Monzo Staff Q&A - Georgie Parmenter (Executive Assistant to the Founders)


Note : All Monzo Q&As to date can be found here :grinning:


People! Animals! Plants! All gather round, for as is custom, it is time for another Monzo Weekly Q&A.

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Why? Because you have questions. There are many questions in the world. We seek to provide you with the answers to those questions. Some of them, anyway. Typically Monzo related, but not always!

However, before questions can be asked, you may want to read through the history of our Q&As. Thereā€™s been some damn good ones. Iā€™ve enjoyed every moment.


Week 1 : Chris MacLean, Customer Operations & Vulnerable Customers :santa:t2:
Week 2 : James Nicholson, iOS Engineer :green_apple:
Week 3 : Tara Mansfield, People Operations Manager :woman_technologist:t5::man_technologist:t3:
Week 4 : James Routley, Backend Engineer :hammer_and_wrench:
Week 5 : Hugh Wells, Customer Operations :man_police_officer:t3:
Week 6 : Naz Malik, Technical Specialist :computer:
Week 7 : Fred Morgan, COps Squad Captain (Calls & Social Media) :telephone_receiver:
Week 8 : Emma Northcott, COps Scaling Team :balance_scale:
Week 9 : Jarno Wolf, COps Financial Crime Specialist & Squad Captain :wolf:
Week 10 : Maria Campbell, Head of People :woman_office_worker:t2::man_office_worker:t4:
Week 11 : Jim Amey, Night COps Captain :bat: :crescent_moon:
Week 12 : Richard Cook, Online Community Manager :man_cook:
Week 13 : Beatrice Borbon, Content & Press Manager :newspaper:
Week 14 : Tom Blomfield, CEO :crown:
Week 15 : Ella Johanny, COps/Hiring :handshake:
Week 16 : Harry Ashbridge, Writer :writing_hand:t3:
Week 17 : Beth Scott, Overnight COps :cat2:


Alas, my time working on the secret project is about to reach itā€™s conclusion. Some time soon, we may be able to announce it. It has been a crazy and wild ride and Iā€™ve had a lot of fun, and feel super privileged to have been involved!

But enough about me! This isnā€™t about me. Itā€™s about the person who is in the Hot Coral Hot Seatā„¢ļø this week and that is the one and only Georgie Parmenter!!!

Georgie is the Executive Assistant to the Founders! That means she has the task of supporting 7 very busy executives in their day to day work.

Whatā€™s that like? Letā€™s find out by asking questions :grinning:

I asked Georgie for a fun fact about herself, and here it is:

I have a secret language with my mum and my nan - we use it to tallk about our partners while they are in the room :sunglasses: I also used to be a makeup artist! :lipstick:

I also asked Georgie about her favorite thing about working for Monzo:

Working with absolutely amazing people who truly care about eachother and the work they are doingā€¦Also the dog friendly office is a massive bonus :dog:

So without further adoā€¦

Letā€™s get those questions in! Georgie will be here later in the week to answer them :grinning:

5 Likes

What types of duties do you perform and how do you manage to split your time with so many to executively assist?

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Who are the 7?

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Since you know all the inside information, what is Simonā€™s secret project?

:grin:

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Hey Georgie! :wave:

Before I dive in, let me say that EAs are often under-appreciated and under-valued. So a big thank you for doing what Iā€™m sure is a sterling job keeping the Founders on the straight-and-narrow and also for coming on here to answer our questions (itā€™s okay to ignore the ones about cats and pizzas, ok? :wink:)

So many questionsā€¦

  • What do you see as the most unexpected, but essential, part of your role?
  • How many decisions do you / can you make on behalf of the Founders?
  • How many Founders are there? [Edit, Simonā€™s already told us - 7! Doh] Do they all have clearly defined roles or do they work together on stuff (technical term)?
  • Is it just you? It seems like a big job to help out what must be quite a few people?
  • On a scale of 1 to :monzo: how excited are you about Simonā€™s secret project? How excited should we be?!
  • Which Founder is a) the most quirky, b) the most energetic, c) the most enigmatic and d) the most likely to come on here and do the next Q&A? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (Itā€™s okay, we wonā€™t tell them! :wink:)
  • Who would play you in Monzo: The Movie?

So many questionsā€¦ (Feel free to pick and choose the best ones!)

4 Likes

Iā€™m surprised the first question isnā€™t about cats. :joy:

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Do you like orange juice with or without the bits?


Do you like pizza on cats and pineapple on ham?

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What is the most bizarre request or task youā€™ve been asked to do (or something you had to request clarification about) as an executive assistant?

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How do you hire new people?

I know there are lots of people who want to work for you (me included).

Is it luck based? Is it who gives you the best joke?

e.g. if you needed passionate QA person, who knows banking & accounting and mobile / website / automated testing? how would you find one?

Hey Georgie :wave:,

Whatā€™s your favourite type of coffee? (i.e. flat white, latte, plain old coffee).

Hereā€™s the most important question though. Starbucks or Costa? :coffee:

That would be cool recruitment criteria! We did once interview a guy in my firm who listed juggling rubber chickens as his hobby, on the condition he brought them in to show us, he didnā€™t get the job though.

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I reckon theyā€™ve got better choices based on their HQ address :slight_smile:

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I reckon there are a fair few folk working near the various branches of Grind that might have bought a few shares on their recent Crowdcube round for the free coffeeā€¦

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Very sad story.
I was hired once when I setup local business meetup and my employer sponsored first meetup. :slight_smile:

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Do you have have an Assistant? :exploding_head: A real oneā€¦ you know coz Google Assistant doesnā€™t count

How good are you at forging their signatures?

Asking for a friend.

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Very true! Another of my investmentsā€¦mwahahah :coffee:

How do you deal with bosses who pass their work onto you because they canā€™t manage their time properly or canā€™t be bothered to do their job, irrespective of whether youā€™re busy or not?

I used to work in an administrative role and Iā€™d suggest maybe they pull their finger out and do it themselves to meet their important deadlines. Did I mention I no longer work in admin? :sweat_smile:

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Does Tom like Krispy Kreme?

Does he rage out a lot?

Does he earn more then Ā£60k?

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Iā€™d be soooooooo surprise if he didnā€™t

like Krispy Kream ofc