Monday, April 22, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
THEY don't make coffee. They don't run personal errands. Many aren't even called secretaries anymore.
One emerging title for these office jack-of-all-trades is executive assistant. And it's not only the title that's changing -- it's also the role.
Their duties are broader, they're expected to assume more responsibility and take more initiative. In short, they're more managerial.
This week, they're being honored as executives across the country acknowledge Professional Secretaries Day Wednesday.
"I think of the traditional role of the secretary as more or less waiting for instructions from her boss," said Jeanne White, an executive assistant in the corporate offices of Greyhound Exposition Services. White started her secretarial career 32 years ago when manual typewriters were the norm and electrics were considered state-of-the-art.
"Now, she (the secretary) is much more of a manager of information and communications," White continued, explaining that someone has to manage the volumes of information that come into the office constantly from voice mail, e-mail, telephone calls, facsimile machines and computers.
Secretaries are assuming more responsibility and are expected to work on their own without direction from bosses, said Patti Speer, a senior executive assistant with the Howard Hughes Corp.
"It's not just typing and dictation and answering phones and making coffee anymore. Secretaries are taking leadership roles in the company ... they handle everything from the switchboard to office administration," said Speer, a secretary for 20 years.
In Speer's view, two forces are changing the role of the secretary: first is the changing role of women in the workplace. They want to improve, progress and move up in the company. "Companies are recognizing this," she said.
Secondly, companies are downsizing and re-engineering and secretaries are having to assume heavier workloads. In addition to typing and filing, they must do a variety of tasks from making graphs and preparing presentations to organizing meetings, she added.
It's not downsizing, but technology, that's changed Nancy Judd's role at First Security Bank of Nevada where she started as a loan secretary six years ago. Now she is classified as a loan assistant.
Computers and form letters have cut down on her typing duties. And, her bosses now answer their own phones.
"They pick up their phone if they are available just as I answer mine, and they do their typing as I do mine," she said.
This frees Judd to interview customers and initiate the loan process prior to the application going to a loan officer. She has responsibility for gathering information and deciding whether a loan application will even make it to the loan officer's desk.
Today, primary skills sought in the executive assistant involve use of a computer, according to survey results published by The Secretary, a magazine of the Professional Secretaries International. The top three requirements for computer skills are general computer use, 65.6 percent; word processing, 61 percent; and spreadsheet, 30.4 percent.
Organization was the fourth-most sought skill at 28.9 percent and communication skills ranked fifth at 24 percent. Personality, telephone, general office, interpersonal, initiative, math and bookkeeping, administrative, writing, team player, bilingual, dictation, spelling and grammar and confidentiality rounded out the list in that order.
White, Speer and Judd, all members of the local Oasis Chapter of Professional Secretaries International, encourage aspiring executive assistants to get all the education they can.
"Never pass up a seminar if they can attend because there isn't a seminar that I have attended that I didn't learn something," Judd said.
Jeanne White said flexibility, organizational skills and the ability to bite one's tongue also are important.
"I think interpersonal skills are very important. You have to learn to listen and not say anything a lot of the time. It's best not to say anything some of the time. I have a ridge in my tongue," she said.
The yellow pages lists at least three business and vocational schools that offer programs for prospective office professionals. And, Community College of Southern Nevada offers two programs in office administration: a one-year certificate and a two-year degree.
Students receive training in accounting, business, office administration, computing and management, according to an overview of the program.
At Century Media Network Co. in Las Vegas, the word secretary doesn't begin to describe the broad range of duties performed by Anne Moon. Her title of office manager better describes her role.
"She takes care of all of our operations," said Gina Cinque, district manager of the company that sells the advertising that precedes theater movies. Her duties include accounting, payroll, programming in theaters and working with theater managers.
"She doesn't just rely on people to tell her what to do. She asks and she also gives her input. She's not just a secretary who I have to tell what to do. I need somebody to give their creative input, too," Cinque said.
Because Cinque and the other sales staff members often are out in the field, Moon has to take more responsibility and sometimes make decisions.
"She also has a good knowledge of what we need as employees. Part of her job is to compare retirement and insurance plans. She does that a lot. I may not have time to read it all. She narrows things down and then I review and make a decision from what she has narrowed down," she said.
Delegating duties saves Cinque time and increases revenue as Moon handles all the organizational details, freeing the sales staff to concentrate on selling.
Cinque said she would encourage other companies to make use of their secretaries' strengths and talents.
"Many, many secretaries have executive capabilities and rather than limit them, you should maximize their talents," she said.
This leads to a better bottom line, as well as a more productive, happier employee who doesn't feel as if she is stuck in a rut, Cinque said.
As for coffee-making, the new office rule seems to be: Whoever takes the last cup makes the fresh pot.
And as for running errands for the boss, at Century Media, the boss sometimes runs errands for the executive assistant.
"Sometimes we bring Anne lunch," Cinque said. "We assist each other in trying to make the office more comfortable."
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