Secretary

Character of work

At the administrative level many job descriptions blur into each other; a secretary in one company might be called an administrative assistant in another. However, while Administrative Assistant is a truly generic term, not necessarily implying directly working for a superior, Secretary tends to be biased towards typing-based activities directed by a superior. Other titles describing jobs similar to or overlapping those of the traditional secretary are Office Coordinator, Executive Assistant, Office Manager and Administrative Professional.

Secretarial jobs are popular as they require few formal qualifications and yet can be skilled jobs:

* At the most basic end of the spectrum a secretary may need only a good command of the prevailing office language and the ability to type, and may spend a large part of her time filing and fetching papers (or the equivalent files and databases online) or answering phones.

* At the other end of the spectrum they may be required to take dictation by writing in shorthand at spoken-language rates, type at high speeds using technical or foreign languages, organise diaries, itineraries and meetings and carry out administrative duties which may include accountancy. In a more elevated secretarial position, she or he may also control access to the manager whom she / he is assigned to, and thus becomes an influential person, and trusted aide.

Interaction with the general public varies from none to extensive, though in the modern US those whose work entails customer service requests are often called "customer service representatives". They are distinct from those called "secretaries" because the scope of their work is smaller. A large urban supermarket, for instance, will have office staff working in enclosed offices in addition to checkout staff, with the latter usually only handling their own receipts for that day's sales while the professional staff must reconcile all accounts daily.

Employment agencies for temporary employment often fill secretarial jobs.

Private Secretary

In the United Kingdom government, a Parliamentary Private Secretary is the chief assistant to a Secretary of State or Minister of the Crown. Senior civil servants may also have a Private Secretary. Depending upon the seniority of their principal, a Private Secretary may him or herself be regarded as an important official in their own right. The Private Secretary to the Sovereign and the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister are the most important.

A Private Secretary can be assisted by one or more Assistant - and or Deputy Secretaries, or even head a whole office in which those may be section chiefs.

In several continental European states, similar positions (to a head of state or executive minister) are given names meaning chief of the 'cabinet' (e.g. kabinetschef in Dutch, Chef de cabinet in French) in the sense of personal advisory and administrative staff, indeed like a Chief of Staff heading a bureau that may in fact include one or more functions styled Secretary, e.g. Press Secretary, Social Secretary.

The same function may exist under another name without the — rather confusing — word Private, and to a gubernotorial dignitary, e.g. Secretary to the Governor General as in Canada.

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