Elaine from London - so true. I worked for two years as a legal secretary, which also unofficially included training other secretaries (and lawyers) in various basic things, particularly searches and MS Office packages (secretaries should already know these as they are a basic job requirement!) and in the cases of some lawyers, even correcting their appalling spelling - and these are people with degrees. The general consensus is that being a secretary is not a skilled job and anyone off the street can do it - a fact that my ex-bosses are finding out to their cost. Their latest secretary consistently addresses letters and cheques to the wrong people and sends out half-finished documents (great for a legal firm). Returning from two weeks leave, she returned for a few days and then was signed off for another two weeks with stress! That must have been some traumatic holiday! Good secretaries are skilled, professional and work damn hard and they deserve respect.

Emma, Southampton,

As a secretary in a surveyors I can agree with a lot of these points.

Admin and Secretarial staff are not as appreciated as so called "professional" staff who although have letters after their names do not always have the common sense or initiative to create any office strategies or improvements to help themselves or others. Or if asked to co-operate to assist the whole team cannot be bothered. Admin/accounts/office management etc are just as important as a fee earner. Also there is still a "looking down their nose" attitude which can only add to the feeling of being just tolerated and not truly valued. This is also shown in any bonuses or "perks". The admin staff which actually keep the whole thing running are just seen as replaceable or taken for granted or even thought of as "should be grateful" and not as valued.

Elaine , London, UK