Good publicity for IAAP Glass City Chapter APW event...

Toledo Blade
April 20, 2004
Circ: 138,435

ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS
Area firms join in national week to honor role of support staff

By MARY-BETH McLAUGHLIN
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

Asked whether he would honor his administrative staff this week, union leader Lloyd Mahaffey was quick to say he planned to take nearly two dozen employees to lunch to thank them for their hard work.

Asked what day the celebration would take place, he had to pause and consult with ... one of the assistants. This is annual Administrative Professionals Week.

"I guess the date's up in the air. But we'll go to the Lone Star [restaurant] out here," said Mr. Mahaffey, regional director of the United Auto Workers in Ohio. "You have to recognize people when they do a good job. ..."

Tomorrow is Administrative Professionals Day, the highlight of a week to honor the nation's secretaries, administrative assistants, and others who help the nation's businesses run smoothly.

More than half the secretaries and administrative assistants surveyed last month by Quill Corp., an office supply firm in suburban Chicago, expect to be honored in some way this week by their bosses. Being treated to a meal out is the most expected form of recognition (40 percent), but a gift certificate or cash is what most respondents (55 percent) would prefer.

Todd Hiepler, general manager of Westfield Shoppingtown Franklin Park in Toledo, said he plans to give individual gifts to the support staff in his office and then take them and his managers to lunch." It's very good to show your appreciation, but it shouldn't come one day a year," he said. "We try to make this a very fun environment by celebrating birthdays and other holidays."

Debby Schaefer, a vice president of Brooks Insurance Co. in downtown Toledo, said the company's staff of nearly 90 will be given a luncheon tomorrow thrown by one of its carriers, although there will probably be some type of acknowledgement of administrative assistants and secretaries. The firm has other such luncheons during the year to recognize its staff, she added.

Focusing on professional development and recognition is the best way to honor employees, according to the International Association of Administrative Professionals, which has backed the annual week since 1952.

The group, which estimates there are more than 4.1 million administrative assistants and secretaries in the United States, suggests employers bring in a professional development speaker or provide registration to a seminar to build the employee's technical, interpersonal, or business skills.

Jo Ann Romero, president of the Glass City chapter of the group, said she has organized a teleconference tomorrow at Owens Corning, where she works, for 40 workers and others that will include several speakers, including Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, who is to talk about leadership.

"This is a good networking opportunity," Ms. Romero said. "Being such a large company, we never get the administrative professionals in one group, so this is a good time to bring everyone together."

Not all bosses and employees are celebrating this week.

Tim Dirrim, a spokesman for Sky Financial Group Inc. in Bowling Green, parent company of Sky Bank, said, "I choose to honor the people who work for me at other times, like when they do a good job, or they work on a project for you, or they go above and beyond to get something completed."

# # #