The word "secretary" is derived from the Latin “secretus,” meaning a key function is to handle sensitive tasks discreetly. Where is M’s flirty Miss Moneypenny when you need her? High-level executives, managers, professionals — and everyone else — have been forced to take over their own clerical tasks (and fetch their own coffee). It is more egalitarian, but does it make sense from a cost-benefit perspective?
Roles and duties
The positions of today’s successors to Moneypenny are generally divided between secretaries and administrative assistants. There are also executive secretaries, executive assistants, receptionists and interns, who serve as go-fers. Secretaries and administrative assistants are sometimes interchangeable roles, although the former is less likely to supervise or delegate.
Typical secretarial duties are:
- Greeting visitors
- Answering phone calls and responding to emails
- Typing/word processing
- Keeping records
Administrative assistants perform some of the standard secretarial tasks but may also add on other responsibilities, such as:
- Handling calendars/scheduling
- Making travel arrangements
- Maintaining office equipment
- Communicating with vendors for ordering supplies and negotiating prices
Executive secretaries and assistants are more glorified. Some have been rebranded as project managers. Often, they will be called upon to engage in more complex assignments, such as research, preparing reports for senior staff, bookkeeping or managing a corporate library. At the top echelon, some may accompany their bosses on business trips.
Each of these roles involves different skill sets and abilities. All require competency in time management, organization and computer literacy. Secretaries traditionally cover the work of one or a few executives, with the relationship mainly focused on the direct supervisor; receptionists are usually the first people clients interact with. And administrative assistants who undertake teamwork require interpersonal skills. Especially as they rise in seniority, they often receive minimal supervision and direction and should be able to demonstrate autonomy.
End of an era
Whereas secretarial support used to be regarded as a standard executive privilege, that perk is becoming increasingly rare. Those wise-cracking, all-knowing Hollywood secretaries and "Mad Men" characters represented a symbol of office power: A dashing secretary signified the boss’s ranking in the pecking order and reminded him that his time was valuable.
Societal fashions have evolved. Technology entrepreneurs and startup managers embrace an opportunity to demonstrate their own organizational skills and computer know-how, while manifesting humility and rubbing shoulders down the line. They also like to set an example of running a lean operation.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2000 and 2021, the numbers of executive clerical staff members dwindled by 63%, to 508,000, and the BLS forecasts a further contraction of 20% by 2031. Automation and other technological advances are driving the transition. For instance, voice recognition programs now allow for dictation and companies have begun to outsource such tasks to chatbots for setting up or canceling appointments.
Some of these developments are really just a rebranding, just as air stewardesses are now known as flight attendants. What’s in a name? Before the 1880s, the ranks of office workers, who were universally male, were all called clerks. Only in the 1920s did the “pink collar” concept arise, when newly employed women gained entry into the workforce.
Best bang for the buck
Democratizing clerical tasks up the ranks does not necessarily make economic sense. Logically, work should be assigned to the lowest-cost employee who can perform it. Highly compensated management should not be squandering their expensive time on typing, answering calls and responding to routine emails.
As of February 2023, administrative salaries averaged $44,000 a year. In 2021, the BLS reported the group’s annual median pay at $39,680, or $19 an hour.
What are secretaries becoming? Many are transitioning to jobs as cashiers, servers or home health aides, which is not a significant advance in pay or status. In today’s brave new digital world, both the executive and secretary may miss aspects of the old-fashioned relationship. “James, where have you been?,” as Moneypenny would ask.