Workplace Change: The Faces Behind the Front Lines

By Jon Melegrito

Today’s clerical workers, faced with unsettling changes brought about by technology, will continue to play a vital role in tomorrow’s offices.

They toil behind cubicle walls, fingers flying across computer keyboards. They sit almost endlessly, occasionally stooping, kneeling or crouching to reach for files. The phones are constantly ringing. Interruptions are a way of life — and work.

They are the first to come in every morning. They may not make coffee for their bosses anymore, but the old "do for" image dies hard. When someone’s having a birthday or a baby, they plan the celebration. They enjoy applying such personal touches.

"They" are America’s 14 million plus full-time clerical workers, 2.4 million of whom are employed in the public sector. The largest group (1.8 million) works for state and local governments. Now labeled "administrative support occupations" by the U.S. Bureau of Census, office work remains the third largest major occupational category — defying predictions of its demise. Nineteen percent of AFSCME’s membership perform these duties, according to a recent survey.

Thanks to automation — personal computers, electronic mail, fax machines, scanners and voice message systems — these workers are doing more in the same amount of time each day. And they are facing unsettling changes in the workplace, the skills required, job security and status.

Office work is also the largest women’s occupation and a growing one for "New Americans." Studies show that almost three out of 10 women are employed in these jobs and that they constitute 80 percent of all full-time workers in the staff-support category. Latinos and Asians now work side by side with African Americans and whites.

JOINT SKILLS. Often described today as "support staff," the clerical category includes clerk-typists, office specialists, secretaries, administrative assistants, teachers’ aides, bookkeepers, stenographers, general office clerks and receptionists. Many of these jobs combine both technical and interpersonal skills.

Judy Bartlett of Local 2822 (Council 14) is one of these employees. Says Bartlett of her job as an office specialist in the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility in Plymouth, Minn., "Between the time inmates come through that door and the day they are released, we’re kept busy."

Their duties include: documenting inmates’ personal information and location within the system; processing their mug shots from a digital camera and storing them in the computer; calling up any or all of the 54 municipal judges and their law clerks for com-mitment verification or clarification; documenting status changes (e.g., extraditions, medical furloughs, discharges) from office orders that are faxed throughout the day; billing cities and counties for their jailed residents; and, of course, answering the phones — including calls from family members and friends who simply want to talk to their incarcerated loved ones.

As it continues to expand in offices across the nation, the role of clerical workers has been twisted far out of its familiar shapes. Office automation and organizational restructuring have led to a wide range of responsibilities that once were reserved for managers and professionals. Many secretaries now provide training and orientation to new staff, conduct research on the Internet and learn to operate new high-tech systems.

At St. Paul’s Office of Licensing, Inspection and Animal Control — three separate agencies that merged into one a few years ago — Marcella G. Schillinger of Local 2508 (Council 14), and her nine co-workers are still very much involved in the design and testing of two software systems. They must keep track of errors and "bugs" and report them to technical personnel. As end-users, "debugging the system is a continuing burden for us," says Carrie Grengs, the office procedure coordinator. "We’re still customizing it to fit our needs." In the midst of those changes, however, core responsibilities have remained much the same — data entry, answering e-mails, fielding phone calls.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD. A recent Gallup study found that a support-staff member typically deals with 190 letters, e-mails, faxes, phone calls, pager messages daily. About 70 percent said they feel overwhelmed, and some added they are giving up their jobs because they cannot handle the pressure.

"The future is a little scary for clerical workers," says April Brown, secretary to a police commander in Dayton, Ohio, and former president of Local 101 (Council 8). "They see themselves as being technologically outdated and eventually being replaced by computers." According to a U.S. Department of Labor report, Economic Change and the American Workforce, the merging of computers and telecommunications technology will result in even-more-sophisticated workstations and complex systems of document management. Faced with this challenge, the office workers of the future will be required to have stronger technical skills. Already, employers increasingly require knowledge of software applications, such as spreadsheets, database management, even desktop publishing.

But there is good news: Increasing office automation will lead to little or no decrease in the overall employment of support staff, U.S. Bureau of Labor studies predict. Obviously, job prospects will be brightest for those with the best technical skills.

SOFT TOUCH. Yet public service will still require interpersonal abilities like discretion and diplomacy, tact and good judgment. "Automated equipment does not have personal skills," says Deeana Smith of Local 1067 (Council 93), a senior secretary at Massasoit College in Brockton, Mass. "Secretaries and clerical workers do. They will continue to play a key role in coordinating people and tasks." Smith knows what she’s talking about, having dealt with hundreds of professors and thousands of students in her 18 years at the school. "It means smiling even if you don’t feel like it, and knowing how to calm a distraught student upset about his grades," she says. "And you can’t rehearse your responses."

Others point out that there’s still no end to paperwork, despite promises of a paperless society. E-mails may be saving time but they’re definitely not saving paper, and guess who prints the copies?

In the police precinct where she works, April Brown says that 80 percent of what she does is interacting with citizens from all walks of life and all kinds of neighborhoods. "Many times you have to think on your feet and make good judgments," she says — recalling a frantic call from a woman demanding that police let her in the house because her boyfriend locked her out.

DEPERSONALIZATION. Automation, restructuring, streamlining, cross training — all of those forces are no doubt making offices more productive. In most places, licensing is now a one-stop service — compared to four stops that used to be required for licenses and permits. The downside of the automated wonders, one office manager says anonymously, is that "Everything is de-personalized, done through e-mail. You don’t talk to each other much anymore."

Sensitive to this problem, some managers show their appreciation by encouraging and helping their staff move up the ladder. An entry-level clerk job, in most cases, is only a stepping stone anyway. Workers who are able to make decisions independently and manage their own work are more likely to get ahead.

That’s the reason Josephine LeBeau, an International vice president and New York’s DC 1707 executive director, counsels clerical workers to constantly improve themselves by developing new skills and sharpening old ones, a process AFSCME fully supports. (See "Seizing Their Dreams," March/April 2001.) Ohio Council 8 Pres. Pat Moss, who is also an International vice president, agrees: "Support staff are the backbone of any organization. Without them, we couldn’t get the job done. Besides, they are often the public connection with the agency or the municipality, which makes them critical in our system of public service."