Nature of the Work:
The efficiency of any organization depends in part upon secretaries, who are at the center of communications within the firm. They process and transmit information to the staff and to other organizations.
Secretaries perform a variety of administrative and clerical duties that are necessary to run and maintain organizations efficiently. They schedule appointments, give information to callers, organize and maintain files, fill out forms, and take and transcribe dictation. The amount of time secretaries spend on these and other duties-including typing-depends on the way office work is handled within the organization.
In offices that have word processing centers, administrative secretaries handle everything except dictation and typing. Their duties range from filing, routing mail and answering telephones to more complex work such as answering letters, doing research, and preparing statistical reports. Administrative secretaries sometimes work in clusters of three or four so that they can help each other. Because they are released from dictation and typing, they can serve several members of the professional staff.
Some secretaries do highly specialized work. Legal secretaries prepare legal papers and correspondence such as summonses, complaints, motions, and subpoenas under the supervision of an attorney. They also may review law journals and assist in other ways with legal research. Medical secretaries transcribe dictation, prepare correspondence, and assist physicians or medical scientists with reports, speeches, articles, and conference proceedings. They need to know medical terminology and be familiar with hospital or laboratory procedures. Technical secretaries assist engineers or scientists. In addition to the usual secretarial duties, they may prepare much of the correspondence, maintain the technical library, and gather and edit materials for scientific papers.
Another specialized secretary is the social secretary, sometimes called a personal secretary, who arranges social functions, answers personal correspondence, and keeps the employer in-formed about all social activities. Membership secretaries compile and maintain membership lists, record the receipt of dues and contributions, and give out information to members of organizations and associations.
They may have such other duties as sending out newsletters and promotional materials. School secretaries handle secretarial duties in elementary and secondary schools; they may take care of correspondence, prepare bulletins and reports, keep track of money for school supplies and student activities, and maintain a calendar of school events.
In today's automated offices, more, and more secretaries are assuming responsibilities previously handled by managers and professionals. For example, using personal computers, secretaries now run spreadsheet, data base management, and graphics programs. Their role is to help ensure that information gets to the people who need it in a timely fashion. With companies tending to view information as a valuable commodity for gaining a competitive edge on their rivals, this role of secretaries is becoming more critical.
Working Conditions:
Secretaries usually work in offices that are clean and free from high noise levels except during peak typing periods. Their jobs often involve sitting for long periods, and they often have to type materials that are difficult to read. If they spend a lot of time typing, particularly at a video display terminal, they may en-counter problems of eyestrain, musculoskeletal strain, and stress.
Secretaries generally work a standard 40-hour week. In some cities, especially in the Northeast, the scheduled workweek is 37 hours or less. Office work lends itself to alternative or flexible working arrangements, and 1 secretary in 6 works part time. In addition, a significant number of secretaries work as temporaries. A few participate in job-sharing arrangements, in which two people divide responsibility for a single job.
Employment:
Secretaries hold millions of jobs, making this one of the largest occupations in the U.S. economy.
Secretaries are employed in organizations of every description. About one-half of all secretaries are employed in firms providing services, ranging from education and health to legal and business services. Others work for firms that engage in manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transportation, and communications. Banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and real estate firms are important employers, as are Federal, State, and local government agencies.
Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement:
High school graduates qualify for most secretarial positions provided they have basic office skills. Secretaries must be proficient in typing and good at spelling, punctuation, grammar, and oral communication. Shorthand is necessary for some positions. Word processing experience is increasingly important and more and more employers require it.
The skills needed for a secretarial job can be acquired in various ways. Although formal training or refresher courses are not essential for most jobs, training is an asset and may lead to higher paying jobs. Secretarial training ranges from high school vocational education programs that teach office practices, shorthand, and typing to 1-year to 2-year programs in secretarial science offered by business schools, vocational-technical institutes, and community colleges. Specialized training programs also are available for students planning to become medical or legal secretaries.
In addition to a solid grounding in secretarial skills, employers look for a good command of the English language. Some firms look for individuals with excellent interpersonal skills, since secretaries must be tactful in their dealings with many different people. Discretion, judgment, organizational ability, and initiative are important for the more responsible secretarial positions.
Continuing changes in the office environment, many made possible by the computer, have increased the demand for secretaries who are adaptable and versatile. Workers must be prepared to be retrained whenever an employer introduces new equipment. Secretaries may have to attend classes at work to learn to operate word processing equipment, information storage systems, personal computers, and other automated office equipment. These classes may be offered by the equipment manufacturer or an in-house trainer.
Sometimes, secretaries must acquire this training at their own expense at a private business school. The frequency with which such equipment is changed or updated makes retraining and continuing education an integral part of the job, and employers seek workers who understand and accept the inevitability of change.
The majority of job openings are filled by people who have not been working. Although some of these entrants have been in school or between jobs, most have been full-time homemakers. The remaining openings are filled by individuals who transfer from another occupation, most commonly another clerical job. The majority of entrants are between 25 and 54 years of age.
Many positions are filled by persons who have completed some college coursework. Advancement for secretaries generally comes about either by promotion to more responsible secretarial positions or transfer to another kind of job. As secretaries gain experience, they can qualify for the designation Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) by passing a series of examinations given by the Institute for Certifying Secretaries, a department of Professional Secretaries International. This designation is recognized by a growing number of employers as the mark of excellence in the secretarial field. Similarly, a legal secretary with 5 years' experience may become certified as a Professional Legal Secretary (PLS) by passing an examination administered by the Certifying Board of the National Association of Legal Secretaries.
Qualified secretaries who broaden their knowledge of their company's operations may be promoted to positions such as administrative assistant, clerical or secretarial supervisor, and office manager. By taking college courses or completing a degree program in a field such as business, marketing, accounting, or personnel administration, secretaries may progress into entry level management positions. Training in computer skills is an increasingly important factor in promotions.
Secretaries with word processing experience can advance to jobs as word processing trainers, supervisors, or managers within their own firms or in a secretarial or word processing service bureau. They also can get jobs with manufacturers of word processing and other office equipment in positions such as instructor or sales representative.
Job Outlook:
Employment of secretaries is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations in line with the general growth of the economy. Despite productivity gains made possible by office automation, there will continue to be strong demand for secretaries.
In addition to job openings resulting from growth in demand for secretaries, an exceptionally large number of job openings will arise due to replacement needs. Every year several hundred thousand secretaries transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force - primarily because of household responsibilities. In this occupation, as in most, replacement needs are the main source of jobs.
Demand for secretaries will rise as the labor force grows and as more workers are employed in offices. The trend toward having secretaries assume more responsibilities traditionally reserved for managers and professionals also will stimulate demand.
Widespread use of automated equipment is changing the way administrative support is handled in many offices, leading to reassignment of job duties and restructuring of departments. Large firms are experimenting with different methods of staffing their administrative support operations. In some cases, such traditional secretarial duties as typing, filing, copying, and accounting are being assigned to workers in other units or departments. In some law offices and physicians' offices, paralegals and medical assistants are taking over some duties formerly done by secretaries. In addition, there is a trend in many offices for groups of professionals and managers to share secretaries, as opposed to the traditional practice of having one secretary work for only one professional or manager.
The proliferation in recent years of personal computers in offices throughout the country has affected secretaries in another way. Increasingly, professionals and managers are doing their own word processing rather than submitting the work to secretaries and other support staff, as they did previously. This trend is expected to continue, contributing to slower employment growth.
Developments in office technology are certain to continue, and they will bring about further changes in the secretary's work environment. However, many of a secretary's job duties are of an administrative nature - such as scheduling conferences, making travel arrangements, and transmitting staff instructions - and hence not easily automated. Because automated equipment cannot substitute for the personal skills that are essential to the job, the need for secretaries will continue.
Many employers complain of a shortage of first-rate secretaries. Therefore, well-qualified secretaries will be in great demand and should find many job opportunities. In addition to mastering the traditional secretarial skills, applicants who have computer skills will increasingly be sought by employers.
Related Occupations
A number of other workers type, record information, and process paperwork, among these are bookkeepers, receptionists, stenographers, office managers, personnel clerks, typists, administrative assistants, legal assistants, medical assistants, and medical record technicians.
