Calling All Administrative/Executive Assistants, Receptionists, Clerical Workers and Former Secretaries: We Need Your Stories!
Seeking stories of secretaries in the workplace. I need your story or the stories of your friends, co-workers or relatives experiences—especially seeking those that worked in secretarial position pre-1980. Final stories will be used in a piece at the end of May for the Estrogen Fest 2007 called“You too could be an Executive Secretary!”
Please post them here OR submit to SecretaryStory@estfest.org before Administrative Assistants Day on April 25th. Pass this along to anyone you know who might have a great secretary story!
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I was an "Executive Assistant" at an architecture firm on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. One of my responsibilities was to take care of the paperwork associated with health insurance benefits and to keep employees updated on any changes in our policy.
One of the changes that went into effect was an option to mail order for birth control pills. Though the paper work was extensive to set up the mail-order deliveries, by doing so, the women in our plan would receive a 50 percent discount on birth control. Wow! The traditional method of getting birth control at a pharmacy wasn't covered at all. I immediately sent a mass e-mail to the employees of the company, alerting them of this new option.
Well, the next day one of the CEO's called me into his office for a talk. He said, "Candis, I understand your concern with this issue, but it's really not appropriate to discuss at the office. It's something you should only discuss with your girlfriends." Excuse me? I explained to him that it was my JOB to convey any changes in our insurance policy. And he continued to cite the topic as being inappropriate for public discussion. I was offended to the core - women's health needs are not appropriate public discussion? Didn't most of the men at the company have wives covered under our plan? And weren't many of our employees female? Did he really expect me to pass over the important policy change in the name of some backwards notion of impropriety? Yes. Indeed he did. If it weren't for that damn insurance coverage that I needed so desperately, I would have quit that day, on the spot.
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