In times past in Nigeria being a secretary was perceived with utter disdain by many people. Other professionals such as teachers, lawyers, engineers surveyors estate officers and architects were revered many issues readily come to mind concerning the old perspective of secretaries as professionals One they were regarded as people with little or no education indeed, many of them were said to be mere typists who learnt how to punch keys on the typewriters. They hardly had any formal education but obtained doubtful certificates. This was made possible because anyone could easily learn to be a typist under the shade of a tree or in a personal office of a retired secretary or in a chief typist from any buss organization. As long as a short piece of work could be typed almost accurately and in record time, one then became a secretary. This unrealistic practice to call an unqualified person a secretary might have been introduced and sustained by people who did not know who a secretary was. The educated secretaries obtained minimum of the ordinary diploma (OND) or in its equivalent from institutions in and outside Nigeria, particularly Great Britain Canada or the united states of America. Two, they were mostly women and very few male secretaries who suffered more humiliation than their female counterparts. They were regarded as men who did not succeed in life and did the work that normally women were supposed to do Three and deriving from the second reason, secretaries were as a matter of facts very close to their bosses. Most people including husbands of secretaries, regarded such a mode of interaction as tempting a kind of constant closeness which might engender a deliberate or unintentional amorous relationship between superior and subordinate officers. Quite often such a situation could not be ruled out when body contact as established inadvertently or deliberately between two opposite sex especially when either one or both people were attractive and attracted to each other moreover we often talk of the devil and the havoc he is capable of causing in the lives of people, particularly the unguarded ones In today’s world these points of views concerning secretaries are fading fast. Now there is a clear distinction between a typist and a secretary. Modern secretaries are trained in polytechnics and universities. Gone are the days when secretaries were taught only the art of punching the typewriters and various filling systems they are also encouraged to take training courses other than secretarial duty. Many secretaries have had their training in faculties of business administration, law arts and mass communications of universities. They take relevant courses in administration and other social science departments that enhances their personality carriage, interpersonal relations and office management obviously, secretaries, including the male ones are more important and well respected today than in the past.
