Forum Overview :: Still Life :: About the term 'Secretary' vs. 'assistant'

[quote name="Commander Tansin A. Darcos"]If somwone has a female working for them, the person will be called a secretary. A woman will probably call anyone working for them a secretary, but when a man has a male working for them, that person is almost always called an 'assistant.' The point is when the overhead and paperwork get to be too much and the cost in lost work exceeds the cost of a secretary then its time to get one. Professional lawyers who might be handling issues with 20 or 30 clients simultaneously, might need one because the overhead and paperwork takes away from their time of researching and writing briefs for a case, and misc. client contact can usually be done by the secretary. Robert Townsend, told in his book <i>Up The Organization</i>, when he took over Avis back around 1970, got rid of all executive secretaries, even his own. Instead, they set up a secretarial pool, kept the top 20%, and raised their salaries. Now, the secretaries really were busy - how busy is a secretary for one man? - which makes the day go much faster and is a much more fun workplace. Plus they made more money, so when they needed to replace someone, it was much easier to get someone new because they're not just eye candy, they actually do useful work. Of course, this was before personal computers were available. Townsend also answered his own calls. It shocked some people that the president of a multi-million dollar company answered and placed his own calls. It tended to get better results because when he wanted to call another executive he didn't have to wait for his secretary. And yes, he got occasional sales people and unimportant calls, but he got more done. Today I think very few executives are really busy enough to need a secretary, but it's often just habit. Bill Gates, back when he was still with Microsoft, got something like 3 million e-mails a day; I couldn't even guess how many phone calls. Other than extremely wealthy businessmen or very busy professionals (like lawyers), it's usually not necessary.[/quote]