Talk:Secretary

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Untitled

The section for "Medical Secretary" feels...not reasonably notable for the level of prominence it's given in the article.

It's A good thing to become a good secretary around the world so if you don't like it stop hatin then. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.185.186.26 (talk) 02:18, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft Office

The article writes that: "The title "secretary" is not used as often as in decades past, and responsibilities have evolved to much more advance skill set such as mastering Microsoft Office applications: Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to name a few."

Is Microsoft Office really an "advanced skill set"? Isn't that just replacing typewriters of decades past? Office is well known by 5th graders. Someone please revise this. As it is, there's a grammatical error: it should be "much more advanced", not "much more advance". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:8C1:C100:14E:409A:1AC4:5867:37A6 (talk) 08:07, 26 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Merge in Management assistant

Management assistant was up for proposed deletion and will likely be headed for Articles for deletion in the coming weeks. It looks like a good candidate for trimming and merging into Secretary. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 03:26, 26 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the two occupations seem to have a lot in common. Twentysevenq (talk) 17:05, 9 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like we all agree that the two pages need to be merged. I will wait to see your opinion about what Victoria1286 said before making the merge

History of this occupation

I came to this article looking to learn more about the history of secretaries. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Twentysevenq (talk • contribs) 16:59, 9 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This wiki should...

I don't think that this article should discuss Secretary as profession and as a Government administrative body in one page, and they should be split.

On a note about the government body, this wiki needs to provide information about the history of current secretaries in, at least, the USA and a brief history of them. The origin of the system and their historical implementation, plus a comparison to secretaries in other countries. --C8CADB5D 07:20, 4 August 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tauiris (talk • contribs)

Actually there are already pages about the Secretary of State as well as the Secretary as a diplomatic rank. I'll try to remove those information from this article now. --Mizst (talk) 22:32, 6 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Heads of Government Departments in Australia (A position roughly equivalent to CEO, and in fact also called 'Chief Executive') are also referred to as 'Secretary'. I'm happy if this is addressed in a different page, but it doesn't seem to be linked from here anywhere? --Irrevenant [ talk ] 09:52, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently this is a completely different thing to "Secretary of State" which is a political position - Departmental Secretaries are a Public Servant (UK: Civil Servant) position, not a political one. I'm adding it to the article - if someone thinks there's a better home for it, please split it out appropriately. --Irrevenant [ talk ] 10:18, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

- That is right, irrevenant, and I think the inclusion is correct, at least atm. What I am unsure although is that if this article is plit, where should this position go, probably with the Administrative body page. Tauiris - C8CADB5D 11:05, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This article redirects from Administrative Assistant which, I should add, is a UK Civil Service grade. This grade is an entirely separate position to that of a secretary. Administrative Assistant should have more in common with office clerk than that of secretary. --Panzer71 (talk) 18:58, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

what is a secretary?

a secretary is an administrative assistant in business office administration. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.177.105.148 (talk) 21:09, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

At one point in history (the 18th Century for example) a Secretary was akin to an Attaché .. in was in this sort of sense that Alexander Hamilton served General George Washington during the war for American independence. The wealthy or elite through the 19th and early 20th Centuries also employed individuals who assisted in confidential personal and business affairs (this was the role of the fictional Hector MacQueen served Samuel Ratchett in the novel 'Murder on the Orient Express' 86.150.198.3 (talk) 13:18, 19 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Etymology

The etymological explanation given here isn't the same as the one from the Wiktionary article. Which one is correct? 91.89.100.251 (talk) 12:29, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Article Restructuring

I would like to restructure this article. Some administrative assistants are secretaries, but not all secretaries are administrative assistants.

Also, the term "secretary" is somewhat anachronistic in modern American business.

I think it makes more sense to create a separate "Administrative Assistant" article since that is the broadest term used in business (at least in the US), and under that provide information about secretaries, office assistants, personal assistants, project assistants, etc.

Before I start re-arranging things, I'd like to see if anyone else has comments or thoughts about this. Victoria1286 (talk) 14:31, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was just about to merge articles when I saw your comment.

According to

http://jobs.euractiv.com/job/senior-management-assistant-4276 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080214052729AAzs1OW

Administrative Assistant seems to be the same as Management Assistant, except that the former is a more common in America for what you say and the second more common in European. Also, looks like secretary has become to have a connotation of lesser equivalent. Therefore, why not use the existent Management_assistant article to accommodate all those you have suggested?

BTW, http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos151.htm Seems to be a near perfect source for this Wiki Tauiris - C8CADB5D 12:49, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

There are so many possible uses of the word secretary that I think the default landing page should be the disambiguation page rather than here. In my opinion, ideally all the uses other than personal assistants should have their own pages and linked to from the disambiguation page. Mizst (talk) 01:50, 21 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Medical secretary"

The medical secretary section doesn't really belong in the article. A medical secretary's duties are much the same as any secretary, and the few extra duties don't merit setting it apart. However, the information on average salary is useful. Maybe we could gather information on the salaries of other specialised secretaries (secretaries for government workers, lawyers, etc.) and compare them... --- cymru lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 18:11, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Band 1, 2 e.t.c.

What are these bands based upon? Are they official? Do all companies not have different arrangements? 2.123.148.96 (talk) 10:20, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Evolution of the Position and Need for Higher Education

All are Sourced, helpful edits. Stop deleting content. Secretaries or Program Coordinators don’t just serve coffee in offices anymore like they used to do in the 19th and 20th Centuries; they actually do work on par with/as part of the professional services; most positions today require bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while so require a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) degree. 129.174.255.57 (talk) 14:25, 15 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ok. I’ll find a compromise solution that retaines pertinent information while getting rid of redundancies. 129.174.255.57 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 14:28, 15 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Loading up this article with trivial, off topic junk is not helpful. The topic of this article is about a specific type of job. Some other jobs may happen to have the word 'secretary' in the title, but this article is not about something like the Secretary of the Treasury. A JD is simply not required for the work that is the subject of this article. Keep the article on topic. MrOllie (talk) 14:30, 15 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

When I say many modern secretaries need higher education degrees, I’m not talking about “cabinet secretaries” like secretaries of defense, state, treasury, etc., I and previous editors are talking about the endless program assistant, program coordinator, administrative assistant, paralegal, medical secretary, medical assistant, legal secretary, and legislative assistant roles that all require a bachelor’s degrees, graduate certificates, or master’s degree as seen in large metropolitan areas vs rural areas where in large urban areas you get the job by education/experience while in rural areas you get in by who you know or have limited duties similar to that of old-style receptionist-type secretaries of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Also, certain sub-categories of secretaries like clerks of the court and law clerks who are dual hatted secretaries and lawyers are required to have a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) degree in the United States and Canada where all actual legal education is graduate-entry unlike most other countries were you can become a lawyer just by getting a bachelor’s degree. 129.174.255.57 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 14:57, 15 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

certain sub-categories of secretaries like clerks of the court and law clerks This is a great example of something that is outside the scope of this article. Write about that at Law clerk, not here. Adding off-topic here will only confuse the readers who are looking for information specific to the topic of this article. MrOllie (talk) 15:00, 15 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

USA centric and is the detailed married-woman stuff relevant?

USA centric does not require a long explanation: this article needs the addition of material from other English-speaking countries :-)

Also, why is there so much about the issue of USA businesses preferring to employ unmarried woman in the late 19th and early 20th century? It might be relevant in a study of gender expectations and assumptions, but it hardly seems to merit more than a passing comment in an article about administrative assistants! Even if it is deemed relevant, the clarity of the language is lacking in some places ("a wage equal to a married woman husband had enough income to support both a household chore wife and a flock of children." I couldn't work out what this meant!)

FloweringOctopus (talk) 19:07, 22 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Secretary

What is it 2603:9001:7203:3A12:3444:FFAE:91EF:82EF (talk) 01:15, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]