WHAT IS STENOGRAPHER, PA/PS?

Definition:

• A skillful and competent in performing different duties, related to his/her field.
• An attractive, pleasant-to-work personality.

          There is no question that the above two distinctive qualities are basic, as all competent Executives and successful PAs/PSs accede to them. As such, your efforts to prove yourself to be sucessful PA/PS will sonsist of learning how to perform different duties relating to secretarial positions to develop a secretarial personality.

           A stenographer often thinks of himself/herself as a Secretary and being a Secretary to the head of office, he/she has to do a lot at his/her own and also on behalf of the boss. The reason is quite evident that a boss, being the head of an organisation, does not have enough time to deal with all the matters. For this purpose, he delegates some of his pwoers to his Secretary to run daily routine job. Therefore, the presencce of a Secretary has certain importance for a boss and he has to depend upon his Secretary in so many matters of routine nature.

          Many Executives have tried to define a PA/PS in a word or two. An Executive calls his PA/PS a "top-assistant-in-charge-of details'. An "Anonymous" in a memo to a wonderful PA/PS, refers to him as a "Junior Partner". They all imply a working-together relationship of mutual respect and confidence, but they do not tell us what a PA/PS actually is?

          Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines a PA/PS as a "Confidential Clerk", especially one who attends to correspondence, especially one who attends to correspondence, records, etc, of a private or confidential nature. The American College Dictionary honors it with a separate entry "private Secretary", one who handles the individual or confidential correspondence, etc, of a person or business organization. This definition makes a good beginning but the "etc". represents a multitude of duties.

          The Dictionary of Occupational Titles of 1949 defines a PA/PS as one who:

• perform general office work in relieving executives and other company officials of minor executive and clerical duties;
• transcribes dictation or the recorded information reproduced on a transcribing machine;
• makes appointments for the executive and reminds him about them;
• interviews people coming into the office, conveys the boss's instructions to those workers who do not consider appropriate to see him directly;
• attends telephonic calls and passes on boss's oral instruction to the concerned quarters;
• handles personal and important mail, writing and routing correspondence on his/her own initiative;
• supervises his/her helping staff;
• maintains boss's personal and confidential record.

SPECIFIC DUTIES.

          After thorough study, the specific duties of PAs/PSshave been determined. In the earlier research made by Charters and Whitely in 1924, the essential qualitiesof an efficient PA/PS can be listed at a ten-minutes' interval. As result, 871 different duties can be imagined/expected by a PA/PS. According to a rough estimate, a PA/PS performs only 232 dutes out of 871.

          At present only 40 duties can most frequently be seen in a PA/PS, a given below:

1. Taking dictation and its typing
2. Taking dictation during boss's meeting
3. Typing of dictation through audio cassette
4. Filing (general and personal)
5. Reading and sorting mail
6. Handling outgoing/incoming telephone calls
7. Making and keeping recrds of appointments
8. Receivig visitors.
9. Composing of written communication at own initiative or on oral instruction of the boss
10. Demanding different requisitions
11. Typing boss's longhand notes
12. Booking of Air/Train Tickets
13. Lodging arrangements
14. Transport Arrangement
15. Preparation of TA bills
16. Maintenance of boss's tour record
17. Operating "adding and calculating machines"
18. Typing of written reports
19. Collection material for reports
20. Assistance for the preparation of reports etc.
21. Keeping record of day to day official expenses of boss
22. typing & indexing minutes of different meetings
23. Arranging publication of minutes.
24. Arranging logistics support for meetings.
25. Issuance of different Orders/Circulars/Notes, on behalf of the boss.
26. Boss's personal banking on his behalf
27. Keeping boss's personal and other records
28. Flagging the relevant pages of all the files
29. Preparation of Pay bills of the boss
30. Helping boss in filling in his income tax returns.
31. Acting as a 'contacing person' of the boss.
32. Supervision of the helping staff
33. Helping in organising social affairs of the office.
34. Keeping tidy room of the boss
35. Indexing telephone nos.
36. Secrecy of all confidential matters.
37. Protection of Boss's room as well as of his/her own room(files,books,confidential papers).
38. Maintain Files/Letters Movement Registers to avoid delay and missing.
39. Acting as Office Manager.
40. Acting as Public Relations Officer.