Crossword Genius

A quiet word of advice for office allocator? (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

appointer

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'advice for office allocator?' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'a quiet word of' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'quiet' could be 'pp' (music symbol for 'pianissimo') and 'pp' is found in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'inter' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for appointer that I've seen is " man giving out the post".)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times.
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