Message #38406

[countrigal]

I've said it often, so it's no surprise.  I'm a "Them".  My short stint in the secretarial positions was my way of working into a company and moving upward.  I went from flipping burgers to working at a computer without any training, but knowing my limitations, I started out volunteering for 4 months before my first job.  During those 4 months, I excelled at everything I was given.  My work ethics were set high, so I expected myself to learn quickly and professionally do whatever was given to me, without question.  That started me off on my "career".  In less than 7 years I have worked myself up from a temporary civil service secretary to a position where I'm no longer a secretary or assistant, but not quite management.  And management is aware of me and ready to groom me for those types of positions when I feel I'm ready to move on.  Most of my promotions have come through luck (moves that worked out) and through my hard work being noticed by both co-workers and bosses.

Since I work for the government, I work around a lot of "First Wavers".  The facility would grind to a halt without some of them because of their extensive knowledge, spanning years and different methods of doing things.  At the same time, some of them have the attitude "this is how it has always been done" and won't change, no matter what.  The best Career Admins, PAs, etc are those who knw the company, but also are willing to change and grow with the times.  These are the ones that I'm noticing as posters in DD.  The bad ones (and there are some, just like there are some bad "Second Wavers"), don't seem to realize that the internet is available for them to further their knowledge and that their advice could be helpful to others.  Any company needs a combination of both First and Second Wavers in order to grow and change in the world, while maintaining consistency.

And I believe that those who do move on up the company chart should remember well what they dealt with as admins and secretaries.  I have a co-worker who is also our office admin, and any time I have to ask for her help, I make sure I have complete and detailed instructions and a reasonable time to do it, taking into consideration not only what I'm giving her but her regular work too.  I'm hoping to carry those habits into whatever managerial role I take in the future.  This then allows the role and function of the admin to grow and change, as "old timers" who felt that the admin was a go-for or mindless automaton are replaced by folks who worked their way up through the secretarial/admin fields.



CountriGal
Peer Moderator