the.com/staffer
The person who actually answers the email the boss just forwarded.
means A junior employee hired to handle the daily grind of work on behalf of an organization or the person officially in charge.
from Built from 'staff' — the stick or rod that once stood for a symbol of authority or support, and by the 1700s had come to mean the body of people who assist a leader, like staff supporting a walker. Add the agent suffix '-er,' a labeling habit English uses constantly ('teach' to 'teacher'), and you get 'staffer': not the staff as a whole, but one single prop in it.
- power level
- Zero title, total leverage over the schedule
- real job
- Translating executive vagueness into actual tasks
- career path
- Often outlasts the politician who hired them
- secret skill
- Knowing exactly when not to interrupt