Finally, we come to the third tier(s) of Any other Business; the Support Staff.  The jobs these people hold cover the receptionists, PAs to the Directors, administrators, officers, executives and co-ordinators.

Any other Business holds on to its receptionists like Liz Taylor holds on to husbands.  The permanent receptionists that have been recruited in the past have tended to be sour-faced old hags whose resentment at being employed to do feck-all drips down the telephone line to external callers and displays itself in the form of a mild panic attack when asked to do something other than answer the phone or open the post.  Fortunately for AoB's public image, it seems to have dispensed with any pretence that this post is anything but waiting out time on death row and now recruits bright young things whose only thought is to earn enough money to go travelling.

Each director has a PA.  All of these are female and the cannier directors have employed people who are bright, friendly and popular.  This means that whatever the general feelings of disrespect or resentment that may be harboured towards the director, the PA is so well liked that people generally tend to co-operate - firstly because the request is usually given in a charming and, if necessary, apologetic way and secondly because if the required information isn't handed over there is always a sense of guilt that the PA will get it in the neck from the director.  This scenario is particularly true of Pricilla, Baboon Arse and the Duchess.

'Administrator' has been given as a title to those people who work pretty hard however, they don't qualify for management status because their directors don't quite understand what they do.  It is a serious failing of AoB that it doesn't take IT seriously - it thinks that computers are 'easy' and has a sneaking suspicion that anyone involved in them as a job is secretly having a lot of fun.  This accounts for two administrators - the website administrator and the PC and Network administrator.  Anyone who thinks being shouted at by someone who has no idea what they've asked you to do and why it is impossible (website) is fun, or anyone who thinks it is fun to have dimwit directors, who refuse to take any training, call you over to their machine because they cannot understand the basic principles of 'word', would have to be part of the senior management team at AoB.

Other administrators include those people who work extremely long hours, often away from home, organising events and conferences or run small projects or cover the more junior side of finance and administration.

The term 'officer' was introduced by Cruella who was too important to have a PA, a breed whom she believes to be too lowly to be associated with such a grand person as herself, but basically describes a PA who does other things for her (i.e. her work).  The term has since been coined by others to describe someone who they think is 'above' a PA, but won't pay as much as a manager.

Executives are the same as administrators, but the Baboon Arse has introduced this term to his team to make sure that everyone knows that they are more 'important'.

Co-ordinators are the same as officers and usually work to a manager, rather than a director.  Managers aren't allowed to have PAs, so some partly fulfil this function, while the majority are just 'lower-key' versions of the managers they work for, without so much responsibility.

The majority of this tier of staff are good natured, have a good sense of humour and have the capacity to drink like fish.  As ever, there are a few exceptions - a few are described below.

If anyone were in need of a PA it is Tango.  However, her PA happens to 'work from home' a few hundred miles away - a cushy deal which has been bestowed to AoB from one of its previous Head Honchos.  This PA will be known as Tango-Too - as she too loves the sunbed.  Tango2 used to be the old HHoncho's PA until she decided she wanted a taste of the Goodlife, so she re-locates to the west country and a post is created for her.  She occasionally manages to make it into the office, when she treats it like a social club which has re-opened just for her.  She will wiggle around on too-high heels, kissing people like they are long-lost relatives 'mwoar, mwoar dalling.  How ARE you' (now let me tell you about me).  She has managed to retain her 'London' salary; so nothing dodgy going on there then.  Incidently, old HH will feature in a separate chapter, 'Monkey Magic'.

One of the officers deals with personnel and administration in a post which was created a year ago.  It isn't a full time job, so the person in this role tries her hardest to make herself as busy as possible.  Almost no day goes by without an all-staff email being circulated from her asking staff to fill out a desktop health and safety form, a personal contacts update form, do you want an all-staff birthday card form, do you use the database form, are you visiting a doctor form, you've been off sick form, are you taking any holiday at xmas form ...etc. (none of these have been made up).  Each email is invariably flagged and has a red ! mark next to it and woe-betide any member of staff who doesn't complete and return any of above forms.  In addition to thinking that she is the only person in the office who is busy, she also cannot properly perform the aspects of her job she was recruited to do, for instance, telling someone in their induction that they were ineligible for financial assistance with any eyetests because they were already wearing glasses - presumably if they'd worn contact lenses, it would have been fine.

One of the biggest chocolate teapots at Any other Business is a Co-ordinator.  In her time she has been PA to most of the directors who, as soon as they had worked with her for a while, cleverly found a way to re-structure their department so she was out on her ear.  She has a first class honours degree and phd in spreading poisonous gossip, much of it untrue.  A number of years ago, Any other Business had the ideal opportunity to rid itself of this person, when she was taken to an IT and the majority of staff gave evidence against her on the grounds of unprofessionalism and bullying.  Sadly, AoB was too chicken to act on the findings of the tribunal and kept her on.  She now sits in an office, out of the way of everyone else, where she can make her personal calls and emails, shop online and stew to her heart's content.

Over the course of this story, other personalities will come to light.  However, this covers the majority of staff for now.