公司結構扁平化 祕書職業已死

The secretary is dead. Technology and flat corporate structures have consigned the job to the corner office waste bin. In the future, personal assistants will be constructed from microprocessors and remote controlled. We are halfway there, after all. Want to dial your sales director? Ask Siri. Still determined to retain secretarial services? Then hire a virtual assistant, based in Mumbai or Brooklyn, by the hour.

祕書這份職業已死。科技和公司結構扁平化已將這份職業打發到了辦公室角落裏的垃圾桶裏。將來，個人助理將用微處理器製成，並能夠遠程控制。畢竟，這樣的前景已實現了一半。想給你的銷售主管打電話？用Siri就可以啦。仍然決定保留祕書服務？那就按小時付費招一個在孟買或布魯克林工作的虛擬助理吧。

The secretarial role crystallises fears over creeping automation of white-collar jobs. Once a concern solely for factory workers, today robots are marching into offices. Drawing on ONS data, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of the University of Oxford found that 33,000 secretarial roles had disappeared between 2001 and 2013, a drop of 44 per cent. That was just in London. In the UK as a whole it was a 47 per cent decline, or 163,000 job losses. Much of this can be attributed to the downturn, when employers reduced headcount and required secretaries to work for multiple executives. Research by the Roosevelt Institute, a US non-profit body, found that private sector job losses during the recession particularly hit female support staff whose work was distributed among others.

祕書職位具體體現了人們對於白領工作逐步自動化的擔憂。曾經只是讓工廠裏的工人擔憂的機器人，如今正大步流星走進辦公室。根據英國統計局(ONS)的數據，牛津大學(University of Oxford)的卡爾•貝內迪克特•弗雷(Carl Benedikt Frey)和邁克爾•奧斯本(Michael Osborne)發現，2001年至2013年，有3.3萬個祕書崗位消失，數量減少了44%。這還只是在倫敦。在整個英國，祕書崗位減少了47%，也就是減少了16.3萬個崗位。這很大程度上可歸咎於經濟低迷時期僱主裁員、並要求祕書同時爲多個高管工作。美國非盈利機構羅斯福研究所(Roosevelt Institute)的研究發現，在此次經濟蕭條期間，私營部門工作流失對於支持性崗位的女性員工打擊尤爲嚴重，使她們的工作被其他人分擔。

Despite the economic gloom lifting, automation remains a threat to the secretarial profession. “Secretaries are an occupation where the increasing ability of sophisticated algorithms to substitute for cognitive labour is already being felt,” says Mr Osborne.

儘管經濟悲觀情緒正在散去，但自動化仍威脅着祕書職業。奧斯本表示：“複雜算法取代認知勞動力的能力正在增強，祕書職業對這一點已有所感受。”

This could not be more different from the scenario described in 1961 in US trade magazine Today’s Secretary. The “electronic computer” would allow the future secretary to start work at noon and take month-long holidays. Contrary to the bleak predictions by the Oxford university researchers, this article suggested that secretaries would remain much sought-after.

這與美國行業雜誌《當代祕書》(Today’s Secretary)在1961年描述的場景相差簡直十萬八千里。當年那篇文章稱，將來“電子計算機”將讓祕書們得以從中午開始工作，並享受長達一個月的假期。與牛津大學研究員做出的悲觀預測相反，那篇文章當時認爲，祕書職位未來仍會非常吃香。

The truth lies somewhere between dystopia and utopia, believes Lynn Peril, a secretary in California and author of Swimming in the Steno Pool: A Retro Guide to Making It in the Office. “It is a profession in decline. In the old sense, yes. But it also offers greater opportunities today.”

生活在加州的祕書、《從速記室中脫穎而出：經典職場成功指南》(Swimming in the Steno Pool: A Retro Guide to Making It in the Office)一書的作者林恩•佩里爾(Lynn Peril)認爲，真相既不樂觀，也不悲觀。“這一職業正在衰落。從過去的觀點來看，確實如此。但如今它也提供了更大的機遇。”

One hard-to-replace characteristic of the job is that it gives executives trophy status. As busy-ness is a badge of honour, so too are secretaries.

這份職業難以替代的地方之一在於，它讓高管有一種勝利者的感覺。忙碌是榮譽的標誌，擁有祕書也是。

The secretary’s relationship with technology has not always been vexatious, Ms Peril points out. After all, the typewriter was largely responsible for bringing unprecedented numbers of women into the office from the late 1880s. From the 1970s, early word- processing systems began to make real inroads into what had traditionally been the heart of secretarial work: dictation and typing. “That was a good thing, as it allowed secretarial work to evolve into more varied, managerial tasks, even though it meant less secretaries hired as it also destroyed the one boss, one secretary ratio,” observes Ms Peril.

佩里爾指出，祕書工作與科技的關係並非總是讓人苦惱。畢竟，之所以從1880年代末開始有空前數量的女性走進辦公室，很大程度上要歸功於打字機。從上世紀70年代開始，早期的文字處理系統開始真正入侵祕書工作傳統上的核心領域：聽寫和打字。佩里爾認爲：“那是件好事，因爲它讓祕書工作進化爲一種更多樣的管理工作——儘管那意味着聘用數量減少，因爲它也破壞了一個老闆配一個祕書的模式。”

But like her, many believe there will always be demand for secretarial jobs. “It makes sense for the higher echelons of management to have someone act as a gatekeeper as well as to take care of complex but time-consuming tasks, freeing the boss up,” she says.

但與她一樣，很多人認爲，祕書工作一直會有需求。她表示：“較高管理層會聘用某人擔任‘看門人’，並處理複雜但耗時的任務，給老闆們騰出時間，這是合理之舉。”

Titles mean different things in different offices. Executive assistants may be differentiated from PAs to denote the fact they are called upon to stand in for their boss in meetings. According to the US’s International Association of Administrative Professionals, formerly the National Secretaries Association, college degrees are necessary for high-level assistants.

頭銜在不同的辦公室有着不同的意義。高管助理可能不同於個人助理，他們會根據要求代替老闆參加會議。前身爲美國國家祕書協會(National Secretaries Association)的美國行政管理職業協會（International Association of Administrative Professionals，簡稱IAAP）表示，具備大學文憑是擔任高級助理的必要條件。

Victoria Rabin, founder of Executive Assistants Organisation, says technology has made the assistant’s gatekeeping role more important in guarding against the deluge of requests by email. At the very top, an assistant in the US can command $250,000 plus bonus, she says. (The average salary is $50,000 to $54,999, according to the IAAP).

行政助理組織(Executive Assistants Organisation)的創始人維多利亞•雷賓(Victoria Rabin)稱，科技使得助理的“看門人”角色更重要了，無數請求通過電子郵件向高管涌來，他們需要助理對這些郵件進行初步過濾。她稱，在美國，最高級的助理可以拿到25萬美元的年薪，另外還有獎金。（根據IAAP的數據，祕書和助理類職位的平均年薪爲50000至54999美元。）

The top tier “do what it takes to be indispensable”, she says. This requires resilience, communication skills and sacrifice. “You can’t take anything personally — sometimes it’s like being a babysitter.”

她稱，頂級助理“做的是讓其不可或缺的工作”。這要求抗壓能力、溝通技巧以及奉獻精神。“任何事你都不能往心裏去——有時候這份工作就像是照顧幼兒。”

Steve Hallam, managing director for secretarial and business support at PageGroup, the recruiter, says diary management is one of the most important roles. “If a CEO isn’t on a plane it can affect the bottom line.”

招聘機構PageGroup的祕書與商務支持總經理史蒂夫•哈勒姆(Steve Hallam)稱，日程管理是最爲重要的角色之一。“如果一名首席執行官(CEO)沒能登上一架飛機，就可能影響到利潤。”

Sara Everett has been a PA for private equity veteran Jon Moulton for 30 years. He has another PA dealing solely with his Better Capital business. Ms Everett says she has known Mr Moulton so long that she knows how he thinks. “My job grows all the time. I can’t ever see it will be less work.”

薩拉•埃弗裏特(Sara Everett)已經爲私人股本界老將喬恩•莫爾頓(Jon Moulton)當了30年的私人助理。莫爾頓還另有一名私人助理，專門幫他處理Better Capital業務。埃弗裏特稱，她認識莫爾頓太久了，以至於她連他在想什麼都知道。“我的工作一直在增加。我永遠無法想象工作會減少。”

Laura Schwartz, a professional speaker who worked for the Clinton administration for eight years, started her career as an assistant, answering phones. She believes that “PAs have been empowered due to cuts” because the job is more creative and less repetitive. However, she warns that one of the pitfalls of the “PA field” is that some assistants start speaking as if they are their boss, which in her case would have been the president.

勞拉•施瓦茨(Laura Schwartz)是一名職業發言人，曾爲克林頓政府工作了8年。她的職業生涯從一名接電話的助理開始。她相信，“人員裁減使得私人助理更有力量了”，因爲這份工作變得更具創造力、而不那麼單調重複了。然而，她警告稱，“私人助理這一行”的易犯錯誤之一是，有些助理的說話方式會變得彷彿他們就是老闆一樣（以她的情況，可能就是像總統了）。

Zelda La Grange, personal assistant to the late Nelson Mandela for 19 years, says people underestimate the gatekeeper. “It’s a unique job. It’s a job of serving. I had to learn it’s not a popularity contest.” The relationship for her was transformative. “Growing up in years of apartheid makes you a racist. It was through working for him I realised I’d had a very one-sided view of history.”

曾爲已故的納爾遜•曼德拉(Nelson Mandela)當了19年私人助理的賽爾達•拉格蘭赫(Zelda La Grange)稱，人們瞧不起“看門人”。“這是一份獨特的工作，是服務性工作。我曾不得不教會自己，這不是一場聲望競賽。”這段經歷改變了她。“在多年的種族隔離政策中長大會讓你成爲一名種族主義者。正是通過爲他工作，我意識到自己過去對歷史的看法非常片面。”

The profession remains largely female: 97 per cent of the IAAP’s 15,000 members, for example, are women.

從事這份職業的大部分仍然是女性：例如，IAAP擁有的1.5萬名會員中，97%是女性。

The personal relationship can cause problems, however. One PA, who worked in London for more than 10 years, says working for CEOs can be difficult: “It’s always their way or the highway.” One employer was “inappropriate and hands-on”. When no one was in the office, he would make his move.

然而，助理與僱主的密切接觸可能會帶來麻煩。一名曾在倫敦工作10餘年的私人助理稱，爲CEO們工作可能會很困難：“總是要麼聽他們的，要麼滾蛋。”另一名僱主則“行爲不當和動手動腳”。當辦公室裏沒有別人時，他就會隨心所欲。

More than the sexual harassment, it was the frustration that wore her down. “He’d put me down. He stopped saying thank you.” He would also wait until everyone was sitting down in a meeting before asking her to make him a cup of tea, which she felt was designed to keep her in her place.

比性騷擾更讓她感到心力交瘁的是一種挫敗感。“他總是讓我出醜，也不再說‘謝謝’。”開會時，他還會等待所有人都坐下後，讓她去給他倒杯茶，她認爲這麼做是爲了讓她恪守本分。

Finally, she left. Ultimately, it was the personality of the person she worked for that ended her secretarial career. “He was the last straw,” she notes.

最後，她離職了。最終，是她曾經效力的那個人的個性，終結了她的祕書生涯。“他是最後一根稻草，”她表示。