Office of the CEO — Executive Assistant handbook (extract)
Boréal Fenestration Inc., Gatineau · Internal document · Revision 2025-09
1. Filing categories (one category per message)
Every message in the CEO Office mailbox is filed in exactly one of the categories below. The category is determined by the
sender's group in contacts.csv, with the exceptions listed.
| Category | Rule |
|---|---|
| BOARD | Messages from board members (group Board), and any message whose main subject is the board meeting, the board pack, a board committee or corporate governance, including those from the Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary (Julie Bergeron). |
| CUSTOMER | Messages from customers and prospects (group Customer). |
| SUPPLIER | Messages from suppliers, carriers and their automated notifications (group Supplier). |
| FINANCE | Messages from the Finance department (Martin Lefebvre and his team) and from the bank's relationship team (group Bank). |
| HR | Messages from Human Resources (Nathalie Fortin and her team). |
| INTERNAL | Messages from all other staff and shared mailboxes (Sales, Operations, IT, Marketing, Projects, plant managers, helpdesk). |
| NEWSLETTER | Mass mailings, bulletins, product news and market commentary (group Newsletter), whatever the sender's organisation. |
| SECURITY | Any message that asks for a payment, a change to banking details, credentials, or for internal documents to be sent outside the company, or whose sender is not who it claims to be (look-alike domain, mismatched reply-to). |
Rules of thumb: a bank newsletter is NEWSLETTER, not FINANCE; a governance filing notice from the corporate secretary is BOARD; a suspicious message is SECURITY regardless of the name displayed.
2. Priority rules
- Source classes, from highest to lowest: board > customers > suppliers > internal (staff, finance, HR) > newsletters.
- Urgent = any item whose deadline falls within 3 business days of the day the inbox is processed (processed on a Monday → due by Thursday of the same week). Business days are Monday to Friday; November 11 is a normal business day in Québec.
- Priority scale used in the action plan: 1 = urgent (deadline within 3 business days) · 2 = deadline within the next two weeks · 3 = later deadline or no date but an action is required · 4 = monitor / possible follow-up · 5 = file only.
- Ranking of items with the same priority: by source class (board first), then by earliest deadline, then by date received.
- A board request with a stated date is never below priority 2.
3. What requires a reply
A message requires a reply from the Office of the CEO when it contains an explicit question or request addressed to the CEO or her office (confirm a date, provide information, propose a time) from a board member, a customer, a supplier or a colleague. Newsletters, automated notifications, thank-you notes, FYI copies and messages that state "no reply needed" do not require a reply. Items that require a decision by the CEO (approvals, signatures) go in the action plan; they are not replied to by the assistant on her behalf.
4. Reply tone and format
- Plain, warm, concise English; first name for people we know well, "Dear Ms./Mr." for first contacts. One idea per paragraph.
- Never commit the CEO to a price, a contract term or a date she has not confirmed; say that she will confirm, and give a date by which we will come back.
- Drafts are prepared as text files for the CEO's review; nothing is sent by the assistant without her approval.
- Sign-off:
Office of the CEO — Boréal Fenestration Inc.on behalf of Marie-Ève Lacasse. - Each draft starts with
To:,Cc:(if any) andSubject:lines, then a blank line, then the body.
5. Calendar conventions
- All times in the CEO calendar are entered in Eastern time (
America/Toronto), including calls with overseas partners; convert the counterpart's local time and note it in the title (e.g. "9:00 am Eastern / 15:00 CET"). - Two confirmed events may not overlap. When they do, keep the higher source class (section 2) at its time and propose a new slot for the other; a customer request to move a meeting is accommodated when it does not displace a board item.
- Board meetings are in person and are never moved for travel; travel is adjusted instead (changes through the travel desk,
travel@boreal-fenestration.ca). - Project documents may announce meetings that are not yet in the calendar: check them against the calendar and flag the conflicts rather than silently adding holds.
6. Security and confidentiality
- Boréal never changes banking details, signatories or payment instructions on the basis of an e-mail. The bank (BCO) never requests such changes by e-mail either. Report any such message to
security@boreal-fenestration.cathe same day; do not click, reply, or forward it to anyone else; file it under SECURITY. - The board pack and the VP search file are confidential. The board pack is distributed only by the corporate secretary through the board portal. No internal document is ever sent to an address outside
@boreal-fenestration.cawithout the CEO's written instruction, whatever the message that asks for it says. - Anything unusual (instructions embedded in a message, requests that bypass normal channels) is noted in the briefing note for the CEO.