Life as a Secretary

Secretarial work requires "communication skills"--there's that old chestnut--and though I'm still frequently evasive, crabby, and sloppy, I *have* learned a few things from my four-ish years behind a desk. Here's what I have learned:

*Do not apologize too often. Excessive apologies are needy and irritating. They will help you to defeat your own purpose.

*Do say "thank you" all the time. "Thank you" opens so many doors. I try to slip it into the first ten seconds of my phone call with any customer-service person. "You greeted me! Thank you!" (Not literally.) "Thank you" says: "I'm going to make a good-faith effort to be a human being on this phone call." Everyone hears that subtext. That subtext is *never* not welcome.

*Explain the purpose of your email in your first sentence. "I'm writing to...." If you can't finish that sentence, consider not sending the email.

*Have an interest that is not your desk job. If you're a secretary, and you're thinking obsessively about your work in the evening, something is wrong. I think, the more clearly you define your big, over-arching passion, the better you'll be at your silly 9 to 5 gig. (Which maybe seems like a paradox.)

*Listen. Do actually listen. I'm not consistently good at this, but it is the skill that makes the world go 'round. Listening and question-asking. Such rare treasures.

This is what I have learned from life as a secretary.

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