I'm not accustomed to having a departmental secretary at my disposal. Our departmental secretary is supposed to save me time. I should be giving her address labels to type up or photocopying handouts for class.
The primary problem with this setup is that in the time I have to take to explain the required task, I could just complete it myself. Nevermind the fact that on many days, I would rather collate my own worksheets than get stuck in a seemingly unending conversation.
Is there a way for me to balance my need to avoid time sucking busy working with my desire to avoid time sucking, re-explanations of tasks?
4 comments:
What else does your secretary do? I'm wondering, because good secretaries know how to collate and make lables, and not only should they not need too much instruction, they often know better ways of doing things. Maybe she is more of a clerk with clerical skills than a true secretary?
And then maybe it's just something to take some time with now, in order to save time in the long run. I've fortunately never had a secretary who wanted to talk too much; that could be a drag.
Shitty clerical staff are more trouble than they're worth. But if they're good, then once they understand how to do stuff, they can save you a fuckton of time and effort. It is worth the effort to figure out which category this one is in.
I've always wondered how one becomes a departmental secretary.
I remember the Psych dept secretary at my undergrad uni actually had a BA in Psych and was an alumnus. She was pretty awesome.
Write your instructions on a post-it note and stick it with the papers, etc. on her desk (or in her mailbox) while she's out of the office.
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