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Lazamataz is fading away!
Posted on 04/28/2011 8:17:26 AM PDT by Borges
THE 1950s and ’60s brought many new things to American offices, including the Xerox machine, word processing and — perhaps less famously — the first National Secretaries Day, in 1952. Secretaries of that era envisioned a rosy future, and many saw their jobs as a ticket to a better life.
In 1961, the trade magazine Today’s Secretary predicted that, 50 years hence, the “secretary of the future” would start her workday at noon and take monthlong vacations thanks to the “electronic computer.” According to another optimistic assessment, secretaries (transported through office hallways “via trackless plastic bubble”) would be in ever-higher demand because of what was vaguely referred to as “business expansion.”
But nearly 60 years later, on the date now promoted as Administrative Professionals Day, we’re living through the end of a recession in which around two million administrative and clerical workers lost their jobs after bosses discovered they could handle their calendars and travel arrangements online and rendered their assistants expendable. Clearly, while the secretary hasn’t joined the office boy and the iceman in the elephant’s graveyard of outmoded occupations, technological advancements haven’t panned out quite the way those midcentury futurists imagined. There are satisfactions to the job, to be sure, but for many secretaries, it remains often taxing, sometimes humiliating and increasingly precarious.
New technologies did make the lives of 20th-century secretaries easier. By the 1920s the typewriter had cemented women’s place in the outer office, and later versions made for faster, less strenuous typing (“Alive After Five!” was the way a 1957 ad put it). The introduction of the Xerox 914 photocopier in 1959 did away with the laborious routine of carbon copies.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The reluctant typist, who left out whole sentences and paragraphs and then blamed me for it.
The moody woman who was more interested in gossiping about her boyfriend with other secretaries than provide the assistance she was tasked with.
The petty, lying office obstacle who would run to the boss whenever she was asked to do her job.
In this day and age of political correctness and feminism, the last thing I need is a secretary!
Goodness gracious, I hope so.
A good secretary, administrative assistant, or executive secretary is a potent force multiplier. I suspect those who say they are not necessary have never seen a competent one in action.
When I lived in Francophone Europe, I used to laugh and laugh at the ads for secretaries wanted. They were still allowed (in contrast to the USA) to put up ads like this:
Seeking young, vibrant secretary. Must type x words a minute, have a pretty smile, be between 18 and 25 years old, nice figure, pleasant personality.
From “One, Two, Three”
Borodenko: When will papers be ready?
C.R. Macnamara: I’ll put my secretary right to work on it.
Mishkin: Your secretary? She’s that blond lady?
C.R. Macnamara: That’s the one.
Peripetchikoff: [after conferring with the others] You will send papers to East Berlin with blond lady in triplicate.
C.R. Macnamara: You want the papers in triplicate, or the blond in triplicate?
Peripetchikoff: See what you can do.
A good secretary is worth as much as anyone else in the office. I’ve only had 3 truly outstanding ones in 20+ years and they measurably increase the productivity of 15-30 people they directly work with and help anyone in the company as asked and sometimes proactively. I’ve had about 5 others who may as well not be there - if the boss learned to use the calendar they wouldn’t have a reason to work.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the good ones like getting things on “secretary’s day”, the great ones love it, and the bad ones are offended (we’re “administrative assistants” so it’s not our day).
Same thing in law firms. Lawyers billing lawyer hours for faxing, emailing docs, printing and fedex-ing.
There is a structural change in the economy that started when the PC became widespread and it is just now beginning to come to fruition. Many support jobs will be eliminated permanently — people will order their own office supplies, make coffee in their own office or buy it at a kiosk, publish their own books, music, reports, etc.
After a period of chaos, new jobs will begin to emerge. IF — big IF — the guvmint stays out of the way.
Same thing in law firms. Lawyers billing lawyer hours for faxing, emailing docs, printing and fedex-ing.
There is a structural change in the economy that started when the PC became widespread and it is just now beginning to come to fruition. Many support jobs will be eliminated permanently — people will order their own office supplies, make coffee in their own office or buy it at a kiosk, publish their own books, music, reports, etc.
After a period of chaos, new jobs will begin to emerge. IF — big IF — the guvmint stays out of the way.
"One, Two, Three" is a great Billy Wilder and James Cagney movie. One of my all time comedy favorites.
Or Monkey Business:
Boss: Please find someone to type this.
Secretary (Marilyn Monroe): Oh can’t I try it myself this time?
Boss: Sorry it’s too important.
Ingeborg: Here’s your mail, here’s your Wall Street Journal, and here’s my resignation.
C.R. MacNamara: Resignation? What are you talking about?
Ingeborg: You do not work me overtime anymore, you do not take advantage of me on weekends, you have lost all interest in the... umlaut. So obviously, my services are no longer required here.
But here’s the Number One All-Time Movie Secretary. Ulla from the original version of “The Producers”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1f72TK0P3A&feature=related
Boy, I never had a secretary that looked even a little bit like that. They all looked like my mom. And as I got promotions, they all seemed to age, right along with my mom.
Oh, is that what they're calling it these days?
Ms. Klopfenstein is either fictional (to make a stupid point), or stupid. It is very common for bosses today to use the coffee issue as an illustration of their sense of fairness and respect. "We all chip in around here" sort of thing. It's an empty gesture, but a gesture nonetheless.
However, even with the alphabet soup of employment regulations restricting businesses from doing what they choose, there is still no law against requiring the production and service of coffee as part of your job. I can guarantee you if an executive (never mind a secretary) emailed a CEO and said "I'm perfectly willing to do 80% of what you expect of me", that executive would be out on her ass in less than 9 minutes.
You are right but that is exactly why it is a problem of note. I see more mistakes these days - even in legal docs - than EVER before. I am a former paralegal. Hubby and I had some legal business and I had to call the attorney about many typos and other grammatical errors. The attorneys are NOT secretaries, even though they think they are that. You can’t be everything!
LOL.
She exists! Not only do law firms use her as a case study, she even has a LinkedIn account.
Peripetchikoff, played by the great Leon Askin, was my favorite character in the movie.
Did you know that Askin, probably better known as ‘General Burkhalter’ in Hogan’s Heroes, lived to the ripe old age of 98? The fat guy actually wound up outliving Jack Lalanne.
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