Today, April 21, 2010 is Secretary’s Day, now renamed Administrative Professional’s Day despite the fact that “legal secretary” is still the term used in the hallways of law firms.
If you are a new associate and don’t realize that today is the day to express gratitude to your secretary, don’t panic. Walk, do not run, to the nearest flower shop and pick up a bouquet of flowers and a card. Or, if you know your secretary doesn’t like flowers or is allergic to pollen, how about a gift certificate? Not sure at all what your secretary’s likes and dislikes are? Well, gift certificates to amazon or the nearest movie theater can never hurt. Or take him or her out to lunch.
How much should you spend? Well, this depends a lot on your relationship with your secretary, how grateful you feel, and your personal affinity to your wallet. Some people are by their nature more generous than others. Flowers can cost $20; they can also cost $150 depending on how fancy you want to get. There’s a difference between taking someone to lunch at Aqua versus the local sandwich shop. But don’t think for a minute that your secretary won’t know the difference between the two. If you get flowers, understand that they will be publicly displayed on his or her desk for the world to see–and a reflection of how generous or cheap you are. If you think that it won’t matter where you go for lunch, think again.
Of course, your relationship with your secretary is also a factor. If s/he is the dream secretary–always completing tasks before you even have to ask, volunteering to stay late when there’s a court e-filing, taking the initiative to get work done, and saving your butt by catching mistakes that would have landed you in hot water with the partner in charge of the case–you better be thinking Aqua. On the other hand, if s/he is a nightmare–reliably unreliable, consistently late or tardy, making so many errors that it takes more time for you to fix than to have done the work yourself from scratch–you should be thinking of the local sandwich shop. . . to have lunch with the head of HR. Even under those circumstances, however, until you know for sure that HR can get you a replacement secretary, you still want to play nice. I’m sure every secretary, no matter how bad he or she is, must have done something right at some point. Focus on the positives and go from there.
And remember this: secretaries all talk. They know who is cheap and who is generous, and you better believe that next time you need to ask your secretary for a special favor or bail you out, what you do today can either provide you with smooth sailing or hurl you into secretary hell.
One last piece of advice: say “thank you.” Regardless of the gift and its price tag, secretaries–like the rest of us–are human beings. You’d be surprised at how far you get simply by acknowledging their hard work, effort, and time in a sincere, kind manner. It also doesn’t cost you a dime.
