A STATUS TERM

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 7

A STATUS TERM

The word secretary has been misused for years by employers and girls working ing in offices, according to Mrs Doreen Smart, recently elected president of the Society of Certificated Executive Secretaries at its inaugural meeting in Wellingrton.

Mrs Smart is head of the School of Secretarial Studies at the Wellington Polytechnic.

“To any manager, having a secretary confers status and equally, any girl doing shorthand typing feels more important when she says she is somebody’s secretary,” said Mrs Smart.

“Take this a stage further and the boss seeking more status says he has a confidential secretary and the girl doing work for one boss says she is an executive secretary or a confidential one.

“The terms mean nothing unless they are related to the standards of the position. In other words, the boss must realise that an executive secretary is there to carry out responsible administrative tasks as well as normal secretarial duties and the girls concerned must recognise the need for full qualifications not just typing and shorthand speeds.”

Mrs Smart said the new society aimed to promote clarification of the field of top secretarial work, to exchange ideas with employers

and to provide guidance and! opportunities for further ■ study for students wanting | executive secretarial work. |