Secretary
A
secretary is an
office and
administrative support
position. The title refers to a person who performs routine, administrative, or personal tasks for a superior. These office employees perform duties such as
typing,
computer processing, and
scheduling for an executive. They usually work at
desks in offices.
Since the
Renaissance until the late
19th century, men involved in the daily correspondence and their activities of the mighty had assumed the title of secretary or in other cases
clerk, which contains the word "secret" to indicate the confidential, hence potentially influential, nature of such work.
In the
1880s, with the invention of the
typewriter, more women began to enter the field, and since
World War I, the role of secretary has been primarily associated with women. By the
1930s, fewer men were entering the secretarial field.
In an effort to promote professionalism amongst
United States secretaries, the
National Secretaries Association was created in
1942. Today, this organization is known as the
International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) The organization developed the first
standardized test for
office workers called the
Certified Professional Secretaries Examination (CPS). It was first administered in
1951.
In
1952, Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation, and
American businessman Harry F. Klemfuss created a special
Secretary's Day holiday, to recognize the hard work of the staff in the office. The holiday caught on, and during the fourth week of April is now celebrated in offices all over the world. It has been renamed "
Administrative Professional's Week" to highlight the increased responsibility of today's secretary and other administrative workers, and to avoid embarrassment to those who
believe "secretary" refers only to women or to unskilled workers.
At the administrative level many job descriptions blur into each other; a secretary in one company might be called an administrative assistant in another. However, while Administrative Assistant is a truly generic term, not necessarily implying directly working for a superior, Secretary tends to be biased towards typing-based activities directed by a superior. Other titles describing jobs similar to or overlapping those of the traditional secretary are Office Coordinator, Executive Assistant, Office Manager and Administrative Professional.
Secretarial jobs are popular as they require few formal qualifications and yet can be skilled jobs. At the most basic end of the spectrum a secretary may need only a good command of the prevailing office language and the ability to type, while at the other end of the spectrum they may be required to take
dictation by writing in
shorthand at spoken-language rates, type at high speeds using technical language, organise diaries and carry out administrative duties which may include
accountancy. Other common tasks are filing and fetching papers (or the equivalent files and databases online), and planning meetings.
Interaction with the general public varies from none to extensive, though in the modern US those whose work entails customer service requests are often called "
customer service representatives". They are distinct from those called "secretaries" because the scope of their work is smaller. A large urban
supermarket, for instance, will have office staff working in enclosed offices in addition to checkout staff, with the latter usually only handling their own receipts for that day's sales while the professional staff must reconcile all accounts daily.
Employment agencies for temporary employment often fill secretarial jobs.
In 2002, a film titled
"SECRETARY" was released by Lion's Gate Films. It stars
James Spader and
Maggie Gyllenhaal, and has become a cult classic. [
1]
In the
United Kingdom civil service a Private Secretary is a personal assistant to a
Secretary of State,
Minister of the Crown, or senior civil servant. Depending upon the seniority of their principal, a Private Secretary may him or herself be a senior official in their own right. The
Private Secretary to the Sovereign and the
Private Secretary to the
Prime Minister are the most important.
A Private Secretary can be assisted by one or more Assistant - and or Deputy Secretaries, or even head a whole office in which those may be section chiefs.
In several continental European states, similar positions (to a
head of state or
executive minister) are given names meaning chief of the 'cabinet' (e.g.
kabinetschef in Dutch,
Chef de cabinet in French) in the sense of personal advisory and administrative staff, indeed like a Chief of Staff heading a bureau that may in fact include one or more functions styled Secretary, e.g. Press Secretary, Social Secretary.
The same function may exist under another name without the â€" rather confusing â€" word Private, and to a gubernotorial dignitary, e.g.
Secretary to the Governor General as in Canada.
Other cultural traditions have one or more specific terms for a similar position, e.g.:
*in the former kingdom of Afghanistan,
Shaghasi-i-Huzuri (from
Shaghasi Chamberlain &
huzur 'presence') meant Private Secretary to the King.
(incomplete)
*
Canada- OSSG*
RoyalArk- see various nations*
Principal Private Secretary.
*
Clerk
