A Growing Role…

The commemoration of another international day, this time, for secretaries and management assistants tomorrow gives us a good opportunity to visit what was once a cheapening profession.

In recent years however, the profession of secretary is fast growing in scope and influence.

In the years of yore a secretary was considered almost as a necessity to be in the lowest rungs of the social and administrative hierarchy of public and private organizations.

Their tasks were limited to typing texts that were presented to them and accessorily, they could play the role of ushering in the boss’ guests and other mean duties such as liaising between the boss’s home and the office by organizing breakfast or lunch.

Technological developments and new managerial techniques have worked extraordinarily in favour of secretaries. Today, it is no longer the touch type writer in use. Terms have change and we no longer talk of typing, but composing.

This requires new and advanced skills which go beyond the mere touch of letters to produce words and later sentences.

Consequently training to become secretaries has become longer and more complex, requiring higher technical skills and capacities.

That is why training as a secretary has been very highly formalized and even broken into components as today we find a division of labour in secretariats which can range from composing texts, writing reports to organizing the boss’ timetable.

This means the role of secretary has gone beyond typing to embrace a new function of adviser to the boss because of the fact that with new skills acquired through long years of training, many workers in the secretariat have become veritable advisers for the boss as they are usually to first to give their opinion on many issues before the boss takes discussion into wider scopes of decision making.

Gone are the days when secretaries were usually suspected of running shady deals with their bosses and where they were almost exclusively considered as social and intellectual inferiors.

Today we find secretaries who even have bigger academic credentials than those for whom they work and are kept solely for their skills and the technical inputs they provide for the progress of the enterprise they work for.

There are countless cases where secretaries have grown up not only to occupy executive positions in companies and other structures, but have even become overall bosses.

However, many bosses still see their secretaries from this hackneyed prism of yesteryears; and occasions such as the international day for secretaries and management assistants being observed tomorrow, should provide a good occasion for fruitful exchanges between bosses and their close collaborators for the good of the good of the enterprise or body they work for.

This new elevated image of the secretary can only be greeted.