the office floor, working a nine to five as the boss’s right-hand woman (as it frequently was), now she - or he - could as easily be found working from their smartphone in the comfort of their own home or even their local coffee shop. For the VA, this provides the benefit of cutting out the daily commute  -Wooderson used to travel to the Virgin head office in Paddington, west London, from her home in Bray, Berkshire, some 28 miles away. It also enables them to dictate their own hours - to some extent at least. For Wooderson, who has two young children, this is one of the attractions of the job.

While we may be at ease with doing business virtually, interacting with a screen and a keypad, we have not shed the basic human need for interpersonal connection - Credit: Hero Images
While we may be at ease with doing business virtually, interacting with a screen and a keypad, we have not shed the basic human need for interpersonal connection Credit: Hero Images

For the boss - or the well-off client with enough spare cash to pay for some virtual assistance - it means flexibility; the ability to pay on an ad hoc basis when he or she needs something doing, rather than having to provide a full-time annual salary with workplace benefits thrown in. This cost-effectiveness is a key part of the appeal.

In an increasingly flexible jobs market, with growing numbers moving away from the traditional nine-to-five office-based culture and up to 1.1 million British workers estimated to be part of the so-called gig economy, the rise of the VA makes a certain amount of sense. And like many jobs within the broader gig economy, it is modern technology that makes it all possible.

While Uber and Deliveroo drivers rely on apps, the VA’s smartphone is more or less their office, with email, Skype and online search engines the key tools in their kit. Wooderson has only met a couple of her clients face-to-face - though that’s not to say complete anonymity is the the aim.

“I have a conversation with them first. It's not that I want to be friends with them but I want them to be comfortable,” she says. “I want them to hear my voice, and I've put a photo on my website so they know who I am.”

In other words, while we may be at ease with doing business virtually, interacting with a screen and a keypad rather than face-to-face with humans, we have not shed the basic human need for interpersonal connection.

A virtual assistant can work anywhere, including their local coffee shop - Credit:  Shutterstock/ GaudiLab
A virtual assistant can work anywhere, including their local coffee shop Credit: Shutterstock/ GaudiLab

“It's not just a professional relationship,” says Wooderson. “I think you've got to break down those barriers. There's got to be trust and respect on both sides. It's a very special and unique relationship between a PA and a boss.”

When we speak, the jobs in her in-tray that week include organising an engagement party for 300 people, helping an events coordinator organise some events, and researching different options for a family holiday - not her own, but a client’s.

Fatima Malagueira from Room to Breathe suggests VAs are growing in popularity due to workplace changes in the last few years.

“Since the last financial crisis, executives have been more prudent in the use of their PAs for any personal tasks, often sharing them with at least one other colleague,” she says. “Their heavy workload continues nonetheless, leaving them little time to sort out their personal to-do list - which is where we come in.”

So what are the downside for the VA? A lack of office banter, perhaps; the absence of so-called water cooler chat, and the sharing of the daily minutiae of your life with the colleagues sitting near you. The isolation of the freelancer is always a risk.

But for the client, the disadvantages appear relatively few. Wooderson, at any rate, is clear on this: “The downside of not having someone as your full-time PA? It’s not having someone there to make your coffee.“