Positive, image-enhancing article in today's Indianapolis Star. Jean Fergerson and Judy Warz are both members of IAAP's '500' Chapter in Indianapolis; Joyce Rose-Weisberger is member of IAAP Indy Northside Chapter.

Direct link:
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/139867-8894-031.html

Office assistants keep the boss looking good

By Robert Hadley, Indianapolis Star correspondent
April 21, 2004

When she started working as a secretary at Coopers & Lybrand in 1952, N. Jean Fergerson Bush performed what might now be considered an unusual task: Each morning, she dusted her boss's desk.

"It was just something that was expected," she said. "I've cleaned bathrooms. I've made many a pot of coffee, too."

Bush's story illustrates how things have changed for secretaries, just as their equipment has gone from carbon paper and steno pads to Excel spreadsheets and Internet research. Long known as the "girl Friday" charged with everything from typing letters to buying birthday gifts to paying the boss's bills, administrative assistants have emerged as the new middle managers, often playing key roles in project management, purchasing, sales and other areas once reserved for midlevel executives.

More than eight in 10 administrative professionals surveyed said they plan and coordinate projects, according to a 2003 study by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah. Three-quarters work with vendors, while nearly half supervise other employees.

As they mark Administrative Professionals Day today -- what once was called Secretaries Day -- many veteran office workers know they do so much more than type letters or answer phones. Some say they have grown as the job has grown; others have sought out advanced training to keep or obtain new jobs.

Joyce Rose-Weisberger, who started as a secretary for Maxwell Steinberg in 1984, quit to get married and have a child. She thinks her lack of computer training stalled her career when she tried to return to the work force after maternity leave in 1988.

A 1983 graduate of Butler University with a degree in business administration and accounting, Rose-Weisberger, an Indianapolis resident, was turned down for several secretarial jobs for unclear reasons.

"One woman who interviewed me finally said it was because I didn't know the computer," she said.

So Rose-Weisberger attended Ivy Tech State College and mastered word processing, spreadsheet and database software while pursuing an associate's degree in information data management, which she received in 1990.

Today, she is an administrative assistant for United Way of Central Indiana, where she has worked 71/2 years. Although she manages projects and helps her department head with decision-making, she said her pay is only "marginally" greater than when she entered the work force in 1984.

"That's OK because I get incredible benefits," she said, citing four weeks of vacation, partial payment of health insurance premiums and a pension. "I like the people, and I'm fulfilled."

Yet overall, office assistants' pay doesn't come close to workers in management. The 2002 median hourly wage for executive secretaries and administrative assistants was $15.77 in Indianapolis, below the national median of $16.06, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By comparison, the bureau reports that in Indianapolis, the median hourly wage for all management occupations -- from executive to first-level supervisor -- is $31.20.

"Some companies take their administrative staffs for granted," said Rick Stroud, communications manager of the 40,000-member IAAP, which is based in Kansas City, Mo. They forget "having someone handle a client or customer efficiently pays big dividends -- you end up with a satisfied customer."

Another reason for the pay lag may be the pink-collar pay problem that plagues many female-dominated professions.

"Business is based, as far as I'm concerned, on a man's world," said Judy Warz, a retired secretary for Eli Lilly and Co. "There are ladies that can -- with the right background and education -- be promoted in the higher ranks of a company. But they have to prove themselves a lot more than their male counterparts."

Flexibility is crucial for navigating the office politics and competing with younger co-workers, secretaries say. Warz credits recertification through IAAP and numerous in-house training sessions at Lilly with bridging the generation gap.

Larry Boulet, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bush's former boss at Coopers & Lybrand, says veteran administrative assistants are resources managers can rely on to increase efficiency.

"When they encounter a roadblock, experienced workers know things they can try without having to ask their boss about every obstacle," he said. "That's certainly what I had with Jean Bush."

These days, technology's increased efficiency may be another reason secretaries are performing more management-level tasks.

"You can fit more work into a day with a computer (producing correspondence) than if you had to make phone calls," Bush said.

"Certainly I enjoyed every minute of it," she said of her 40 years. Especially "the sense of satisfaction you feel when you helped your boss."

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