A SECRETARY TALKS BACK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04724A000200030016-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 28, 2001
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 1, 1958
• Content Type: MISC

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A Secretary 'T'alks Back
MEMO
TO: Mr.
FROM: Miss
Frankly, I wasn't quite sure how to go about this job. No one has ever
asked me to do anything quite like this before, and I doubt that many
secretaries have been handed this particular assignment, though heaven knows
they get asked to do almost everything else!
Anyway, I did decide that I wanted to come up with
something useful instead of the usual gripe session
about starting dictation after 4:30, giving unclear
instructions, marking up letters in ink and then
sending them out, and that sort of stuff. And
saying "good morning," remembering birthdays, and
what not. So I talked around the office with
some of the other girls a little bit, trying to
pick up some generalizations which would apply
not just to you and your habits but to a good cross
section of businesstner
Each secretary I spoke to had something different to say, because naturally
every office situation is shaped by the personalities involved. Some girls
could suggest nothing-maybe they had a high sense of
loyalty or were honestly contented, or just had no
critical ability. Others were practically impossible
to turn off once they had started, and I found that
%kz
though many of their comments were worthTwhile, it very
easily disintegrated into a petty kind of sniping
session. Maybe some of this flavor still remains in my
findings, but perhaps that is inevitable.
To begin with, a good many men seem to have missed the idea that you had
when you asked me to do this job-that they can improve their performance if
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they really think through how their secretaries can help them. This is
really, quite surprising considering that a man's closest office associate is
usually his secretary-and she is also the one who can upset him the most
easily'! So let me say at this point that your conscious attention to my job
shouldbe an example for your colleagues to follow.
Beyond thait, most of the girls agreed on one thing: It is virtually
impossjLble to do a top-notch job unless you are kept informed of what the
boss is doing and just what his duties are. Though this "member of the team"
stuff has been worked to death, a knowledge of the problems the boss is
tacklipg helps greatly to stimulate the secretary's interest. If she just
sees fragme
remember the
to the; story
part or the
the elephant
It is to t
picture. He
-the girl- fo
explanat i on
often useful
rather than
his own sec
does it. T
is and corners, it can be highly frustrating and confusing. You
famous story about the elephant: Six blind Hindus, according
tried to describe an elephant. Each took hold of a different
animal-tusk, ear, trunk, side, leg, tail. Each then described
in a different way-as a spear, fan, snake, wall, tree, rope.
he executive's benefit for his secretary to be aware of the big
can then entrust her with increasing responsibility with the
assurance that she knows what it is all about. Further-
more, a girl who instinctively knows what projects are
important so they can be dispatched with speed and
intelligence can be of real help. Finally, anyone who
works as closely as does a secretary likes to feel that
she is important enough to know what's in the wind.
I-v 5aw2cea,2s,c~s -~ve~Vt
&Qme firms off en a formal training period to prepare
her job. In offices where this is not so, discussions and
from boss to secretary are helpful. Background reading is
if it is not so overwhelmingly voluminous that it discourages
instructs. But each executive should decide how best to train
etary-the important point is not how he does it, but that he
e time it takes will pay great dividends.
And then here's responsibility. Some executives jealously guard their
areas of authority, failing to realize that the more they can satisfactorily
delegate to their secretary, the more interest she will take in her job, and
the more time and energy he will have to devote to the activities that demand
his special talents. He must size up her abilities to do this, but it often
does not hu t to give her even a little more than you are certain she can
handle;. Sh may surprise you in either direction, but how wonderful if she
fills the b 11 beyond your expectations!
By the wa
their secre
mean tossin
because the
himself. I
which invol
sibility as
, in suggesting that executives give
aries more responsibility, I don't
some large project at them just
boss is in a jam and can't handle it
mean a regular, planned arrangement
es a steady expansion of her respon-
far as she can go.
Man of t'e girls I spoke to had very definite feelings about organization
and use of ime. They wished that the boss would start his day by thinking
out as, comp etely as he could exactly what he was going to do. He might then
read his ma 1 (if he gets it fairly early in the morning) and arrange it in
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lk~ order of importance, shaping up the reply to each letter as he 16oks at it.
Then enter the secretaries. Too often an executive calls his girl into his
office without the foggiest idea of how he wants to say what he has on his
mind. So the organization takes place during dictation, an often slow and
repetitious task with much reading back and changes. How much it would help
if a man simply sat quietly in his chair for five minutes before starting
and mentally sketched out his wording.
This kind of advance planning, incidentally, cuts down the crisis nature
of too many offices. No secretary minds helping the boss out of a sudden
emergency-and interrupting her schedule 01
work to do it-but a constant series of fires
to be put out is disorganizing, irritating,
and unnecessary.
All too many executives have obviously not
reached their present posts because of their
grasp of the spoken or written word. Some
of them seem to have difficulty in express-
ing themselves, and though a good secretary
can smooth out the letters (if she is literate herself), the result may be
sterile and lack personality. Some men realize this lack of skill on their
part and try to deal with it by writing out what they wish to say, and giving
it to their secretary to type. But here enters another tragic flaw: many of
the men are Illegible! It is dynamic, no doubt, and a sign of having arrived
to write carelessly, but pity the poor translator who is certain to be
confounded by such a scramble!
Loyalty in the office is another very important matter, and on a two-way
line. Any good secretary knows that one of her virtues is an ability to
keep her mouth shut whenever she has even the slightest doubt that what she
may say might embarrass or otherwise trip up her boss. r4his assumes that'-he
- s-acruptff us in his dealings, but she can always bail out if he is not. Most of the girls in our office felt that their bosses were in general
standing behind them, but said that some were likely to let their own errors
be shouldered by their secretaries. It never stops being important to admit
your own mistakes.
s makes me t iink of something which seems less_ important-an annoying
littler abit. Some executives, scrupulou's in their dealings in the business
world-at `haKge, and considerate of their subordinates in other ways, are.
secretary's work-skpplies. one or the girls said that
oes to her
larl
he
f
,
y g
regu
at the end of every week s
taken. It is so bad-that she has had to adopt a
system of secret markings so the can recognize
her things- later. He doesn't stop at pencils f
and paper pad-s', but even has turned -tip, with- her
cigarettes-and personal desk calendar! e doesn't mean to, but,..he usually
dictates='standi9rg"in-front of her desk_(whi~h~she doesn't like e her because
he papes and,she can't catch what he is saying when his back is turned),
and;/'absent-mindedly picks up pencils or something 'to_fiddle with. Then-
e,Ventually he bears them back to his desk with the bland assurance of
ownership.
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 Ap
lso, an
throixgh he
`
but not
to
absence.
territory, and naThiq'e to be tampered with.
correspondence-at home. .An executive wo1;1d do well to
remember t'bat his position1ioes not a4tbmatically put
everything
No matter
of sneakine
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secr, Lary will say?that she dislikes 'laving her b'ass' search
d9 A or files when she is not there. Tho order may be obscure,
er, and she does not want it to becpne eveq more confused in her
ost people, bosses too, regard th
in the office'under his direct control.
ow pure his, intentions, it gives him an air
ss to b9 found pawing furtively through
.hia s-ecretary's ~esk.
-This sort ofbusiness may seem petty or insignificant. "-Actually, I think;
it is.quite important because it reflects the manager's attitude toward his- -
oretary? fief??j-ob. For some reason, an executive who may be extremely
aware of the dignity of other people in an enterprise, and the independent
significance of their jobs, may look on his secretary as a sort of chattel.
I don't meai that he isn't perfectly pleasant and kind to her-it's just
that he seems to see her
integrity o its own but
as a very close personal assistant whose job has no
is exclusively what he wants to make it. She be-
comes, then, just a mirror of his wants and needs
instead of a person in her own right, filling a
specific kind of responsibility in the company.
Maybe this is why the popular cartoons and jokes
always show the relationship as one involving some
property rights for the boss! Incidentally, I
suspect many executives look on their "assistant-
to" in the same way.
Leaving aside the human relations angle, any
siders his secretary in such a light is wasting a great resource.
a far greater contribution both to the _gyganization as a whole
xecutive in particular if her job is clearly defined and impor-
own right, rather than just a backslapping operation for the
Thus, I w
office-you
evolve thei
of "adminis
secretaries
pleasanter
the efficie
the office.
uld hope that the executives in our
included-would make a real effort to
secretaries' jobs in the direction
rative assistants" or "executive
" Not only would that make our lives
nd more rewarding; it would step up
cy and productivity of everyone in
`r desks as \personal
han someone'svprivate 1