Today is National Professional Secretaries Day. I know this because for twenty-two years I was a secretary. For eleven of those twenty-two years, I was a corporate secretary and had five secretaries under me. Let me tell you each one of those ladies earned their pay. Keeping the corporate world straight is a damn hard job.
Each year, our boss thanked us for being meticulous in our duties by sending us bouquets of flowers and buying lunch. Even during tough times, he managed to send a thank you and we appreciated him for appreciating us.
I never knew when this tradition started, so I decided to look up its origin and share it with the PFS readers.
The first National Secretaries Day was celebrated in 1952. Its founder was Mr. Harry Klemfuss, who handled the Dictaphone Corporation account for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. He thought secretaries deserved recognition and wanted to encourage more people to enter the field.
Mr. Klemfuss along with the National Secretaries Association (now called the International Association of Administrative Professionals) and a few office product manufacturers persuaded Charles Sawyer, then the secretary of commerce, to proclaim the first National Secretaries Week.
Mr. Klemfuss passed on July 30, 2009. Let us also remember him today.
Kudos to you for all those years of hard work and for all the secretaries out there still toiling away. Our country would come to a halt without you.
Thanks, Beth! I miss working with the girls on a daily basis. They were a great bunch.
I was a secretary for many years too. They call them Executive Administrators when you work for an Exec. All of us EAs knew who really ran the business. A good Exec is lost without a good EA behind him!
Nice if bosses bother to remember eh?
That is so true, Judy. Happy EA Day.
Most do, Mary. Kudos to them.
Thanks for letting us know. Secretaries keep the wheels of a company turning.
Interesting. I can see Autumn cracking that whip. And then keeping the other secretaries in line! Hugs to you and Jim!
Autumn, thank you for reminding us of Secretary Day. I always took the secretaries for lunch on that day. I had a wonderful secretary who became my Administrative Manager, my right hand, and a good friend. She had an excellent memory, and often reminded me of deadlines and important meeting. She was extremely organized and kept the office running. Christy dear, if you see this, Happy Secretary Day.
I did a few turns as secretary years ago, too. :)
I never worked as a secretary, but I have worked as a clerk in a large manufacturing company. The work of the secretaries and clerks was always under paid and under appreciated. We did all the work and the bosses got all the glory. I'm glad someone decided to show a little appreciation to these hard working people. Those positions are like those in teaching, never appreciated and quick to be critized.
Scalet
I'm a legal assistant and I didn't get flowers or lunch or...hum...anything. Thanks for the interesting info. I'd totally forgotten.