Administrative Professionals Day: Makin' it Look Easy For 60 Years

     Today is Administrative Professionals Day (APD), and it is more than a Hallmark Holiday.  In fact, Hallmark has nothing to do with this day which honors the role of 8.9 million women and men who perform roles within their respective work places, which are best described under the broad umbrella of the "administrative professional".

     APD, formerly known as Professional Secretaries Day--or "Secretaries Day", owes its origin to the need for clerical and secretarial support on the homefront during WWII.  With the men off fighting in the Pacific and European Theaters, women back home kept the fabric of our nation moving forward by working hard in factories, war plants, and of course don't forget the league of their own.  Of course there was also a need for secretarial (administrative) support, and so in 1942 the National Secretaries Association (now known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals, IAAP) was born, and in 1952 the first National Secretaries Week was established (Happy 60th National "Honor-Those-Who-Make-it-Happen-Week"!).

(You can read more about the history of IAAP here: http://iaap-hq.org/connections%20newsletter/images/history_of_iaap.htm)

     Fast forward to April 25, 2012.  So, here we are, it's Administrative Professionals Day, and chances are that most, if not all, of you reading this are an Administrative Professional, and hey today is about YOU! 

     Each year on APD I cannot help but think of the movies 9-5  and (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080319/) Office Space (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/).  I really don't have much of a point to make here, except to say that while most of us are fortunate enough that we don't find it necessary to spend our days imagining ways to off our bosses, and most of us don't one day come into work and decide to cut down our cubicle walls so that we have a better view, we all from time-to-time feel frustrated, annoyed and maybe even taken for granted. 

     While I feel appreciated pretty much every day at work, I am aware that not everyone feels, or even knows, how much they are appreciated, and so that is why I think it is good to set aside one day a year when we collectively honor those who make the impossible possible and the difficult look like a breeze--heck some of us even double as expert printer un-jammers:

     To anyone who may feel underappreciated and unnoticed, know that today is for you and that your peers know just how important and integral to your office you are!

Additionl Information: http://www.iaap-hq.org/events/apw

   

Reasonably Unreasonable

                   As I sit at my computer listening to the Swing Kids soundtrack contemplating what Holocaust Remembrance day means to me, and why it is that I make a point to remember on this day each year, my mind flashes back to a quotation by George Bernard Shaw I came across recently while reading Half the Sky:

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.  Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.  All progress, therefore, depends upon unreasonable people.”

                A powerful quotation packed full of turned-upside-down meaning. Perhaps a bit on the absolute side, but still the quotation has punch.   Who wants to be unreasonable?  Me, that’s who.

                Let’s take a moment to remember two extraordinarily unreasonable individuals:  Oskar Schindler and Paul Rusesabagina.  Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German Catholic and eventual member of the Nazi Party, saved the lives of over 1,000 of his Jewish contemporaries from the Holocaust by employing them in his various factories during the war.  Oskar Schnidler was viewed by many as an opportunist with extravagant tastes, and yet he created a “reasonable” facade which acted as a shield that saved lives.  Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu and manager of a luxury hotel in Kigali, also saved more than 1,000 lives by bravely sheltering both Hutus and Tutsis alike during the 100 horrific days of the Rwandan Genocide that violently claimed the lives of more than 800,000.  Paul Rusesabagina used the walls of Hotel des Mille Collines as a literal, overt, and “unreasonable” shield to save lives.

                Oskar Schnidler pretended to adapt to the world around him, and therefore appeared “reasonable”, while Paul Rusesbagina refused to adapt to the violence of his fellow Hutus, and took an “unreasonable” stand which could have cost his life, but didn’t.   Despite the two different approaches, at some point both men refused to adapt to the world around them, and in their own heroic ways adapted the world to their view of how things ought to be.

                To me Holocaust Remembrance day is not only a day to remember the Holocaust, but also a day to remember all genocides, and to then identify current genocides (The Nubian Mountains in Sudan for example) and crimes against humanity about which I can speak up and do something.  Maybe this sounds like an unreasonable expectation of myself, and to some perhaps even trite and futile.  

                Acutely aware that some think my passion’s overwhelming and far too big for one person to take on, I will forge ahead with a reasonably unreasonable mindset.  Although my unreasonable outlook does not place my life in danger, it does risk eye rolls, private sighs of here-we-go-again and possibly annoyance.  Nevertheless, I will continue to advocate for the women, men and children of DR Congo who have suffered for far too long, and advocate for the SEC’s immediate release of strong 1502 regulations.  I will gladly fulfill my role as an Ambassador for Women for Women International**, and will also do what I can to support local causes which benefit and advocate for those in my immediate community who need it most.  All of this I unreasonably promise.

**WfWI “works with socially excluded women in eight countries where war and conflict have devastated lives and communities.”  http://www.womenforwomen.org/

Sources: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005787 http://hrrfoundation.org/ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5324187 http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/calendar/