THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240533
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
If you're looking for a ``secretary'' on this Professional Secretaries Day, you may have a tough time finding one.
But you will find them working under other titles: staff assistant, senior staff assistant, executive assistant, office manager and administrative assistant.
The varied titles - a few are still ``secretaries'' - are not a matter of business buzzwords. They reflect the fast-changing role of secretaries in the business world. Secretaries don't just take dictation and greet visitors at the reception desk anymore. They do computer spreadsheets, screen job applicants, coordinate travel plans and organize databases.
``We're moving away from secretary in the title and leaning more towards what you do,'' said Susan Turner, senior staff assistant at Virginia Power's plant in Surry and president of Professional Secretary International's Tidewater chapter. ``Basically, you work side by side with the boss.''
Take Sherry Perkins. The 27-year-old Portsmouth resident was named Secretary of the Year by the Tidewater chapter of PSI. Perkins is a clerk at Norfolk International Terminals, but she was awarded for her work as an employment coordinator in human resources at Sentara Norfolk General hospital.
What did she do there?
``Pretty much anything they needed,'' Perkins said. ``I ordered supplies. I was kind of functioning as the office manager for a while when one of the employees went on leave. And computer guru. It was a lot of fun.''
Seriously. No sarcasm. She enjoyed it so much she's hoping to get onto the human resources staff with her new employer.
The theory goes that two trends have combined to change the duties of secretaries. The technology revolution has put some duties back in the hands of executives, who now respond to their own e-mail, type some of their own memos and receive their own phone messages through voice mail. That has freed secretaries to take on other responsibilities.
The second trend is less benevolent: downsizing. When a work force is cut, somebody has to do the work that remains. Much of that work has shifted to secretaries.
The AFL-CIO sought to make an issue of that in a Secretaries Day news release. The giant labor group pointed out that 71 percent of support staff are handling management duties and questioned why the $384 average weekly salary of support staff is $100 under the median income.
The need for someone to do all kinds of office work is expected to lead to growth in the secretarial field. In Hampton Roads, the 55,323 secretarial and general office workers employed in 1990 are expected to grow by more than 12 percent - or almost 6,800 jobs - by 2005, the Virginia Employment Commission reports.
And one-third of the country's secretary's no longer occupy the low rung on the corporate ladder - they supervise other workers, according to Professional Secretaries International in Kansas City, Mo.
``Their responsibilities have changed a lot,'' says Susan Caplan, chairwoman of PSI Tidewater this year. ``They're not just taking orders - they run the office these days.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Vicki Cronis\The Virginian-Pilot
[photo of a work station: desk, computer and chair]
Graphic
[Sidebar]
BY THE NUMBERS
SKILLS
[3,349,000 Secretaries in the U.S.]
[the list continues.. for complete text, see microfilm.]
by CNB