Join the "Just A Sec" Team this Fall!

Just A Sec is looking for secretaries, administrative assistants, and executive assistants interested in making a part-time, paid contribution to the blog.

How would you like to write articles about issues that affect your career and/or working lifestyle?

Or conduct research among your peers and report on the results?

Or serve as a Reviews Coordinator, gathering information and product samples for trial by our volunteer reviewers?

How would you like to brainstorm with other office workers like you to find ways Just A Sec can contribute to a better quality of life for your fellow desk jockeys?

Would you like to organize or spearhead a special program that unites administrative workers across New York City for a positive purpose?

Introduce yourself to us. We're planning an exciting expansion of our activities this coming autumn, and we'd love you to be a part of it!

In the meantime, the current staff of Just A Sec is going on summer hiatus to be creative consultants for JUST A SEC: The Movie.

Someone will be here to answer your e-mails, so don't hesitate to write!

We'll see ya in September -- and we'll be better than ever!

Love,
Violet Newsstead

It's YOUR Day!

So, it's Administrative Professionals Day, formerly known as Secretaries' Day.

Do you care?

Tell Just A Sec just how wonderful (or not-so-wonderful) this annual day in YOUR honor truly is. E-mail us.

Thanks!

Treated Like Crap Because Jobs are Scarce?

Are you a secretary, administrative assistant or executive assistant whose employers are getting away with treating you like crap, because they know you fear for your job in the current economy?

Are unscrupulous managers or supervisors having a field day terrorizing their staffs because they know you feel lucky just to have a job right now, even if it's torture?

Tell us about it. We want to hear your stories. Send them to justasecnyc@yahoo.com. We may print your story, but we won't use your real name.

WIN: A Package O' Perks!

Here's an on-the-job perk: you could win a goody box filled with fine things to make your work day more pleasant -- from Just A Sec!

E-mail justasecnyc@yahoo.com. Type "Package o' Perks" into the subject line, and include the following info in your e-mail:

Your name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Age
Job Title (if you have one).

We will not share your information with any outside parties.

Yes, if you've entered before, you must enter again for a new chance to win!

We must receive your e-mail no later than midnight EST on January 30, 2008. A random winner will be chosen and notified by e-mail shortly after the deadline.

Congratulations to Alva P. from Staten Island, NY, winner of our December Package o' Perks!

Good luck!

WIN! A Just a Sec "Package o' Perks"!

Here's an on-the-job perk: you could win a goody box filled with fine things to make your work day more pleasant -- from Just A Sec!

E-mail justasecnyc@yahoo.com. Type "Package o' Perks" into the subject line, and include the following info in your e-mail:

Your name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Age
Job Title (if you have one).

We will not share your information with any outside parties.

We must receive your e-mail no later than midnight EST on November 28, 2008. A random winner will be chosen and notified by e-mail shortly after the deadline.

Congratulations to Lisa P. from Staten Island, NY, winner of our October Package o' Perks!

Good luck!

WIN!! A Just A Sec "Package o' Perks"!

Here's an on-the-job perk: you could win a goody box filled with fine things to make your work day more pleasant -- from Just A Sec!

E-mail justasecnyc@yahoo.com. Type "Package o' Perks" into the subject line, and include the following info in your e-mail:

Your name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Age
Job Title (if you have one).

We will not share your information with any outside parties.

We must receive your e-mail no later than midnight EST on October 19, 2008. A random winner will be chosen and notified by e-mail shortly after the deadline.

Good luck!

Legal Secretaries: Compare Yourselves! SALARY & BENEFITS SURVEY!

Are you a legal secretary working in New York City?

Wouldn't you like to know how your position compares to other legal secretaries around town?

Wish you knew what other secretaries were earning? What kind of benefits they were getting?

Knowledge is power. EMPOWER yourself! Go here to fill out our CONFIDENTIAL survey -- and tell your legal secretary friends to do the same. We'll publish the results in the not-too-distant future right here on Just A Sec.

When attorneys are considering which firm to join, they have resources to help them compare compensation and benefits at different firms. Why shouldn't YOU? You're a professional, too!

Help us help you -- fill out the survey TODAY!

True Tales of Big Boss Spy Cameras

We read an article on CNNMoney about the newest wave of spy cameras used by bosses to record their employees' actions. Although none of the real-life examples in the article took place in offices, it still gave us a creepy feeling to know that a) these camera systems are so cheap, b) that our employers can monitor us from their laptops at any time, even from home, and c) that the day could be coming when we're all being videotaped every hour of the day at work.

Would you be comfortable knowing your every move was being recorded during the workday? Talk to us.

Learn more about how bosses use this technology here.

Post Your Resume, Get Spammed

A Just A Sec Exclusive!

When you post your resume on well-know job sites, you may or may not get a job – but you’ll definitely get spammed.

We noticed after we posted our resumes on job sites, we’d get in-boxes full of spam. And some of the dumbest spam we’ve ever seen, too.

Were the job sites really the source of our spam? And if so, which sites? Who was the worst spammer? We decided to get an answer.

We set up a fake resume for a secretary named “Justine” on Monster, Hot Jobs and Career Builder. We made Justine a secretary with very little experience, and we littered her resume with typos. In other words, she wasn’t likely to attract many legitimate job offers. We also set up three separate e-mail accounts corresponding with the three sites, and monitored them for two weeks.

Here’s what we learned.

Career Builder: The MOST Spam.

We received 6 different items of pure spam within two weeks. The first spam e-mail arrived within 24 hours of posting Justine’s resume.

Our favorite:

- From “Roger Smith”: “I am the Chief Executive Officer of National Income Life. I recently found your resume online and wanted to get in touch with you. We are expanding our sales force…we believe you have the potential to be an excellent match.”

Me? Justine?! You wanted to get in touch with lil’ ol’ ME? And…and you believe in my potential? Shucks, I oughta misspell secrtary and unvistity on every resume I post! Who knew I was such a hot property?

Oh, and there was this one:

“GREETINGS, I AM SSG LAPEINE WITH THE US ARMY…We are currently searching for people to fill over 150 different career field IN THE ARMY. You must be willing to join the United States Army to get one of these career field.”

Considering who our president is, we’re not surprised by the atrocious grammar. But wow, you should see the list of exciting careers you can train for in the army! Just one question: does your health insurance kick in before or after you get your head blown off in Baghdad?


Hot Jobs: The FASTEST Spam.

Hot Jobs comes in a close second for the most spam, with 5 items within two weeks. However, they had the fastest delivery. We got our first spam e-mail within just 12 hours of posting Justine’s resume.

Our favorites:

- Subject line “An Electrician Apprentice job is now open.”
- Subject line “Interested in working as an Architect?”

Justine has no job experience or education that would indicate she’d be even remotely interested in these careers. Sure, it’s possible she harbors some secret desire to be an architect with an electrical background, but chances are these e-mails are just going to be annoyances for most people.


Monster: The Least & Slowest Spam.

Monster delivered 2 items of spam within two weeks. And they took four days to send us the first one. But still – they spammed us.

Our favorite:

From “Sabrina Lloyd”: “…I am a State Director for National Income Life. I saw your resume on the internet and felt that I should contact you immediately. Our company currently has openings for several outstanding individuals like you.”

Individuals like me, Justine? The incompetent secretary with next-to-zero experience and the lowest grade point average one can have and still graduate from community college? I am so hot, I’m sizzlin’!


If we monitored the e-mail accounts longer, we’d probably see the amount of spam multiply, as the spammers sold our e-mail addresses to still more spammers.

The lesson here? If you’re going to post your resume on a job site, set up a free e-mail account somewhere and use it only for responses from that site. It’ll still be a pain to browse through all the junk mail for any legitimate inquiries, but at least you’ll keep the spam out of any existing e-mail accounts you care about.

And maybe you can send a complaint letter to Monster, Hot Jobs or Career Builder and tell them what you think about them passing your e-mail address on to skeevy companies who treat you like a moron.

Maybe these will help:

Mr. Richard Castellini
Vice President of Consumer Marketing
CareerBuilder
200 N. LaSalle St
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60601
Main Number: (773) 527-3600
Toll Free: (800) 638-4212

Jerry Yang, CEO
Hot Jobs -- Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Tel: (408) 349-3300
Fax: (408) 349-3301

Mr. Sal Iannuzzi
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
622 Third Avenue, 39th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 351-7000
Fax: (646) 658-0541

(Note: We did not count e-mails from the job sites themselves as spam.)

Just A Sec Says...Talk to Us!

Do you feel like being a secretary/administrative assistant at your company is a dead end? Are there opportunities for advancement, or is getting a promotion from secretary to ANYTHING else a total joke? Talk to us about it!

How do you afford to live in the metro New York area? These rents are CRAZY! Do you share with roommates? Do you commute from two hours away? Are you thinking of moving to a more affordable city? Talk to us about it!

Talk to us about the best places in Manhattan to get a pedicure. We want to know!

Talk to us about where to get a delish lunch at a fair price.

And feel free to Talk to us about the things that make your job wonderful or, well, sucky.

And tell us how we might be of better service to you right here at Just A Sec.

Your Company WANTS You to Goof Off

One company decided to let their employees goof off on company time and pursue personal interests. They found it actually proved profitable. Read more here, then let us know -- would YOUR employer ever go for this?

Is Your Weight Your Employer's Business?

This New York Times article alleges that fat employees are driving up health care costs for everyone. Some people think employers should stick their nose into employees' eating and exercise habits to bring down costs. What do you think?

The Weirdest Person I Ever Worked For

By Christian Georgescu

This "person" is an entire company and it's respective mentality.

First day in, I was shown to my desk. I put down my stuff and settled in. But I couldn't settle in. I didn't feel comfortable there. Something was off. The chair didn't fit, the table was the wrong height, the monitor hurt my eyes. I was like goldilocks, only I never found my "just right".

Even that wasnt right; I wasn't "Goldilocks" I was "Alice in Wonderland." Stepping into that office was like stepping into a rabbit hole in the year 2008 and coming out the other end in 1988. Literally. The furniture was old and stained. The cubicles made of wood and held together with tape. The office chairs actually were the industry standard. In 1988. Now they were blotched as if with poop stains or someone dropped roastbeef slabs without bothering to clean up, just let the sauce dry in. There were huge water stains on the cubicle walls, stains on the puke green office carpets. The chair mats were cracked so chairs couldn't roll properly. Call them office pot holes. Computer monitors were the old CRT flickering kind, huge masses atop little desks from the 80's; which weren't fitted for computers.

Cubicles were undersized so Alice bumped into things, scuffed her shoes, hunched over.

Then I went to the Office Supply Closet, where I was told in exact words - "Rummage in there and get what ya need." This was the Land of Misfit Office Supplies; staplers, paper clips, pens, pencils gave me forlorn looks begged to be rescued. I couldn't take them all, I saved what I could and humanely euthanized the rest.

We were referred to as "secretaries", reporting to wannabe Alpha males. When lunch came, the secretary would lay it out on a plate, with cutlery, pour beverages and serve the men. Then clean up after the men. Secretaries had the old CRT monitors, yet all the men had the new flat screens.

The two secs who sat closest to me, I'll call Grumpy and Giggles. Grumpy went around with 'F' this and 'F' that, 'What is this Sh..', 'Oh F this Sh..', 'Who needs this F'n Sh...e had been with the company 16 years and was untouchable. Literally, no one came near her. Which meant her people would give me stuff to do because they were afraid of her.

Giggles had a heart of gold but well...giggled at everything. She told of harrowing, painful experiences...giggling.

Once you slid through the rabbit hole there was no contact with the outside world.

The staff pantry was stocked with all sorts of goodies. Want a snack? How'bout a KitKatsnickerstwixalmondjoym&m3muskateersmoundsorbitwrigleysjuicyfruitjollyranchers. How'bout LaysWisePringlespretzelspopcornbalancebarsoatmealyogurtcottagecheesewholegrain? Or maybe coffeeteacappucinoespresscokepepsidetcokesnappledietsnapplepomgingeralewater?

Actually, the EVP gets Fiji you're allowed Poland Spring.

Everything was old and outdated but the coffee maker was StarWarsian; vintage 25th and a halfth century, signature Duck Dodgers while maintaining a Darth Vaderesque appearance.

Proprietary lines of productivity were blurred and crossed out altogether. Somone else's assistant booked flights for my guy, I booked a hotel for someone else's guy and the temp booked the rental car. No wait change that, meeting scrapped. Can the janitor cancel the hotel reservations? I went to get the janitor and returned to find the plant guy at my desk; scheduling a meeting for the VP. Please ask the shoe shine girl to make copies for the accounting firm auditing the company. Can the intern do expenses for the CEO?

Well, I thought coming from 20 years in the future, maybe I was too forward, too modern. Maybe I came across as too hoity-toity with my high fallutin' ideas of male-female equality and modernization.

So I decided to join 'em, be a classic girl. I went shopping. Came in wearing designer suit jackets with pencil thin skirts (to cover my bruised knees) and classy high heels. Hair and makeup done professionally at Saks. No one noticed.

And I'm a dude.

It's Your Day!

So, it's Administrative Professionals Day, formerly known as Secretaries' Day.

Do you care?

Tell us all about it in our first-ever Administrative Professionals Day survey! Click Here to take survey

Thanks!

Weirdest Person You Ever Worked With?

Without naming names, tell Just-a-Sec about the weirdest person you ever worked with. We'll publish our favorite stories (anonymously, unless you ask us to include a byline for you).

We Want YOU!

Hey, secys and admins! We want to hear from you!

Have you had a great lunch?

A fabulous spa treatment, at an even better price?

Do you love where you work?

Hate it?

Want to warn other hardworking peeps not to waste their money at an overpriced eatery?

Need to vent about some aspect of office life?

Tell Just-a-Sec and tell the world! We're looking for tips, tricks and guest bloggers. Write to us about everything and anything. The info you share just might inspire a blog item on Just-a-Sec!

E-mail us today!