From Latin secretariesa Secretary or a secretary is a person who is in charge of receiving and drafting the correspondence of a hierarchical superior, carrying out his agenda and guarding and ordering the documents of one office. The position held by a secretary is often known as Administrative Assistant.
The secretary, therefore, performs certain elementary and essential activities in a business or organization. This is the employee who is in charge of the daily managementalways reporting to his superior.
A secretary performs multiple administrative tasks in an office.
Index
Tasks performed by a secretary
Answering the phone, answering emails, receiving visitors, filing documents and coordinating payments and collections are just some of the tasks that a secretary performs.
To all these tasks should also be added the receipt of various types of documents, the calculation of various accounts, keeping the appointment schedule absolutely up to date and also the schedule of professional contacts that your boss has, undertaking the information that is required about of your department or office.
In order to be able to undertake these functions in the most effective and efficient way, it is vital that the secretary has extensive knowledge in areas such as accounting, management or office automation. In this last aspect, it is vital that she perfectly manages programs such as word processors, email platforms or database management software.
For example: “I would like us to have a meeting in the next few days to analyze this business. Please call my secretary so we can arrange a meeting.”, “I am going to ask my secretary for the papers to proceed with the signing of the contract”, “Yesterday I spoke with your secretary and she told me that you were sick: what happened to you?”.
Answering the phone and coordinating your boss’s agenda are two activities that secretaries usually carry out.
Different positions and functions
Although the position of administrative assistant can be held by mens either women, the usual thing is that it is a woman who performs this function. That is why it is much more common to speak of a secretary and not a secretary.
Among the different varieties of secretaries that may exist, we could highlight the one that is called a private secretary. As its name indicates, that is the one whose functions are to take care of all the personal and private affairs of their boss, who occupies a position of authority.
In Americahowever, a secretary is a public official in charge of an administrative department of the government. In this case, a secretary resembles a minister: “The Secretary of Commerce met with the president to determine the steps to follow in the face of the strike”.
Series «Inés Duarte, secretary»
The relationships established between bosses and secretaries, as well as the power that the latter have, knowing first-hand all their secrets, have greatly inspired the fields of cinema, literature and television. In this sense, we could highlight the small screen series: “Inés Duarte, secretary”.
In 1990, this production began to be broadcast in Venezuela, starring actress Amanda Gutiérrez, which told how an unattractive woman with low self-esteem becomes the secretary of a wealthy man who, over time, will get to conquer.
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