Title: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: bethalize on February 14, 2002, 06:28:57 pm
Now, I don't want to offend anyone's sensibilities, and I don't want to get anyone surfing from work into trouble, so here is a safe link to the story The Register .
The blurb on the site reads:
Discover more on this brand new form of global staffing agency, a mix of traditional Secretarial & I.T temping agency with Escorts,Hosts,Translators creating our famous "SEXETARIES"
Might this bring the profession into some disrepute? I mean, we can do what these ladies seem to be doing, but can they type 60wpm+, handle accounts, calculations, presentations and databases and be nice all day?
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
The blurb on the site reads:
Discover more on this brand new form of global staffing agency, a mix of traditional Secretarial & I.T temping agency with Escorts,Hosts,Translators creating our famous "SEXETARIES"
Might this bring the profession into some disrepute? I mean, we can do what these ladies seem to be doing, but can they type 60wpm+, handle accounts, calculations, presentations and databases and be nice all day?
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Edited by bethalize on 14/02/02 05:30 PM.
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: phoenix55 on February 15, 2002, 01:02:43 pm
I'm sure they're trained to "be nice all day," but I'm not so sure about the other skills!
Karen
Karen
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: kittie on February 15, 2002, 01:30:03 pm
It adds a new meaning to when your boss say "I want you to take something down Miss Jones......."!!! I always think of that double entendre when I'm taking dictation - I don't know why!
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: bethalize on February 15, 2002, 03:22:54 pm
Lol! I never spotted that one before.
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: radaro on February 15, 2002, 05:17:29 pm
I don't think this is just a hazard of being a secretary. Think about nurses, stewardesses or any other traditionally female dominated profession.
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: bethalize on February 15, 2002, 06:34:00 pm
I don't quite get what you mean.
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: radaro on February 15, 2002, 06:53:01 pm
Women in these professions are frequently assumed to be there to "service" the men and I'm not talking dictation 
.
.Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: daisylee on February 15, 2002, 09:45:52 pm
Then again RadarO, maybe you are!
(There's a double entendre burried there in the phrase "taking dictation"...)
Daisylee, get your mind out of the gutter!!
(There's a double entendre burried there in the phrase "taking dictation"...)
Daisylee, get your mind out of the gutter!!
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: bethalize on February 19, 2002, 05:53:13 pm
Yes, but if a woman dressed up as a nurse it wouldn't be assumed that she could performing nursing duties. Yet apparently anyone can put on a knee length skirt and a pair of glasses and become a whizz at Office programs, a diplomat, a master of all forms of organisation, a trouble shooter and a customer service rep. Pah!
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: radaro on February 19, 2002, 07:20:04 pm
As I have said on previous occasions. People think our jobs are easy because they are "invisible". No one notices your work unless you are doing a crappy job. They assume that things run smoothly on their own. It's the magic in the air that makes the photocopies appear, coffee brew, papers file, budgets balanced, plane reservations made, etc. But just forget to do one of these things...
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: akara on February 20, 2002, 09:58:04 am
The media perception of the secretary doesn't help. Have you ever noticed that in movies and commercials secretaries are always stereotyped? There are two distinct variations: firstly the blonde sexpot with short skirt, low-cut blouse and stilettos (invariably having an affair with the boss). Then there is the 'frump' - aforementioned knee-length skirt and glasses (always glasses!) - who isn't having an affair with anyone, because the assumption is that no one will fancy her.
Call me cynical, but perhaps it's because I don't fit into either of these categories that I'm having such trouble finding a job...
akara
Call me cynical, but perhaps it's because I don't fit into either of these categories that I'm having such trouble finding a job...
akara
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: jahdra on February 20, 2002, 11:53:31 pm
Then you have the senior manager who told my supervisor to make sure that she hired someone who'd "put out," 
but she had to be cute! 
And, he wasn't kidding!
He was the one with the Britney Spears fetish, with the Maxim magazines in the hallway. When they made him get rid of all of it, he wrote all of these quotes on his whiteboard about the loss of his rights! Oh yes, and we do expect him to make partner this year, right on schedule.
but she had to be cute! And, he wasn't kidding! He was the one with the Britney Spears fetish, with the Maxim magazines in the hallway. When they made him get rid of all of it, he wrote all of these quotes on his whiteboard about the loss of his rights! Oh yes, and we do expect him to make partner this year, right on schedule.
Title: Sexism in the work place
Post by: akara on February 21, 2002, 10:23:11 am
Oh dear!!!
Here we are in the 21st century and such chauvanistic dinosaurs continue to exist!
And since such people keep getting promoted, their behaviour will be encouraged. Really makes me mad!! How can we women achieve equality while all this goes on?
Here we are in the 21st century and such chauvanistic dinosaurs continue to exist!
And since such people keep getting promoted, their behaviour will be encouraged. Really makes me mad!! How can we women achieve equality while all this goes on?
Title: Re: Sexism in the work place
Post by: charity on February 21, 2002, 10:45:44 am
This is very worrying indeed
For those of you who receive the OS Magazine, in this month's issue there is an article about the changes in the secretarial role over the past few years. Quoting some of the descriptions some bosses view their secretaries' job description, include remarks like "collecting dry cleaning, hoovering the board room before the meetings, sewing buttons, generally being asked to perform tasks that are TRADITIONALLY FEMALE!!!"; "cooking the boss's lunch and taking it to him on a plate"; "clearing up cups and doing basic cleaning in between the cleaner's visits and sticking stamps on other people's envelopes."
Where are these people crawling out from!!!!!!
For those of you who receive the OS Magazine, in this month's issue there is an article about the changes in the secretarial role over the past few years. Quoting some of the descriptions some bosses view their secretaries' job description, include remarks like "collecting dry cleaning, hoovering the board room before the meetings, sewing buttons, generally being asked to perform tasks that are TRADITIONALLY FEMALE!!!"; "cooking the boss's lunch and taking it to him on a plate"; "clearing up cups and doing basic cleaning in between the cleaner's visits and sticking stamps on other people's envelopes."
Where are these people crawling out from!!!!!!
Title: Re: Sexism in the work place
Post by: akara on February 21, 2002, 02:28:24 pm
Taking the boss's dry cleaning out is one thing, and I've come across that before, but sewing buttons?? Cooking the boss's lunch?? (yeah I did meet a secretary once who did that, I thought she was being a doormat.) Cleaning??? I try to avoid doing my own cleaning if I can, no way I'll do anyone else's!!
Are these bosses wanting a secretary, or a substitute mother?? Boy, have we got a long way to go. If secretaries agree to do these things, they are simply 'spoiling' the male bosses who will continue to expect all secretaries to do these things. Big step backwards for those of us who are trying to earn respect and the right to take on responsibility for projects in our support roles.
I'm not going to go on about this anymore. It's making my blood pressure go way up.
akara
Are these bosses wanting a secretary, or a substitute mother?? Boy, have we got a long way to go. If secretaries agree to do these things, they are simply 'spoiling' the male bosses who will continue to expect all secretaries to do these things. Big step backwards for those of us who are trying to earn respect and the right to take on responsibility for projects in our support roles.
I'm not going to go on about this anymore. It's making my blood pressure go way up.
akara
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: catsmeat on February 21, 2002, 02:39:07 pm
How would he fare if a female member of staff behaved in a similar vein?
Puts me in mind of something that happened in the bank where a friend worked. In the male staff toilets, there was a girlie calendar. Nothing blantantly graphic, just the sort of thing you find in a million offices.
So the girls got together, and got something similar on a male line. Think bare chests, rippling muscles and six-packs - nothing explicit.
They were told by management to remove it forthwith, on the grounds that if a customer were taken ill and had to use the staff toilets, it might cause offence. Of course this wouldn't happen with a male customer, would it?!
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: radaro on February 21, 2002, 03:40:01 pm
Wow, and to think I had the audacity when I told my previous boss 2 years ago that I wouldn't get him coffee! Good thing he didn't ask me to sew any buttons 'cause goodness knows where he would have felt my darning needle and scissors!!
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: smitkit on February 21, 2002, 05:09:25 pm
A previous boss of mine once asked me to wash his hand-wash-only jumper that he'd been sick on after overindulging at a works party one night. He didn't want his wife to find out he'd been so sick.
He even tried to bribe me with £50 and 6 bottle of red wine (started off with £10 and kept going up!!) to do it. I politely refused.
He's still the best boss and mentor I've ever had the fortune to work for ... but cleaning up his sick was just a bit too much!!!
Smitkit
He even tried to bribe me with £50 and 6 bottle of red wine (started off with £10 and kept going up!!) to do it. I politely refused.
He's still the best boss and mentor I've ever had the fortune to work for ... but cleaning up his sick was just a bit too much!!!
Smitkit
Title: Re: I can't quite believe my eyes
Post by: aconroy on February 21, 2002, 05:16:12 pm
GROSS!
Amanda
Amanda