10 Things You Should Know About Your Secretary, *Ahem, Administrative Professional
Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly known as Secretaries' Day) is this Wednesday, April 26, 2006. In order to shed some light on the state of the profession, Simply Hired (www.SimplyHired.com), the world’s largest search engine for jobs, has conducted a survey of over 200+ administrative professionals. So what did we learn? Pretty simple--keep your valuable admins well compensated and well thanked this Administrative Professional’s Day.
All About Admins – Top Ten List
10. Most preferred title: administrative assistant. Least preferred title: secretary or receptionist.
9. “Who’s calling, please?” – 50 percent of respondents described themselves as “Career Admins”… indicating that their work is their calling.
8. 51 percent of admins say that they’ve received a gift for Administrative Professionals Day. 14 percent say that these gifts have been useless.
7. Best gifts for Admin Day:
- Paid day off
- Gift certificate (spa, restaurant, AmEx/Visa gift card, Starbucks)
- Cash/Raise
- Lunch or dinner
- A sincere thank you
Worst gifts for Admin Day:
- E-cards
- Calendars, picture frames, knick knacks and other “executive gifts”
- Cheap flowers (carnations, grocery store bouquets)
- Obvious re-gifts
- Nothing
Notable favorite gifts received by the surveyed admins ranged from a weekend cruise to the Bahamas to a Lance Armstrong LiveStrong bracelet (cost $1). A Scooby Doo-loving administrative professional notes that her favorite present was a Scooby Doo-themed gift basket, (warning, this is not recommended for most admins).
6. 31 percent of administrative professionals say that they could do their boss’s job.
5. 42 percent of administrative professionals say that their boss could not do their job.
Quoted from survey respondent, “I think he might get stuck on some of the easy things like making labels for folders...”
4. Extra credit includes:
30% report that they’ve had to plan personal travel/vacations for their boss
29% report having to lie or make up excuses for their boss (w/spouse, family, friends)
8% report they’ve had to do their boss’s taxes
Other notables include: posting items for boss on eBay, buying an anniversary ring for boss’s wife, working for boss’s friends.
3. 11 percent of admins describe themselves as merely “office eye candy” versus the 13 percent that describe themselves as their boss’s “bull dog.”
2. “I don’t get no respect!” – The number one gripe from admins is that their profession is not respected.
1. Money talks, your admin walks! 66 percent of admins say that they’d ditch their job for salary increase.
Other Admin Factoids
- “Administrative assistant” and “receptionist” are two of the top ten most frequently searched terms on Simply Hired.
- Administrative professionals make up one of the largest segments of the U.S. workforce, with over 4,126,000 administrative assistants and secretaries in the workplace (U.S. Department of Labor, 2004).
- According to the U.S. Department of Labor, median annual earnings of U.S. executive secretaries and administrative assistants were $37,350 in 2004.
About the Survey
Simply Hired’s Admin Survey was performed online during April 2006. There were a total of 212 respondents from across the United States. Simply Hired does not take any responsibility for any bad gifts given this April 26, 2006 or the actions taken by the recipients.
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