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In 1989 I worked at a pharmaceutical firm that still had a secretarial pool. As a lab technician if I was writing a document (typically a Standard Opening Proce
by pacaro 9y ago
In 1989 I worked at a pharmaceutical firm that still had a secretarial pool. As a lab technician if I was writing a document (typically a Standard Opening Procedure or SOP) I was expected to write it by hand and leave a copy in my outbox (literally one of two trays on my desk) with the correct request form. The next day I’d receive a draft, and then I’d painstakingly provide corrections (typically every technical term and chemical name was wrong) and repeat as needed, after about a week we’d be good and it could be signed off and filed. While this felt inefficient, and probably was, part of that process also included review from my boss, so done was reviewed and done.
When someone wanted to call a meeting, that was another form, then invitations in inboxes (again physical trays on desks) replies, room assigned. Meetings were scheduled at least a week out. The flip side is that you could and did request secretarial support for meetings — someone in the room whose only purpose is to take notes, and who will go back and type up detailed minutes.
- styfle 9y agoThat sounds glorious. I've had plenty of meetings where 15 min in I have to ask "What's the purpose of this meeting?" Or at the end of the meeting, "Ok who was taking notes? No one?"
- stctgion 9y agoAnother good question to ask is "Did we all really need to be here?" after someone adds a mailer to the invite..
- pacaro 9y agoHaving professional minutes was amazing, maybe we’ll be able to automate it at some point. I would assume that an automated transcript isn’t so far away.
- rayiner 9y agoHaving good secretarial staff is under appreciated. Yeah, I can do my own time (I bill by the hour), book my flights, find open meeting times, etc. But if an administrative assistant can support 3 professionals saving them just 5 hours a month, they can pay for themselves.
- Balgair 9y agoI really don't get it. Every single place I've been at that had a secretary was running like cream cheese. But no-one has them anymore. The only things I can figure is that the healthcare, retirement, and sexual harassment issues really do add up to remove the utility of a secretary.
- majos 9y agoWhat does the phrase "running like cream cheese" mean? It sounds slow, but from context here it sounds...fast? Efficient?
- zero_iq 9y agoRunning smoothly. Smooth as the cream cheese on your bagel.
- Balgair 9y agoI guess that's not a phrase everyone is familiar with. It is well illustrated via Coach Finstock in Teen Wolf here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0m5wJRGHEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0m5wJRGHEQ
- Infernal 9y agoRich and smooth?
- watwut 9y agoSecretaries were harassing people?
- edraferi 9y agoOr more likely, the subject of harassment.
- robotresearcher 9y agoExperienced admin assistants can be found part time, too. A good gig from 1000 to 1400 is great for people with kids in school, but hard to find. Offer a decent rate and you can get a really good person who values that schedule. That might be enough hours to make a big difference in a small office/studio.
- Joeri 9y agoThe organizer of a meeting is responsible for setting the agenda and ensuring action items are decided on and notes are taken. You can’t fix the idiots who organize meetings and expect them to magically get organized without their contribution, but if you do organize a meeting yourself you can make sure at least those meetings aren’t a waste of everyone’s time.
- watwut 9y agoDoes every meeting needs notes?
- majewsky 9y agoThere are, broadly speaking two types of meetings. The first one is where someone presents a slidedeck or does a demo. In this case, the minutes can be rather short, as in "Bob presented a summary of last quarter's sales, see attached slidedeck", maybe plus a summary of the Q&A if there was one. It's not strictly necessary to have minutes in this case, but they are also very cheap to produce. The second type of meeting is any form of discussion. You absolutely need to do minutes for these to document your arguments and decisions. Everything else is unprofessional.
- sandworm101 9y agoNow we have 10 meetings a day. We pay engineers to take minutes (they are the only ones who understand the need). Nobody is fixing the spelling mistakes. Standardized formating is dead. And whenever something important happens nobody seems to know which documents have been authorized or not.
- pacaro 9y agoA pharmaceutical formulation lab needs to know which documents have been authorized, so I’m assuming that this is still a thing, with or without a secretarial pool. We also all had day books with numbered pages for all working notes. Signed and dated daily, and when filled, archived.
- Splines 9y agoI'd like to think that at some point in time meeting minutes are going to be completely automated.
- sandworm101 9y agoNot possible. Meeting minutes are far more than who said what. You need to fully understand the people and issues.
- coliveira 9y agoAnd then people doesn't understand why companies are so inneficient! Most engineers these days are slaved to work that should be done by specialized secretarial staff.