A secretary is a personal assistant and an administrative professional whose job consists of assisting management. They support executives through a variety of communication, project management, and organizational skills.
Some key duties include ensuring meetings are properly recorded and organized. They maintain administration and effective records. Their duty includes correspondence and communication.
The Secretary usually is a reference and information point for the Chair and other committee members regarding confirming legal requisites, clarifying decisions and practice from previous years, and fetching relevant documentation.
| Advantages of Being a secretary | Disadvantages of Being a secretary |
| Secretaries work regular hours | Salary of secretaries is very low |
| They do not have to work on weekends | Secretaries do not have a high social status |
| Good work life balance as a secretary | Affairs inside the company are very common |
| Being a secretary is not that stressful | Being a secretary can be difficult for private life |
| One can learn for experienced managers | Job of secretary will become boring after a while |
Advantages of being a secretary
Secretaries work regular hours
The biggest advantage of being a secretary is that they do a regular 40-hour workweek throughout their career. Moreover, a secretary usually works a typical 9 to 5 job. They do not work for longer hours.
In comparison to several other professions where one has to work more hours on a daily basis, secretaries have more leisure time to spend on many other things they desire.
It translates to the fact that one can spend time with pets; go out to bars in the evenings, whereas other professionals are forced to work and deal with unpleasant issues. This also means that they will have much more time for their family or for recreational activities.
They do not have to work on weekends
An advantage of becoming a secretary is that they usually have free weekends. Though it is correct for several other professions, few executives who work in management or as a specialist usually have to go to the office on Saturdays or even on Sundays as the workload managed by them is straightforwardly very high for a 5-day workweek.
In a turn of working their bud off, they can simply relax on weekends or plan nice weekend trips with their friends or family. There are endless opportunities.
Good work life balance as a secretary
As secretaries usually have free weekends and have standardized 40-hour workweeks. They usually have ample leisure time to pursue their passions and use this time for creativity or recreation.
Consequently, they can do furlough even during the workday as they do not have to be at the office in the late evening. If one is not the type of worker who craves going out to clubs or bars.
They even choose to paint a picture or join a local sports team. Whatever one desires to pursue, they have the time to do numerous activities along with that as a secretary because of the ample leisure which comes along with pursuing this profession.
Being a secretary is not that stressful
Though several professions are stressful and few are labor-intensive, secretaries have a comparatively relaxed life throughout their careers. In turn, they will mostly wait for their boss to assign them some tasks.
When their boss is on tour, there will not be any task to perform for them. They are able to work comparatively in their own control as a secretary. If they excellently do tasks assigned to them by their boss. If they develop an understanding with their boss that she or he can depend on them without controlling their work.
Therefore, if one master the game and understands the corporate culture, they will be able to work in a very stress-free way in many companies as a secretary.
One can learn for experienced managers
A secretary works for experienced people at the top or middle management inside their company. Consequently, only executives who achieve a certain level in the hierarchy have the secretary assigned to them.
It also infers that they will work with very important executives. Very often, they do work for people who are part of the top management or the board of directors.
Though it may appear discouraging initially, those people also like us and rather motivate us and not be scared off. Very often, one will be amazed how nice those people are, despite a lot of pressure on their minds.
Therefore, working as a secretary is a great learning opportunity and to have a better understanding of top management.
Disadvantages of being a secretary
Salary of secretaries is very low
A big disadvantage with being a secretary is that their salary will be very low. As per available online surveys, the average salary of secretaries is about 23,000 dollars across the globe.
Only experienced secretaries working as assistants to fortune 500 companies are able to earn more than 50,000 dollars. This is the biggest detrimental factor for the best people from each batch of engineering and management graduates.
Therefore one will not be able to own several luxurious things as a secretary. The best eventually opt for alternative available career paths as money is important to most.
Secretaries do not have a high social status
A downside of becoming a secretary is that they have a very low social status. While lawyers fight for justice, pilots have great responsibility for many people and doctors save lives on a daily basis.
A secretary will just do some paperwork and most people will consider their work as very inferior and unimportant. Not only secretaries but their spouses, children are also mocked at gatherings.
Affairs inside the company are very common
The corporate world has several grapevines. The secretaries are a hot topic in smoking areas and around water coolers in most offices.
Other professionals have prejudices about the personal life and relationships of secretaries in and around the company. Very often tittle-tattle will be revealed when they have an affair with their boss.
Consequently, it can even become reality later or sooner. Most secretaries have a fling with their bosses as they mostly work together for a longer duration of time and get to know each other very well.
Being a secretary can be difficult for private life
As their spouse will come to know that flings between secretaries and bosses are routine, she or he will usually not be able to trust them and eventually will become tense in the long run.
It is a fact that several relationships ended because those epitome levels of distrust and being a secretary will eventually lead to all sorts of issues in their private life.
Job of secretary will become boring after a while
In online surveys, many secretaries have accepted that they get very bored in the course of their careers.
The initial few months or some years may be thrilling; some secretaries simply do not like to go to the office anymore after this duration as they usually have to face the same monotonous stuff and do not get any thrilling job to do.
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I’m a former teacher with a background in child development and a passion for creating engaging and educational activities for children. I strongly understand child development and know how to create activities to help children learn and grow. Spare time, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, and volunteering in my community.