Monday, July 26, 2010

How can a secretary make my life better?

No doubt secretaries could rule the world. I'm sure many of you save hours a week thanks to your departmental administrative assistant. I just haven't figured out how to do that yet.

This last week, we finally hired a competent secretary. She comes from another department on campus, so I already know her reputation.


Now the big question is this: can I give up a little control and have the secretary improve MY efficiency?

What do I need at work? Here's a short list to start: a grant writer, a dog walker, a grader, and a priest.

Can a secretary actually help me with any of that? If not, I'm not sure I'm interested.

2 comments:

Doctor Pion said...

A really good admin assistant can help with grant writing. Plausible budget? Boilerplate? Time freed from other tasks?

Are there any things you need done for fall semester that the secretary could do, such as roll over a syllabus or other course materials from last fall to this fall?

Schlupp said...

A good secretary knows how to get the other admin people to do what you need instead of what they think you should need. Priceless.