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An Administrative Assistant. Not rich, but a nice salary. Even if those goes full-time, it's less than a third of what I should be making. But if nothing else comes up soon, I'd have to take an offer, if given one. UI runs out in November. I'm really tired of this bullcrap.
I am (was) an Administrative Assistant, too. To an attorney for ten years, and to a V.P. of a hardware company before that. I had a nice salary, bonuses, firm-paid gym membership, my own office (with a window), occasional firm-financed happy hours on Fridays after work and lunches at the country club... I worked hard for it though, very hard, and earned that salary and those perks. I've been searching for a job for 10 months, now. I went to the local "career center." What a joke. My counselor fed my ego all right - told me "they'd be crazy not to hire me, I had the best work history and resume he'd seen in a long time." Yeah, right. Sent out resumes every week, delivered them in person, too. I have had five interviews in ten months.
I applied to a new dollar store that opened in my neighborhood. I lasted three days, and was told, "This job isn't for everybody". You can't fit a square peg in a round hole, and people like us (used to good salaries and perks) are going to have a hard time in positions where we are minimum wage "grunts". The jobs we are used to don't exist anymore. I didn't go to school and work all those years to end up like this.
I am (was) an Administrative Assistant, too. To an attorney for ten years, and to a V.P. of a hardware company before that. I had a nice salary, bonuses, firm-paid gym membership, my own office (with a window), occasional firm-financed happy hours on Fridays after work and lunches at the country club... I worked hard for it though, very hard, and earned that salary and those perks.
I had a similar situation for 26 years and fortunately was let go almost three years past my retirement age, so I at least have SS. That said, I could see the handwriting on the wall for these types of jobs 20 years ago when technology took over, even though there is so much more to it than running a computer. But, nowadays, experience, knowledge, etc. isn't valued. Too much happening too fast everywhere and quality is the first to go.
I had a similar situation for 26 years and fortunately was let go almost three years past my retirement age, so I at least have SS. That said, I could see the handwriting on the wall for these types of jobs 20 years ago when technology took over, even though there is so much more to it than running a computer. But, nowadays, experience, knowledge, etc. isn't valued. Too much happening too fast everywhere and quality is the first to go.
Yep, those were the days.
Technology is important, yes, but there is so much more to being an Administrative Assistant than that. I prepared a lot of deeds directly from surveys - you have to be able to read and decipher the survey, the surveyor isn't going to type it in English in the computer for you. And coordinating a real estate closing between the realtor, the bank, the mortgage company, the buyer, and the seller is like a juggling act. I had to obtain tax information from the umpteen different township tax collectors in this county, who all worked part time from their homes and were not always available. Also, putting on a good unruffled appearance to clients when things got hairy - you're representing the firm. There's just so much more to putting it together than knowing a couple of "computer programs". I also made and served coffee and took shorthand (believe me, that came in handy more times than not, especially when one of the attorneys dictated stuff from the golf course). I'd like to see them teach that kind of stuff in college now. Everything is computer, computer, computer. My boss was not happy I was let go (he apologized to me later), but I know it was the decision of the senior partner and due to the economy.
Technology is important, yes, but there is so much more to being an Administrative Assistant than that. I prepared a lot of deeds directly from surveys - you have to be able to read and decipher the survey, the surveyor isn't going to type it in English in the computer for you. And coordinating a real estate closing between the realtor, the bank, the mortgage company, the buyer, and the seller is like a juggling act. I had to obtain tax information from the umpteen different township tax collectors in this county, who all worked part time from their homes and were not always available. Also, putting on a good unruffled appearance to clients when things got hairy - you're representing the firm. There's just so much more to putting it together than knowing a couple of "computer programs". I also made and served coffee and took shorthand (believe me, that came in handy more times than not, especially when one of the attorneys dictated stuff from the golf course). I'd like to see them teach that kind of stuff in college now. Everything is computer, computer, computer. My boss was not happy I was let go (he apologized to me later), but I know it was the decision of the senior partner and due to the economy.
I'm so sick of people thinking that all AAs do is type. My former department found out all that I did the hard way!
Some of the counties in this rural part of the state still require carbon forms. Get it? Carbon forms! You need to know how to use a TYPEWRITER to do those. The secretary to the senior partner where I worked (a "friend of the family", Ms. Snooty from D.C.), pitched a royal fit that these forms couldn't be "done on line". She tried to create her own computerized form and file it, but they would not take it!!!! She bragged that she hadn't used a typewriter in ten years. She sat there and complained and cursed. Real professional behavior. (Don't ask me about the time she tried to put a new cartride in the typewriter). She wouldn't make coffee, either. Anyway, I'm here and she's still there. I spoke with a woman who knows the senior partner, and she said he looks, "Terrible." I wonder why.
Some of the counties in this rural part of the state still require carbon forms. Get it? Carbon forms! You need to know how to use a TYPEWRITER to do those. The secretary to the senior partner where I worked (a "friend of the family", Ms. Snooty from D.C.), pitched a royal fit that these forms couldn't be "done on line". She tried to create her own computerized form and file it, but they would not take it!!!! She bragged that she hadn't used a typewriter in ten years. She sat there and complained and cursed. Real professional behavior. (Don't ask me about the time she tried to put a new cartride in the typewriter). She wouldn't make coffee, either. Anyway, I'm here and she's still there. I spoke with a woman who knows the senior partner, and she said he looks, "Terrible." I wonder why.
I can never understand this. Several bad assistants still have their jobs at my old company. It burns me. I think of all the OT and dedication I put in, and the people who couldn't use Outlook (mandatory in that company - for every employee), couldn't make a lunch reservation or called in sick or left early everytime they had a papercut or their kid had a headache are still working. I don't get it.
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