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Have secretaries really disappeared though? I think they've just shifted job titles to things like admin assistant.

by drpgq 11y ago

HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
The tasks are different. A secretary back in the 70's and earlier was primarily a typist/dictation taker. An Admin Assistant is closer to a small office manager than a traditional secretary.
Johnny555 11y ago
I work in a 100 person company and we have no dedicated Admin assistant, just a couple employees who act as receptionist, HR, office manager, and part-time admin assistant to the CEO. so 2% of our workforce falls under the "Admin assistant" role. If we didn't have extended office hours that needed two people to cover, we'd probably have only one person in that role. So while Secretary/Admin Assistants haven't disappeared completely, there aren't as many as there used to be.
pinkrooftop 11y ago
There are a few MBAs doing the job of secretary in my office. "Senior Communications Analyst" sounds snarky, but its true
njharman 11y ago
No, but the jobs they use to do have been replaced to varying degrees. So, a company needs far fewer of them (and more likely just munge their tasks into something else). Some secretarial tasks much less common these days and/or mostly automated so primary worker does them themselves. Typing, retyping, dictating, managing calendars, meeting scheduling, appointments, taking voice messages, dealing with mail(physical opening/organizing), internal memos, filing, searching for stuff in those files, copying, faxing. What office floor use to look like https://themalcolmauldblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/secretary-pool.jpg https://themalcolmauldblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/secre...
rhino369 11y ago
Companies used to have a single secretary for each executive, manager, and other mid level worker. Mad Men isn't exaggerating. For the very high end employees, sectaries morphed into admin assistants. Executives and other other very high level people still get a single assistant. But the junior executives and middle management don't have a designated assistants. They may share one with many other employees. But most of them just do a lot of the work themselves or have underlings do it in addition to their other work. I work in the legal field, one of the few that still has secretaries. Our office space is set up with a secretary desk right outside each attorney office. But now I share my secretary with NINE other attorneys. My mom is a secretary. She's gone from working for one executive to essentially being the secretary for the entire staff. So yes, the title and role changed. But there still has been a massive reduction.

Have secretaries really disappeared though? I think they've just shifted job titles to things like admin assistant.

by drpgq 11y ago

Have secretaries really disappeared though? I think they've just shifted job titles to things like admin assistant.

The tasks are different. A secretary back in the 70's and earlier was primarily a typist/dictation taker. An Admin Assistant is closer to a small office manager than a traditional secretary.

Johnny555 11y ago

I work in a 100 person company and we have no dedicated Admin assistant, just a couple employees who act as receptionist, HR, office manager, and part-time admin assistant to the CEO. so 2% of our workforce falls under the "Admin assistant" role. If we didn't have extended office hours that needed two people to cover, we'd probably have only one person in that role. So while Secretary/Admin Assistants haven't disappeared completely, there aren't as many as there used to be.

pinkrooftop 11y ago

There are a few MBAs doing the job of secretary in my office. "Senior Communications Analyst" sounds snarky, but its true

njharman 11y ago

No, but the jobs they use to do have been replaced to varying degrees. So, a company needs far fewer of them (and more likely just munge their tasks into something else). Some secretarial tasks much less common these days and/or mostly automated so primary worker does them themselves. Typing, retyping, dictating, managing calendars, meeting scheduling, appointments, taking voice messages, dealing with mail(physical opening/organizing), internal memos, filing, searching for stuff in those files, copying, faxing. What office floor use to look like https://themalcolmauldblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/secretary-pool.jpg https://themalcolmauldblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/secre...

rhino369 11y ago

Companies used to have a single secretary for each executive, manager, and other mid level worker. Mad Men isn't exaggerating. For the very high end employees, sectaries morphed into admin assistants. Executives and other other very high level people still get a single assistant. But the junior executives and middle management don't have a designated assistants. They may share one with many other employees. But most of them just do a lot of the work themselves or have underlings do it in addition to their other work. I work in the legal field, one of the few that still has secretaries. Our office space is set up with a secretary desk right outside each attorney office. But now I share my secretary with NINE other attorneys. My mom is a secretary. She's gone from working for one executive to essentially being the secretary for the entire staff. So yes, the title and role changed. But there still has been a massive reduction.