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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Carolina Ghattas’s Behind the Desk, Ghattas describes growing up between Chile and Honduras, where an early love of order becomes a skill she will later use beside senior leaders. After studying tourism, she enters the airline industry and moves to Miami when her husband accepts a position there. Changes in aviation lead Ghattas toward bilingual secretarial studies, beginning a new career as an Executive Assistant. Returning to Chile as a mother of three, she rebuilds her life through roles that place her close to leadership and international business. Ghattas uses those years to explain what happens behind calendars that appear effortless, from protecting confidential information to knowing when saying yes has gone too far. Each chapter comes with a song, giving the book a soundtrack for the life she built.
Carolina Ghattas’s Behind the Desk is a terrific corporate memoir because Ghattas understands something many people miss: the Executive Assistant has serious responsibility in a position most people rarely see. The firsthand material is what makes the book both credible and interesting to read. These are things I would never normally think about, like the author showing what administrative judgment can mean when a family needs help bringing someone home after death. Then there is the music! It gives the memoir a personal signature as Madonna sits beside faith while Guns N’ Roses accompanies her call for peace. The author also keeps returning to what happens when saying yes becomes a habit that costs too much. Readers interested in memoirs about women in corporate life should absolutely pick up Behind the Desk for themselves right now.
