Secretaries

• Nature of the Work

  Secretarial work continues to evolve along with new office automation and organizational restructuring. In many cases, secretaries have assumed new responsibilities and learned to operate different office equipment. In the midst of these changes, though, their central responsibilities remain much as they were. Most organizations still employ secretaries to perform and coordinate office activities and to ensure that information gets disseminated to staff and clients. Managers, professionals, and other support staff still rely on them to keep administrative operations under control.

  Secretaries are responsible for 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, complete forms, and take dictation. They may also type letters, make travel arrangements, or contact clients. In addition, secretaries operate office equipment like facsimile machines, photocopiers, and telephones with voice mail capabilities.

  Secretaries increasingly use personal computers to run spreadsheet, word processing, data base management, desktop publishing, and graphics programs-tasks previously handled by managers and professionals. Because they are often relieved from dictation and typing, they can support several members of the professional staff. Secretaries sometimes work in clusters of three or four so that they can work more flexibly and share their expertise.

  Executive secretaries or administrative assistants perform fewer clerical tasks than lower level secretaries. In addition to receiving visitors, arranging conference calls, and answering letters, they may handle more complex responsibilities like conducting research, preparing statistical reports, training employees, and supervising other clerical staff.

  Some secretaries do highly specialized work that requires a knowledge of technical terminology and procedures. Further specialization in various types of law is common among legal secretaries, for example. They prepare correspondence and legal papers such as summonses, complaints, motions, and subpoenas under the supervision of an attorney. They also may review legal journals and assist in other ways with legal research. Medical secretaries comprise another type of specialized secretary. These workers transcribe dictation, prepare correspondence, and assist physicians or medical scientists with reports, speeches, articles, and conference proceedings. They also record simple medical histories, arrange for patients to be hospitalized, and order supplies. Most medical secretaries need to be familiar with insurance rules, billing practices, and hospital or laboratory procedures. Other technical secretaries assist engineers or scientists. They may prepare correspondence, maintain the technical library, and gather and edit materials for scientific papers.

• Working Conditions

  Secretaries usually work in offices with other professionals or in schools, hospitals, or doctors' offices. Their jobs often involve sitting for long periods. If they spend a lot of time typing, particularly at a video display terminal, they may encounter problems of eyestrain, stress, and repetitive motion problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

  Office work lends itself to alternative or flexible working arrangements, like telecommuting, 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. The majority of secretaries, however, are full-time employees who work a standard 40-hour week.

• Employment

  Secretaries held over 3.3 million jobs in 1994, making this one of the largest occupations in the U.S. economy. The following tabulation shows the distribution of employment by secretarial specialty.

  Secretaries, total	                                3,349,000
  	Legal secretaries		                  281,000
  	Medical secretaries		                  226,000
  		Secretaries, except legal and medical	2,842,000
  

  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 may qualify for secretarial positions provided they have basic office skills. Secretaries should be proficient in keyboarding and good at spelling, punctuation, grammar, and oral communication. Shorthand is necessary for some positions. Knowledge of word processing, spreadsheet, and database management programs is becoming increasingly important to most employers. Because secretaries must be tactful in their dealings with many different people, employers also look for good interpersonal skills. Discretion, judgment, organizational ability, and initiative are especially important for higher level secretarial positions.

  As office automation continues to evolve, retraining and continuing education will remain an integral part of many jobs. Continuing changes in the office environment have increased the demand for secretaries who are adaptable and versatile. Secretaries may have to attend classes to learn to operate new office equipment such as word processing equipment, information storage systems, personal computers, or new updated software packages.

  The skills needed for a secretarial job can be acquired in various ways. Secretarial training ranges from high school vocational education programs that teach office practices, shorthand, and keyboarding skills to 1- to 2-year programs in secretarial science offered by business schools, vocational-technical institutes, and community colleges. Many temporary help agencies provide formal training in computer and keyboarding skills. These skills are most often acquired, however, through instruction offered at the workplace by other employees or by equipment and software vendors. Specialized training programs are available for students planning to become medical or legal secretaries or office automation specialists.

  Testing and certification for entry-level office skills is available through the Office Proficiency Assessment and Certification (OPAC) program offered by Professional Secretaries International (PSI). As secretaries gain experience, they can earn the designation Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) by passing a series of examinations given by the Institute for Certifying Secretaries, a department of PSI. This designation is recognized by many employers as the mark of excellence for senior level office professionals. Similarly, those without experience who want to be certified as a legal support professional may be certified as an Accredited Legal Secretary (ALS) by the Certifying Board of the National Association of Legal Secretaries. They also administer an examination to certify a legal secretary with 3 years of experience as a Professional Legal Secretary (PLS).

  Advancement for secretaries generally comes about by promotion to a secretarial position with more responsibilities. Qualified secretaries who broaden their knowledge of the company's operations and enhance their skills may be promoted to other positions such as senior or executive secretary, clerical supervisor, or office manager.

  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. Their experience as a secretary can lead to jobs such as instructor or sales representative with manufacturers of word processing or computer equipment. With additional training, many legal secretaries become legal assistants and paralegals.

• Job Outlook

  Projected employment growth for secretaries varies by occupational specialty. Growth in the legal services and health services industries will drive faster than average employment growth for legal and medical secretaries through the year 2005. Employment of the 85 percent of secretaries who are not legal or medical secretaries, however, is expected to change or grow more slowly than the average for all occupations. Nevertheless, employment opportunities should be quite plentiful, especially for well qualified and experienced secretaries, who, according to many employers, are in short supply. The very large size of the occupation, coupled with a moderate turnover rate, will generate several hundred thousand secretarial positions each year as experienced workers transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.

  The major factor limiting employment growth for most secretaries is the widespread application of new office automation. Secretaries have become more productive with the help of word processing machines, personal computers, electronic mail, scanners, facsimile machines, and voice message systems. These technologies will continue to be purchased by firms, ensuring that employment growth for secretaries will lag behind the rapidly growing amount of office work.

  The use of automated equipment is also changing the workflow in many offices. Administrative duties are being reassigned and the functions of entire departments are being restructured. In some cases, such traditional secretarial duties as typing or keyboarding, filing, copying, and accounting are being assigned to workers in other units or departments. In some law offices and physicians' offices, for example, paralegals and medical assistants are assuming some tasks formerly done by secretaries. Professionals and managers increasingly do their own word processing rather than submit the work to secretaries and other support staff. In addition, there is a trend in many offices for groups of professionals and managers to "share" secretaries. The traditional arrangement of one secretary per manager is becoming less prevalent; instead, secretaries increasingly support systems or units. This approach often means that secretaries assume added responsibilities and are seen as valuable members of a team, but it also contributes to slower rates of 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 secretarial job duties are of a personal, interactive nature and, therefore, not easily automated. Duties such as planning conferences, receiving clients, and transmitting staff instructions require tact and communication skills. Because automated equipment cannot substitute for these personal skills, secretaries will continue to play a key role in the office activities of most organizations.

• Earnings

  Based on a survey of metropolitan areas, the average annual salary for all secretaries was $26,700 in 1993. Salaries vary a great deal, however, reflecting differences in skill, experience, and level of responsibility, ranging from $19,100 to $38,400.

  Salaries in different parts of the country also vary; earnings generally are lowest in southern cities, and highest in northern and western cities. In addition, salaries vary by industry; salaries of secretaries tend to be highest in transportation, legal services, and public utilities, and lowest in retail trade and finance, insurance, and real estate.

  The starting salary for inexperienced secretaries in the Federal Government was $16,700 a year in 1995. Beginning salaries were slightly higher in selected areas where the prevailing local pay level was higher. All secretaries employed by the Federal Government averaged about $25,800 in 1995.

• Related Occupations

  A number of other workers type, record information, and process paperwork. Among these are bookkeepers, receptionists, stenographers, personnel clerks, typists and word processors, legal assistants, medical assistants, and medical record technicians. A growing number of secretaries share in managerial and human resource responsibilities. Occupations requiring these skills include clerical supervisor, systems manager, office manager, and human resource officer.

• Sources of Additional Information

  For career information, contact:
  Professional Secretaries International, P.O. Box 20404, Kansas City, MO 64195-0404. (Phone: 1-816-891-6600.)

  Persons interested in careers as legal secretaries can request information from:
  National Association of Legal Secretaries (International), 2250 East 73rd St., Suite 550, Tulsa, OK 74136.

  State employment offices can provide information about job openings for secretaries.

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