Introduction With the introduction of computers, life in the office has dramatically changed as complex calculations and tasks can now be done in a matter of seconds and, what makes this all the more appealing to big companies is that the latest offering in software are so enriched and feature-packed, often making most of the simplest tasks automated.
Let's have a look at the impact this has on the average Secretary and also the Administrative Clerk in today's life.
Documents, references, company details, schedules and the like are all stored on computers in the modern-life, either on private personal computers or scattered across the globe on gigantic network databases to make the information more widely available to everyone.
As all of this has its benefits no doubt, there's still a more important role being played in the office by either party, whether a secretary or an administrative clerk, and I'm about to tell you just what. The fact remains that none of these systems would operate smoothly without the interaction of human beings, very important ones at that. Which I regret to say that people tend to take for granted or shall I say, these poor folks aren't always given the credit they deserve.
I hereby present genuine proof for my thesis based upon the information I've gathered surrounding this topic starting off with the roles, duties and responsibilities of the secretary and thereafter the administrative clerk.
The Roles of the Secretary
Beginning with the basic roles of a secretary we will obviously have to take into account that there are many different variants of secretarial positions depending on the requirements of per say, the company you work for, private business, government etc.
Even these have sub-branches of their own, however we're going to have a broad overlook on this matter and assume that they all have the same basic principles to follow regarding not only the roles, but also the duties and responsibilities.
Whilst many times unnoticed, the secretary has to deal with people in the real world, either telephonically or in person and always has to do so with a smile and good attitude and always professional. The persons undertaking such positions often have to be able to come up with solutions, recommendations and influence people around them. Although some of these might be seen as responsibilities in some cases if not all, they are still influential roles performed by the secretary.
What this is coming to is pressure. These people have to deal with pressure all
3
the time and they work long hours where in some instances a secretary would
work more than 8 hours a day, especially in companies and private businesses, but not as much in institutions such as schools and the like.
This has a big impact on our society. These are real people who work in the real world making a big impact, mostly going unnoticed by you and me as individuals.
Secretarial Duties
Once again this is something that may vary. General duties include: arranging events/meetings and/or projects.
As an example we could use a school secretary whom would sit with duties such as student applications, registration documents, maintain student records and of course process transfers. Above all this there are smaller tasks within an office or working environment such as filing, telephone support and dealing with real-time people and more.
As stated by Johns Hopkins University on their website, the essential job functions of an administrative secretary is:
“Uses personal computer to prepare manuscripts, grant proposals, statistical reports, tables, and charts using knowledge of scientific, medical, literary, or other technical terms.”
Duties also include but are not limited to assistance of a certain individual higher than the secretary and maintaining a happy face under all circumstances which is policy under any company.
And finally, the Responsibilities of the Secretary
I think one could say that any duty is a responsibility, since if not done or not done properly you as person would be responsible for your actions. Just as it is in any situation in life.
In more detail, the secretary has responsibilities such as analysing tabular data or statistics, write out documents and invitations etc. Something a computer can't always do on its own... These people are also responsible for many other acts and work has to be presented in a professional manner at all times.
The secretary has to know about the company's background and understand its policies.
Administrative Clerks and their Roles
In many ways similar to the secretary the administrative clerk has slightly higher expectations and higher authority than a secretary. The basic roles would be compiling and maintaining records of business transactions. Whils the secretary might be required to perform payments to certain individuals
4
(employees in a company for example), the administrative clerk would be the person authorising such payment in many cases. However, not in all cases. In other words computing wages, taxes and so forth.
Administrative Clerk Duties
As mentioned above, computing wages is very often the duty of the administrative clerk as well as taxes, premiums, commissions as well as payments.
By this we can see that the administrative clerk has duties to fulfill requiring the individual to work with income and expenses of a given company or institution and has to send out invoices, statements and cheques.
Depending on the working environment, administrative clerks don't always have to intervene with people that often or at least not necessarily in person but more likely telephonically.
Office work is a big practice, such as mentioned, offering telephonic support in cases and organising company-related issues such as contracts and more. The individual has to operate machines, computers and so forth, send and receive mail on a regular basis constantly keeping things updated and people informed.
The Responsibilities of the Administrative Clerk
Now that we've got the roles as well as the duties of the average administrative clerk we can have a look at what the responsibilities are.
In an institution like a school it's likely that the administrator will be organising wages to be paid by students; thus the finances of such an institution or business is the responsibility of the administrative clerk. Let's not forget this individual has other tasks to perform, keeping those higher than him/her up-to-date with procedures as well as those below him/her.
That would be the biggest responsibilities. Underneath those categories there lies sending and receiving mail (obviously very important). In some cases these people are in charge of employing people underneath them such as a personal secretary for example or in some cases organise events for a company or for things to be done.
Although the administrative clerk may not always need to work with people from the outside world too much in person, he/she still plays an exeptional role within a company or institution and constantly works with his/her colleages.
We've covered the basics roles, duties and responsibilities of the secretary and administrative clerk now and we can make some summaries from that below.
Summary
The above-provided information and descriptions about the different roles, duties and responsibilities teaches us the following.
Secretaries and Administrative clerks are hard working people, firstly. As we can see there's a lot required from them and they work under a lot of pressure many times.
We also learn that even with the invention of newer devices such as computers and the upcoming digital era, there's still much to be done for us as human beings, specifically in the office as there are certain tasks that can't be done by computers. A computer can't talk by itself over a phone and support great customer support, sure you get fancy answering machines and the like these days; however there's nothing like working in person with a smiling secretary and resolving an issue.
Both of these have responsibilities implementation and coordination of a specified office function necessitating judgment, discretion, and initiative in the interpretation and application of program policies, procedures, and processes.
Taking all of this into consideration I can testify that these are people which most of us take for granted. We don't see them too often in our daily lives or when we do we don't realise what importance they have in our schools, business, companies and the whole of our environment.
