Employee Appreciation Day: Office Work Deserves More Recognition

Employee Appreciation Day is today, March 1st. Granted, I think these holidays are often used to make token noises of appreciation and move on. However, I wanted to use the opportunity to write in praise of office work.

In a Monk episode, Monk gives Natalie flowers for "Secretary's Day." Natalie is offended. Lots of people tell Monk that he messed up since Natalie is more than a secretary.

The episode really bugs me. I was a secretary for 10 years (receptionist, secretary, office manager) before I went into teaching. I worked with women who had less education than I did and were far, far, far better secretaries than I was. It is a skill.

To this day, I assign my ability to complete administrative work to my stint as a secretary. 

It annoys me to see it dismissed the way it is dismissed on Monk. I understand the underlying point (Monk doesn't appreciate how much Natalie does for him) but I hate how the script ties the lack of appreciation to the term "secretary." (Not to the flowers--Natalie is initially pleased by the flowers.) 

"Innovation without imitation

is a complete waste of time."

The subplot brings home how seldom books and movies "do" secretary or office work correctly. Sure, there are shows like The Office. But they are almost always only about drudgery and offer a kind of nihilistic view of the kind of work that Mike Rowe, at least, appreciates: someone has to keep the toner stockpiled and someone has to know where things are filed and someone has to have client numbers on hand for quick communication.

I'm not advocating Dilbert as a lifestyle. I worked (for less than a week) for a company that apparently thought Dilbert was a serious guide to a way of life. (They missed the irony.) 

I am advocating that the people who know how to change the toner and order supplies and proofread and file documents and locate those documents and answer phones and summarize phone conversations and handle complaints and direct people to the proper departments and bind proposals and go through mail and send mail/packages and transcribe recordings and update systems, including electronic systems, and handle invoices and plan conferences/reserve conference & hotel rooms and maintain digital and paper calendars and deliver documents in-person as well as digitally and contact customers/patients...

Deserve applause. It may look easy. It isn't. For Natalie or anyone else.