Hi Tim 

Thanks for posting in the community! Just to make sure I understand your question correctly you are trying to add a new employee shape to your org chart? If that's the case please follow these steps to add a shape for an admin assistant:

1. Hover over the admin shape. This will make red + signs to appear on each side of it. 
   
2. Those red + icons function similarly to regular connection points. Click on the icon at the botton to create a direct report for the original shape; click on the icon at one of the sides to create a new shape on the same level of the original shape; and click on the icon at the top to create a supervisor for the original shape. 

To learn more about how to make changes to your org chart and go over the details of how add move and delete employees please read through our Org Chart article from the Lucidchart Help Center. 

Hope this helps! Please let me know if I have misunderstood your question. 

Thanks for the reply.  This does not answer my question.  If I had a team of 4 direct reports and one admin assistant supporting me how do I create the admin assistant?

Hi Tim 

Could you elaborate on why those steps don't work for you? You mentioned that you want to create an admin assistant – where should this employee be in your organizational structure? E.g. should they report to you? Would you mind sending a screenshot of the issue you are experiencing to help me better understand your question?  

I am the VP I have a director below me and an admin that reports to me but the admin should not be on the same line as the director? How can I move the admin either next to me on the right or left or move below the director? We want to create a director line for all directors. 

Hi Mel 

Thanks for continuing this thread! To verify both the admin and the director report to you and are currently on the same level but the admin should be on a higher hierarchical level as compared to the director?

If so what you are trying to do is not directly supported in Lucidchart. However we're always looking for ways to improve Lucidchart and your feedback is the best way for us to do that. If you’d like to share additional details about your use case or what you’d like to see in this experience to this thread, we’d love to hear more. 

As a workaround I'd recommend “moving” the director down by creating a dummy employee between you and the director. Please follow the steps below to do that: 

1. Click on red + sign on top of the director shape. 
   
   
2. Select the dummy employee > Click on the Shape Options menu > Set opacity to 0%.
   
   
3. Double-click on the canvas outside of the org chart to leave the group editing mode.
    
4. Hit the L key on your keyboard (or drag a line from the shape menu) to draw a line from your shape to the director employee shape crossing the now transparent dummy employee shape. 
   
   
5. If needed click on the “Line Options” icon in the Properties bar to format your line so it matches the rest of your org chart. For more information please review our Work with Lines article.
   
   
6. Click on the "Line Color" option in the Properties bar denoted by a pencil icon to change the color of your line so it matches the rest of your org chart.
   
   
7. You should achieve this result.
   
   

To learn more about our org chart experience please read through our Org Charts article from the Lucidchart Help Center. 

Hope this helps! Thanks for your request and I apologize for any inconvenience this causes you.

it is the simpliest request we just want to create a lateral line.  admin assistants are extremely common in org structures and other platforms allow a latteral line for that person. 

Why do you insist on ONLY lines going up or down we want a line going to the side!  the admin does not report to the same person you report to which is the only way you will put them next to me. nor does everyone below me report to them 

I can't believe this is so hard for you guys to understand

Hi Joshua

Thanks for posting your feedback on this in the Community. I understand your frustration and am sorry that we don't currently offer this feature natively in the product. 

While lateral lines between employees is not a native feature of the org chart a workaround you can try is to remove the employee shape from the Org Chart and then paste it outside the Org Chart as an individual shape. You can then customize the location and draw a freestanding horizontal line ("L" on your keyboard) between employees. Please see the example of how you might use this to display an admin assistant:

Thank you for your feedback and please let me know if you have any additional questions!

I too have the same question.  Does Lucid not understand this simple concept.  The assistant is an off shoot of the person they are reporting to.  Excel powerpoint vizio has this feature.  It is simple A CEO has an assistant that is not as the same level of the C-suite that reports to them.  Lucid reach out to your HR team and get educated on how this org charts SHOULD look.  

Hey Damaris

Thank you for continuing this thread and for the constructive criticism!! We always want to do our best to listen and understand how we can address pain points and improve based on what would be best for our user's use-cases and workflows. I will ensure this feedback is pushed to the proper team for their consideration. 

In the meantime Addie has provided a simple workaround (shown above) that will allow you to add assistants to your Org Chart. I understand this isn't perfect but voicing your thoughts is the best way to advocate for this change in the future. 

Again thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to help improve your workflow--firm handshakes

Thank you Philip That did work.  I would still like more freedom to manipulate distances from each box.

Hey Damaris 

No worries at all--happy to hear this worked for you! Thank you for another great idea and the opportunity to assist! We love hearing your thoughts and we hope you continue to post in the Community to ask questions share ideas or even to give another Lucid user some advice. Cheers

LUCID! Look at these comments from your potential customer base....and fix the problem!! An 'assistant' is a basic function of an org chart. There should not need to be a 'work around.' Looking to solve the same problem I see comments about this issue going back to 2016! Why is this not a feature you are able to add? 

Hey Benjamin

Thank you for continuing this thread and for the constructive criticism! Again -- we always want to do our best to listen and understand how we can address pain points and improve based on what would be best for our user's use-cases and workflows. As stated above I will ensure this feedback is pushed to the proper team for their consideration. 

In the meantime Addie has provided a simple workaround (shown above) that will allow you to add assistants to your Org Chart. I understand this isn't perfect but voicing your thoughts is the best way to advocate for this change in the future. 

Again thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to help improve your workflow--firm handshakes

Has this issue been resolved yet? It’s such a common organizational reality that I’m surprised this solution can’t address. We have the same issue, with an org leader, who has an admin (in green below) and also five direct reports. Most of the five direct reports have admin assistants as well (in some cases they have two admin assistants). It’s impossible to manually place all these people into your org chart sturcture. Not sure why this isn’t a doable fix for your product development team.

Hi @dehnertcharles, thanks for taking the time to share this example - I definitely understand how assistant capabilities are important for you here, and I apologize for the frustration! While I’m not able to provide an update on this front, I’d like to share this resource detailing how Lucid utilizes feedback from the community: 

If you’ve not already, please consider upvoting this request, and let me know any additional questions you have. 

This is such a basic/foundational function of an org chart, I’m confused as to why the feature doesn’t already exist. I see numerous questions about it, over a period of years, but no solution from Lucid. It can’t be hard to implement, so I’m currious why it hasn’t been implemented. Are you no longer developing the platform?

Here to lend my voice. Trying to make a logical org chart and can’t do it because I can’t add lateral assistants. 

Honestly, Lucid is a CHART DEVELOPMENT service. Why this isn’t at the top of the priority list for the team at Lucid is beyond me.
 

And before anyone from Lucid replies to my post with your typical “thanks so much for your…… bla bla bla” statement, consider for a moment that Lucid itself is likely not able to use their own product to chart their organization as a result of lacking this feature. In fact, the poor soul whose job it is to come into these threads and make us all feel “heard” is likely a person that would themselves be in a lateral, assistant role on the org chart.

Come on folks, get your act together over there at Lucid. We’re paying for this product.