April 2006
Timeline of a Secretary
Encarta: Secretary: (Noun) 1. Clerical worker: somebody who does general clerical and administrative work such as word-processing, filing, and arranging appointments for an individual or an organization.
Roget's Superthesaurus: Alternative words to Secretary: Office Worker, Typist, Word processor, receptionist, filer, stenographer, bookkeeper, *gal Friday, *desk jockey.
Alternatives for Office Worker: Desk jockey, pencil driver, bean counter, number cruncher, hacker, secretary, receptionist… well you get the idea.
Also from Encarta: 'Early Women Workers': In Babylonia, about 2000 BC, women were permitted to engage in business and to work as scribes (Scribe: Noun, a public clerk, professional copyist of manuscripts, writer or journalist, American Heritage Dictionary Third Edition (1994), P. 736).
It's interesting to see how far the profession has come from its earliest times. Just in the last century the title of 'secretary' has undergone numerous name changes. First, there were secretaries, then to administrative assistants, personal assistants, and now, virtual assistants.
At the risk of starting the virtual 'war of the world', aren't we all assistants of some sort? I like being called a secretary. Of course, I'm a techno-gadget-sooped-up-cyber-secretary… However, bottom line, I am still a secretary. "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. :
It doesn't matter that my office is home-based. It didn't matter almost 10 years ago when I started with one client, that my office was home-based. Cottage industries were the birthplace of entrepreneurship. Cottage Industries were businesses, mostly non-factory, which were operated from the owner's homes. Being a home-based worker, I'm very proud to be a part of a growing Cottage Industry society, in which more and more home-based businesses are started.
Credibility doesn't come from a storefront office or gold plated nameplates. Credibility comes from doing the job right, and being of great assistance to our clients. Credibility comes from exercising the highest possible quality of work, and the highest ethical conduct we can. Just because my office is located in my home, doesn't make me less credible. If your clients aren't satisfied and are leaving, and your business isn't growing, then it won't matter where you ran your business, because you'll be out of business.
Having said this, if you run a business from an office other than in your home, more power to you! I maintain that the single most important aspect of this profession is that we have a choice of how to run it. We can choose to take work or pass it on. We can choose to specialize or be a one-stop-shop.
I believe in our industry, Virtual Assistance is certainly gaining momentum as we grow. The more we educate the public as to the benefits of virtual assistance the more we all benefit.
by Kathy Ritchie, Editor
(reprinted from 2001)
