A Former Secretary's Lament: What is the World's Most Undervalued Profession?
What is the world's most undervalued profession? I bet you said teaching. Wrong. In fact, at the risk of alienating everyone on the planet (well, everyone who reads this), I am going to say something sacrilegious:
I don't think teachers are underpaid.
Right: Harris & Ewing, photographer. White House secretaries. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress
GASP!!!
I know, I know, it's like being against motherhood, apple pie, rainbows, and the American flag. But let me explain.
First, you have to understand where I'm coming from — and that's the steno pool, a desolate place where many a career dream drowned in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. I landed there because I made a wrong turn on the road to college eons ago.
My then best friend was going to Boston University (a school to which I had also been accepted) as an Art major at BU's PAL, or College of Practical Arts and Letters, which also offered a so-called "Business" major — in reality, a glorified secretarial course with a sprinkling of Liberal Arts. Because I was incredibly shy and timid at the time (no, really!), I jumped at this — my chance to tag along with my friend so I wouldn't have to go to big scary college alone, though a much better choice for me would have been BU's College of Communications or School of Journalism. Stupid!
Even stupider was not going to BU's School of Education and becoming a teacher.
What I did become, after graduating with a Summa Cum Laude bachelor's degree from PAL, was the best secretary in history (she said modestly), landing jobs throughout my working life as Executive Assistant (a fancy title granted in lieu of the high salaries I deserved) to a few CEOs of multi-national corporations who (rightfully) claimed they owed their success to me and who wrote unbelievable (but accurate) glowing letters of recommendation when we had to part company for various reasons. I loved most of those jobs and never questioned my subservient status or pitiful compensation because I knew it was higher than that of most secretaries.
Meanwhile, friends who had been clever enough to become teachers, protected by a powerful union, were raking in much more money than me and enjoying considerably more leisure time. Two weeks paid vacation was the most I ever got and no overtime pay for the many nights, holidays and weekends I worked. Nor, more important, am I now enjoying a generous pension such as those that are financing the retirement travels of my teacher friends. Furthermore, they never had to go to work when it snowed, though back in the day we secretaries were expected to man our typewriters even during blizzards of historic proportions. Yet despite my dedication, which sometimes actually involved risking my life to get to work, no one ever bows down and pays me homage when I tell them what I did for a living. Teachers, on the other hand, are afforded respect worthy of Mother Theresa.
"Well, that's because our jobs were very stressful," says a teacher friend. "You never had to deal with difficult parents." I'll see her difficult parents and raise her a few impossible bosses who were sprinkled throughout my checkered career — one, in particular, a multi-billionaire whose frothing-at-the-mouth rages are legend in the business community and have been documented in the pages of Forbes and other business journals. Though none of his rants were directed at me, it was painful to witness his unwarranted, hysterical castigation of many others. I escaped after a week and a half, while he was out of town, despite pleas from his company's Human Resources Director not to jump ship. "Wait until he comes back," he said. "He needs you. We'll sit him down and talk to him. We can change him!" Sure, and let's reverse Niagara Falls while we're at it.
So far, my memory hasn't deserted me. I only hope it's still with me in my next lifetime when the time comes to choose a vocation so I'll remember to seriously consider becoming a teacher!
©2017 Rose Madeline Mula for SeniorWomen.com
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