Tips from Secretaries to Managers: Enhancing the Relationship
1. Whenever possible, please keep us late. We have no homes to go to and are only too thankful to spend the evening here.
2. Send us out to cash your checks and buy stamps in all weather. Walking is exhilarating and as we sit down all day, the exercise does us good.
3. Do walk out of the office without telling us where you are going or how long you might be. We enjoy telling people who wish to contact you urgently that we have no idea where you are or when you will return.
4. When dictating, please parade up and down the room and practice your golf strokes, or better still, walk out of the room. We can understand what is said more distinctly.
5. Please lower your voice to a whisper when dictating names of people and places. Under no circumstances spell them to us. We are sure to hit the right way sooner or later.
6. Should a letter require a slight alteration after it is typed, score the word heavily through about four times and write the correct word beside it, preferably in ink or felt-tip pen. Always make the alteration on the top copy.
7. Please dictate a paragraph and change your mind, with the corrected version following, particularly when using dictating equipment. It adds variety to our typing.
8. Hours for dictation: during the lunch hour, or any time after 4:30 p.m.
9. Should you wish to write out a letter or report, please write with a blunt pencil using the left hand, and use plenty of arrows, balloons and other diagrams.
10. Remember when asking us to place a long distance call, you must be very fast on your feet to get out of the office before the call comes through.
11. If possible, always pick up your calls on your secretary's phone. This ensures that we cannot pick up calls for any other people on our own phones. It also helps keep us company. We miss you during the day.
12. When you have given us a rush project, be sure to use your intercom line frequently, or call us at regular intervals of 60 seconds to ask us to get minor items and to go for coffee.
13. If you are being paged, please ignore it. We usually have no particular reason for wanting to locate you and enjoy hunting you down or taking messages.
14. Please do interrupt us while we are speaking on the telephone. We have two ears, so we might as well use both of them at the same time.
Suze
