A World without Secretaries

At one time, offices were filled with women whose duties revolved around making life easier for their bosses. They typed letters.



Screened phone calls.



And made sure their bosses always had plenty of alcohol on hand for their morning, noon, and early evening meetings.



They also covered up their bosses' affairs, fetched coffee, and picked up dry cleaning. Often they'd even be asked to buy gifts for their bosses' wives. There were no job descriptions in those days. Secretaries did whatever their bosses wanted.



Secretaries, now called administrative assistants, are increasingly disappearing from the workplace. In many businesses, bosses are deciding they don't need assistants at all. They can type their own letters (emails), take their own calls (smartphones), and outsource everything else.

There's just one problem with that. Just one thing businesses have forgotten.



"We don't need assistants," bosses said. And now many bosses look a lot like this most days.



Of course, the career began becoming extinct at just the right time. The very types of women who were running offices behind-the-scenes in the 60s and 70s have now figured out they can run their own businesses today. And best of all...no more demeaning work.



What do you think? Do today's businesses need administrative assistants?