Chief of Staff’s Office

Just About the Jolliest and Best

"Of all the places under the American flag, next to the presidency itself, that of the President's secretary would seem to be just about the jolliest and best. ... If he has a world of tact, or a skin like that of a rhinoceros, or can lie like a thief and can grin with good nature when he is found out in his lies, he will probably enjoy the job."

—New York Times, 1910

Down the corridor from the Oval Office is the corner office of the White House chief of staff. The chief of staff is the president's top adviser and assistant and manages the other assistants and advisers of the president in the West Wing and Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street. It is the chief of staff who helps the president plan his schedule and decide where to focus his attention to be most effective in his leadership.

The duties of the chief of staff vary from one administration to the next, however. Some chiefs of staff are quite independent and help set policy and deal with political issues. On the other end of the spectrum, John Kennedy and, until late in his presidency, Jimmy Carter had no chief of staff at all.

For the first 150 years of the presidency, the chief of staff was called the "president's secretary" and had an office next to or across from the president's office in the Residence. When the original West Wing was built in 1902, the president's secretary was given the center office on the south side, with a curved south end. William Howard Taft took over this space for the original Oval Office when he expanded the West Wing in 1909. When FDR expanded the wing again, he put his secretary in what is today the President's Dining Room.