Secretary

Reggie Love, left, who served as Former U.S. President Barack Obama's body man or Personal Aide to the President of the United States from 2009 to 2011, holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science and Public Policy from Duke University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, is seen here in a presidential motorcade outside Strasbourg for the 2009 NATO summit.[10][11][12]

A secretary, also known as a personal assistant (PA) or administrative assistant, can have many administrative duties. The title "secretary" is not used as often as in decades past, and responsibilities have evolved in response to the technological age, requiring knowledge in software such as the Microsoft Office suite of applications. The duties may vary according to the nature and size of the company or organization, and might include managing budgets, bookkeeping, attending telephone calls, handling visitors, maintaining websites, travel arrangements, event planning, and preparing expense reports. Secretaries might also manage all the administrative details of running a high-level conference or meeting and be responsible for arranging the catering for a lunch meeting. Often executives will ask their assistant to take the minutes at meetings and prepare meeting documents for review.[13] In addition to the minutes, the secretary may be responsible for keeping all of the official records of a company or organization.[7] A secretary is also regarded as an "office manager".

Today, many secretaries also conduct research, briefings, write memoranda, content writing, handle project management, program evaluation, stakeholder management, customer service duties, devise and maintain office systems including data management and filing, carry out background research and present findings, produce documents like white papers and gray literature, carry out specific projects, take on some of the manager's responsibilities, get involved in decision-making processes, handle public relations tasks, and/or logistics and procurement along with a wide range of other duties related to their specific industry. Secretaries in some fields may be required to have extensive professional knowledge. Accordingly, duties for these assistants may be more specialized. For example, legal administrative assistants also known as legal secretaries may need to have a thorough understanding of legal terminology and procedural law, paralegals in addition would need to acquire legal research skills, know how to analyze and summarize depositions, prepare and answer interrogatories, and draft procedural motions and other routine legal briefs; legislative assistants would need to be educated in political science or other adjacent fields of study and know how to monitor pending legislation, conducting research, legislative analysis, legislative research, legal research, policy analysis, drafting legislation, giving advice and counsel, and making recommendations; while medical assistants and medical scribes would need to be well-versed in the health sciences, health policy, public health, dealing with health insurance companies, and reading medical reports.

In a business, many job descriptions overlap. However, while administrative assistant is a generic term, not necessarily implying directly working for a superior, a secretary is usually the key person for all administrative tasks, and often referred to as the "gate keeper". Other titles describing jobs similar to or overlapping those of the traditional secretary are Office Coordinator, Executive Assistant, Office Manager and Administrative Professional.

• List of job titles synonymous with or similar to secretary: secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, military aid[14], management assistant, office secretary, program assistant,[4] personal aid, body man/body women, personal secretary, or personal assistant.[5]
• In previous decades, at the most basic level a secretary is usually an audio typist with a small number of administrative roles. A good command of the prevailing office language and the ability to type is essential. At higher grades and with more experience they begin to take on additional roles and spend more of their time maintaining physical and electronic files, dealing with the post, photocopying, emailing clients, ordering stationery and answering telephones.[15]
  

  Secretary at work, photo taken in 2007.
• A more skilled executive assistant may be required to type at high speeds using technical or foreign languages, organize diaries, itineraries and meetings and carry out administrative duties which may include accountancy or financial accounting. A secretary / executive assistant may also control access to a manager, thus becoming an influential and trusted aide. Executive assistants are available for contact during off hours by new electronic communication methods for consultations. Specialized secretaries at higher levels also include Medical Secretaries, Legal Secretaries, and Personal Assistants that often require higher education or even post-graduate education.
  • In certain situations, other positions such as legislative assistants, paralegals, judicial law clerks, clerks of the court, medical assistants, and medical scribes, that require bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees to practice have taken up duties identical to that of specialized secretaries.
• The largest difference between a generalized secretary and skilled executive assistants is that the executive assistant is required to be able to interact extensively with the general public, vendors, customers, and any other person or group that the executive is responsible to interact with. As the level that the executive interacts with increases so does the level of skill required in the executive assistant that works with the executive. Those executive assistants that work with corporate officers must be capable of emulating the style, corporate philosophy, and corporate persona of the executive for which they work. In the modern workplace the advancement of the executive assistants is codependent on the success of the executive and the ability of both to make the job performance of the team seamless whereas the job place evaluation is reflective of each other's performance executive secretary for now.

This should be distinguished from the Company secretary, a senior role within a company responsible for compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Civilian

The work of an executive assistant (sometimes called a management assistant) differs a great deal from that of an administrative assistant. In many organizations, an executive assistant is a high-ranking position in the administrative hierarchy. Executive assistants work for a company officer or executive (at both private and public institutions), and possess the authority to make crucial decisions affecting the direction of such organizations. As such, executive assistants play a role in decision-making and policy setting. The executive assistant performs the usual roles of managing correspondence, preparing research, and communication, often with one or more administrative assistants or scheduling assistants who report to him or her. The executive assistant also acts as the "gatekeeper", understanding in varying degree the requirements of the executive, and with an ability through this understanding to decide which scheduled events, meetings, teleconferences, or e-mails are most appropriate for allocation of the executive's time.

An executive assistant may, from time to time, act as proxy for the executives, representing him/her/them in meetings or communications and project managing the production of reports or other deliverables in the absence of the executive. An executive assistant differs from an administrative assistant (a job which is often part of the career path of an executive assistant) in that they are expected to possess a higher degree of business acumen, be able to manage projects, as well as have the ability to influence others on behalf of the executive. In the past, executive assistants were required to have a high school diploma only, but increasingly jobs are requiring a bachelor's degree[16] of any field of study or when complying with educational requirements within their given industry, may require specialized knowledge in a specific fields of study through a bachelor's degree pertinent to the employer's industry or division's role within the organization.

United States Coast Guard military aid Lieutenant Commander Jayna McCarron, left, serving as part of the White House Military Office is seen meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden about Medal of Honor recipients, Wednesday, October 6, 2021, in the Oval Office.

In the United States, a variety of skills and adaptability to new situations is necessary. As such, a four-year bachelor's degree is often preferred and a two-year associate degree is usually a requirement, in any field of study unless specified by employers to comply with education requirements within their given industry, although work experience can substitute education if the position does not require specialized knowledge in a specific field of study pertinent to the employer's industry or division's role within the organization. Another option taken with or without higher education is to get a professional certification from a national association that self-regulates the secretarial and administrative assistance industry, in which a professional certification may substitute higher education if the person does not have a bachelor's degree or an associate degree, or in order to substitute work experience for a person with a higher education degree but with limited experience in an administrative support role. During the Baby Boomers' and some older Gen Xers' adult years, it was common for secretaries to enter the profession only having obtained a high school diploma supplemented by on-the-job training with no formal post-secondary education, a higher education degree, or previous professional service experience, but many of these same job titles today found among Millennial, Gen Z, and younger Gen X adults, require specialized education and skills mostly acquired through a bachelor's degree (e.g. BA, BS, BBA) level of education and in some cases a master's degree (e.g. MA, MS, MBA, MPP, MPA, MPH, MLIS) or doctoral degree (e.g. JD) level of education including even education specifically in a field pertinent to the organization's industry or division's purview because many in these positions today actively participate in the work of their employer such as having a hands-on involvement on the production of deliverables or conduct other professional duties similar to that of the executives they assist.[18]

From the Renaissance until the late 19th century, men involved in the daily correspondence and the activities of the powerful had assumed the title of secretary.

With time, like many titles, the term was applied to more and varied functions, leading to compound titles to specify various secretarial work better, like general secretary or financial secretary. Just "secretary" remained in use either as an abbreviation when clear in the context or for relatively modest positions such as administrative assistant of the officer(s) in charge, either individually or as member of a secretariat. As such less influential posts became more feminine and common with the multiplication of bureaucracies in the public and private sectors, new words were also coined to describe them, such as personal assistant.

In the 1840s and 1850s, commercial schools were emerging to train male and female students the skills needed to work in a clerical position.[19] In 1870, Sir Isaac Pitman founded a school where students could qualify as shorthand writers to "professional and commercial men". Originally, this school was only for male students. In 1871, there were more than 150 such schools operating in the United States, a number that grew to as many as 500 by the 1890s.[20]

In the 1880s, with the invention of the typewriter, more women began to enter the field and during the upcoming years, especially since World War I, the role of secretary has been primarily associated with women. By the 1930s, fewer men were entering the field of secretaries.

In an effort to promote professionalism among United States secretaries, the National Secretaries Association was created in 1942. Today, this organization is known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). The organization developed the first standardized test for office workers called the Certified Professional Secretaries Examination (CPS). It was first administered in 1951.

By the mid-20th century, the need for secretaries was great and offices and organizations featured large secretarial pools. In some cases the demand was great enough to spur secretaries being recruited from overseas; in particular, there was often a steady demand for young British women to come to the U.S. and fill temporary or permanent secretarial positions.[21] Several organizations were created to assist secretaries from foreign lands, including the Society of International Secretaries and the Association of British Secretaries in America.[22]

In 1952, Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation, and American businessman Harry F. Klemfuss created a special Secretary's Day holiday, to recognize the hard work of the staff in the office. The holiday caught on, and during the fourth week of April is now celebrated in offices all over the world. It has been renamed "Administrative Professional's Week" to highlight the increased responsibility of today's secretary and other administrative workers, and to avoid embarrassment to those who believe that "secretary" refers only to women or to unskilled workers.

• Clerk
• Legal secretary
• Cabinet secretary or Department secretary
• Office lady
• Personal assistant
• Receptionist

• National Association of Parliamentarians®, Education Committee (1993). Spotlight on You the Secretary. Independence, MO: National Association of Parliamentarians®. ISBN 1-884048-25-0.
• Covert, Bryce (May 4, 2015). "The Slow Death of the Secretary". The New Republic. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
• The debate theorical-methodological in field of secretariat: diversities and singularities
• Educational handbooks for professions occupied by females in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Look up secretary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• American Society of Administrative Professionals
• Administrative Professional Resources
• iaap - International Association of Administrative Professionals