How to Safeguard Your Job: Keep Learning and Keep Listening

The times they are a-changin

One of the trends in modern business is the changing nature of administrative work. Today in businesses of all sizes, more managers are doing work on their own desktop computer systems that in the past would have been handled by a secretary. As these trends continue, there will be fewer and fewer secretaries and more office and information specialists. Its up to you to create a place for yourself in this changing world.

Gone are the days when a secretary might work 45 years for the same company, many of those years for the same boss. This is true of both large and small companies. A large company used to provide stability, but no longer. Corporate restructurings, which have affected hundreds of thousands of people over the past years, have been a mixed blessing for administrative assistants. In the wake of restructuring, some assistants have to leave their position when their boss leaves, but others are asked to take on greater responsibility, to take up the slack as middle managers are phased out. Either situation could be professionally devastating if it was not what the administrative assistant would have chosen himself or herself.

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