Secretary’s Day is a professional holiday celebrated by administrative workers. It is observed by secretaries, office managers, assistants, receptionists, and call center employees. In Russia, Secretary’s Day is celebrated on the third Friday of September.
Let’s explore some interesting facts about this holiday.
1. The first training courses for secretaries were established in Kharkiv in 1868. Several years later, similar courses began to appear in other countries such as the USA, England, and France.
2. Author J.K. Rowling also worked as a secretary. It was during her time as a secretary that she conceived ideas for her future works.
3. After the invention of typewriters, the secretary profession became predominantly female. Female secretaries were expected to type at a speed of four pages per minute and stenograph at a speed of 40 words per minute.
4. Famous individuals such as Bill Gates, Luciano Pavarotti, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Sergei Yesenin married their secretaries.
5. The National Secretaries Association was established in the United States in 1942.
6. The secretary profession is often associated with dangerous situations. According to various statistics, secretaries are more prone to burns from coffee machines and sexual harassment.
7. Agatha Christie, Mikhail Speransky, Gavriil Derzhavin, Mikhail Glinka, Francois Rabelais, and writer Chingiz Aitmatov all had experience working as secretaries.
8. The first secretaries in Russia can be considered scribes and chroniclers. The most famous among them is Nestor, who wrote the renowned “The Tale of Bygone Years“.
9. Thanks to the secretary of the French king Louis XI, the concept of “yellow press“ emerged. He came up with the idea of documenting court manners and scandals. The result was a whole book titled “The Scandalous Chronicle“.
10. Peter the Great officially recognized the secretary profession in Russia in 1720.
11. Africa is home to a predatory bird named the secretary bird. It preys on snakes. Feathers from these birds were used to create writing accessories, which some believe gave rise to the profession’s name.
12. American secretary Betty Graham made history with her ingenious invention. Betty worked as a secretary at a bank and faced numerous problems with electric typewriters, as mistakes couldn’t be erased. One day, she noticed how painters covered their mistakes on canvases (according to another version, she saw two artists at work) and decided to apply this technique. The resourceful woman mixed white tempera paint and used a brush to cover the errors on documents. This gave birth to Liquid Paper, a correction fluid. Founded in 1956 in her own kitchen, her company earned Betty $47 million.
