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Interview with an Ex-Secretary
TWhen I went to our community high school, I couldn't do a lot of the homework and study required for any type of pro ' fessional occupation, so I took business education classes. From what I had heard, being an executive secretary working in a business firm was glamorous and exciting work. Secretarial jobs paid pretty good money and you would meet a lot of people.
My first secretarial job was with an insurance company. I found the job very
boring but very easy work. It certainly was not an exciting job and I found myself
doing only what my boss told me to do; type this, type that, clean this, clean that,
do this, do that, etc. I would just sit there and get orders from him and then be
expected to move on them quickly. I never had to think about anything very much
except how to do t ' he things I had been told to do.
My boss would emphasize that I look "pretty" and if I didn't dress and comb my hair to what he approved of he would say very sarcastic things to me like "didn't you get up early enough to comb your hair?"
Businessmen who came into the office would remark, "how nice, you have an Oriental secretary, does she work well? I heard Chinese people work hard and don't complain much." It's true, I did my work well and didn't complain even though I would want to tell my boss and his friends to just shut up. There was nothing I could do because all he had to do was fire me and hire someone else to take my place and I really needed the money to support myself and my little girl.
So that my boss could build his ego and superiority to me and make me feel second rate to him, I had to always address him as "Sir" after everything I said to him. "Yes, Sir, No, Sir; here's your letter, Sir, etc." and if I forgot to say it, he would yell at me "Yes, SIR!!!"
As I worked more, I started to feel like a robot-a shorthand and typing machine. I did exactly what I was told to do. I wasn't able to contribute anything of my own except my skill. I wanted to feel useful but somehow I just felt like I couldn't have a thought or idea of my own, or that I was respected as a human person.
In the insurance business I would write letters to people telling them that they could not collect any insurance money, or collect a very little amount, because of this regulation or that regulation, even if they had been injured and needed the money that they'd been paying hundreds of dollars a year to be able to have when they needed it. With the work that I was doing, my boss was able to maintain important communications between the regional insurance offices all over the United States and the main office in Washington, D.C. He made business deals and handled important insurance claims that involved a lot of money through the letters that he would dictate to me and have me type up. All this work led the company and the few that own it on the road to richer and richer profits, while my pay check remained the same. I started to think that all the work my friends and I were doing was making a lot of money for the company while most of the time the bosses did very little work. They took two hour lunches and long breaks; my boss would take an hour off to cut his hair, do shopping for his wife, and had all the freedom to do what he pleased, while we had very regulated schedules. If we were late, we would get money taken off our checks.
WORKING FOR THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC
Later, when I worked at Southern Pacific Railway I began to realize even more how I was part of a machine which hired people to do all the work of running the railroad. I was typing many letters about what things go on what train to where; how many cars were needed on a particular trip, when it was supposed to leave and when it was supposed to arrive, etc. I found that the quicker I typed letters, tile smoother and faster the company functioned and that I was selling my ability to take shorthand and to type well so that the owners of Southern Pacific Railway could make money.
The job was more interesting than working in the insurance company because I learned about how important the railroad system is to the economy of the country and that if the railroads shut down, it would really hurt the big corporations because nothing could be sent to places to be sold and they would lose all kinds of money. Almost everything we see and use day to day is transported by the railway system. If I had typed the letters incorrectly by changing the number of the train and its destination, it would really have screwed the railroad company who was to get the stuff. It was important for the company that I perform my duties correctly. I was paid good money, nearly $600 a month, but I still felt that I was being used along with all the other employees to build a company over which we had no control or say so.
As business companies grow larger, they need more people to do tile paper work such as keeping in touch with all the things that are happening in that company. For instance, as the company grows, no one person can be on top of the whole situation, so they break it down into areas of work which require things to be typed, filed, and books to be kept. Records have to be kept of past and present transactions, communications have to be written, mail has to be sorted out, letters have to be answered, and all kinds of other clerical work has to be done and kept up so that the people on top have a clear picture of the whole company so they know where, when and what decisions should be made about certain things and how to expand their company more. When they break people down into different types of jobs, they pay different people more or less depending on what they feel is more skilled work. When I was a secretary they paid me more than the typist although a lot of times the typist did more work that I did and her job was just as important to the company as my job. All clerical jobs are an important part of the company. They usually pay well so that people won't mind so much having to sell their skill and their manpower to a company which makes many times over what they pay their employees. No one should have to sell their labor for the aggrandizement of a handful of exploiters.
Section 3: Working Women
Women in Chinatown
New York Schools
Interview with a Garment Worker
A Credit to Your Race
Interview with an Ex-Secretary
GI's and Asian Women
Section 2: Present Workers Conditions
A Life of Struggle, The Bitter Sadness
Things I Saw and Heard Working in A Restaurant
Interview - Account of An Injured Chinese Restaurant Worker
Restaurant Workers Unite
Working in a Packing House
The Best or the Worst
Story of an "illegal" Immigrant Worker