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To me, a "secretary" is someone who would sit at a desk near an entrance, greet people, and maybe answer the phones. Maybe also have limited "PA" or "AA" jobs (

To me, a "secretary" is someone who would sit at a desk near an entrance, greet people, and maybe answer the phones. Maybe also have limited "PA" or "AA" jobs (calendar management, send faxes, type e-mails/letters verbatim, minimal paperwork, etc). Which still largely exists at the entrance to many companies/businesses, but doesn't really exist as often in the context of a personal or corporate secretaries. Now, the article argues that these people still exist but that the name has changed. I disagree, I think the expectations have changed. Companies expect this individual to do more than just greet people and answer calls - they have to have a brain. They have to contribute. For example an "administrative assistant" of a big executive might not only have to answer calls and greet people, but might also have to draft e-mails, speeches, and similar only to have the executive sign off on them. They might also have to work with other departments to get things done (things the executive themselves used to do). So an "administrative assistant" at least from my perspective is almost a junior executive themselves. They have the same kind of role. Now "personal assistant" is a non-executive/administrative role. But what a "PA" does varies widely from company and executive. I mean some PAs are literally doing things like collecting dry cleaning and having the executive's car services (and, yes, this IS in the job description) while others are just glorified "secretaries." I think what it really boils down to is that people, in the West, are far too expensive to just have them for the sake of it. In this day and age they're expected to contribute more for less, or they're surplus of requirements.

thisone 14y ago
Executive assistants and executive PAs can be highly paid and valued employees as well.
- jriley 14y ago
  Agreed. I've also seen males hold these positions with other titles such as Chief of Staff.
jasonkester 14y ago
Sounds like you're thinking of "receptionist". Secrataries then did all the things you attribute to administrative assistants now. I actually had a secratary at my first job out of school, albeit a shared one between a dozen of us. It was awesome. Think of it as having "The Internet", but with a flawless voice interface, combined with a service to take away every trivial nuisance unrelated to the core of your job. You'd pick up the phone, say "I need to fly to LA on Wednesday morning, returning Friday evening", and a few hours later an envelope with airline tickets, hotel reservation and rental car details would appear on your desk. Until you mentioned it, I hadn't thought about how much I miss having that.
- kyllo 14y ago
  Yes, having one in your workplace is quite nice. There's a good reason why secretaries/admin assistants exist, and it's this: Would you rather pay a secretary $30-50k per year to do others' administrative, clerical, and scheduling tasks, or would you rather make your executives who you're paying six to seven figures do it all themselves, cutting into their time for the much more valuable work you hired them to do? It's expensive to employ a person just for the purpose of doing clerical work for everyone else, but what's more expensive is the productivity hit you take when you force all your senior employees and officers to do it themselves. A lot of companies have forgotten this in their misguided attempts to improve the bottom line by reducing headcount.
netcan 14y ago
You are describing more of a receptionist/secretary type job. The secretary job that was common for a few decades and now rarely exists was essentially replaced by the PC. The required skills were things like typing, taking dictation, shorthand, filing systems. That was back when inbox was next to outbox and sat on a desk.
barry-cotter 14y ago
Secretary is derived from the same Latin root as secret. As in, they have all of yours. Responsible people, secretaries.

thisone 14y ago

Executive assistants and executive PAs can be highly paid and valued employees as well.

jriley 14y ago
Agreed. I've also seen males hold these positions with other titles such as Chief of Staff.

jasonkester 14y ago

Sounds like you're thinking of "receptionist". Secrataries then did all the things you attribute to administrative assistants now. I actually had a secratary at my first job out of school, albeit a shared one between a dozen of us. It was awesome. Think of it as having "The Internet", but with a flawless voice interface, combined with a service to take away every trivial nuisance unrelated to the core of your job. You'd pick up the phone, say "I need to fly to LA on Wednesday morning, returning Friday evening", and a few hours later an envelope with airline tickets, hotel reservation and rental car details would appear on your desk. Until you mentioned it, I hadn't thought about how much I miss having that.

kyllo 14y ago
Yes, having one in your workplace is quite nice. There's a good reason why secretaries/admin assistants exist, and it's this: Would you rather pay a secretary $30-50k per year to do others' administrative, clerical, and scheduling tasks, or would you rather make your executives who you're paying six to seven figures do it all themselves, cutting into their time for the much more valuable work you hired them to do? It's expensive to employ a person just for the purpose of doing clerical work for everyone else, but what's more expensive is the productivity hit you take when you force all your senior employees and officers to do it themselves. A lot of companies have forgotten this in their misguided attempts to improve the bottom line by reducing headcount.

netcan 14y ago

You are describing more of a receptionist/secretary type job. The secretary job that was common for a few decades and now rarely exists was essentially replaced by the PC. The required skills were things like typing, taking dictation, shorthand, filing systems. That was back when inbox was next to outbox and sat on a desk.

barry-cotter 14y ago

Secretary is derived from the same Latin root as secret. As in, they have all of yours. Responsible people, secretaries.