Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

It is an old concept, the secretary or admin assistant, but are we misusing our resources?

I remember when there where persons in the workplace called “secretaries.” I remember when we stopped using that title and started using “administrative assistant” instead.

I find it unfortunate that we often have other persons now performing these jobs.

Do you tell an engineer or computer scientist to:

• manage budgets
• keep spreadsheets
• attend telephone calls
• handle visitors
• maintain websites
• arrange travel
• prepare expense reports
• take notes in meetings
• arrange meetings
• proof read documents

ooops, Wikipedia lists these as duties performed by secretaries. So, how are we managing our resources?

Perhaps we should hire a secretary. A person trained and skilled at these things. Expertise still has a place.