From: stewart@geophysics.harvard.edu (Cheryl Stewart)
Newsgroups: soc.women
Subject: Re: Input/Advice Needed Regarding Office Politics
Date: 19 Nov 92 23:53:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: das.1992Nov19.235350.26174
Reply-To: stewart@geophysics.harvard.edu
Organization: Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

In article 2213@ads.com, charleen@ADS.COM (Charleen Bunjiovianna) writes:
>namely you.
>
>Okay.  Now, Annie, I've been there.  I've been that secretary, and there
>are some things that might be relevant here.
>
>It's a dead-end job, and secretaries are always looking for a way out.
>I looked for one at every job I held, over 15 years, and I finally found
>one.  It wasn't easy.

The way out, Charleen, is to get an education that gives you bona fide
qualifications for something more.  


>Now, the responsibility that you're trying to garner for yourself could
>well be stepping on her hopes.  It happened to me once.  Our financial
>analyst left, and for six months, I did the analyst's job, hoping that

Were you qualified?  Did you have a degree in Economics or Business
Management?  Did you even take calculus in college, Charleen?  You 
may have been able to take care of your financial analyst's administrative
duties or provide some sort of continuity, but believe me, you were
not qualified or able to do the full job, and you were certainly not
qualified to be in line for promotions from that job without a formal
education in either finance, analysis (a mathematics degree might help
if it was an actuarial firm), business law, *something* that would
make you attractive to put in that position.

>they'd notice I was doing it well and promote me.  Instead they hired
>someone from the outside; cold, aloof, stuck on herself, 

You only mention her personality -- why not mention her actual bona
fide qualifications, her actual experience with financial analysis,
her professional attitude, her other skills and experience.  Was 
she a mathematics major with an MBA?  Or some unqualified secretary who
thinks that because she answers a guy's phone that she can do his job?


>intent on making
>an impression on my boss (I had him first! :-). 

I bet you did, Charleen.  And he you, I'm sure. 

>There was no way that
>working relationship was going to work out; in fact, it ended in a screaming
>match.

I had a secretary like you once.  I fired her.  What you failed to 
realize was that you were screaming at your own boss, yes, Charleen,
you were that woman's subordinate.  I've seen many secretaries that
just can't get it through their pretty little heads that a woman
10 years their junior might actually deserve twice their salary
because, honey, they're twice as qualified.  And who can't get it
through their pretty little heads that they're that younger woman's
subordinate.  

I still ask secretaries to do things for me as though it's a personal
favor, simply because I know that they generally have a hard time figuring
out that they re

Your former boss (who was at this point your boss's boss) probably
hired this woman just to enjoy playing you off one another and watching
the catfight ensue.  Knowing you.


>I don't want to see this happen to you.  I've learned some things about
>office dynamics over the years:
>
>-Women working for the same man boss often get into competition if it's
> perceived there's something to gain.  It's very much like kids vying for
> Dad's attention. 

And you play right into the hands of the men who pit women against `
each other every time by maintaining your anti-other-woman attitude.
 
>
>-Women who had troubled relationships with their mothers often have 
> difficulty working for another woman.

If the shoe fits, Charleen, wear it.

>The way to win in the secretary situation is to find out what she wants
>and offer to help her get it.

The way to win in the secretary situation is to find a secretary who
is willing to actually do the job rather than play stupid "promote-me"
games when she lacks the actual qualifications for the jobs she wants
to be promoted to.

On the other hand, there are plenty of secretaries who are excellent
administrative managers, and who deserve to be rewarded as such.  

>
>Charleen
>--