Newspaper Article

ABOUT MEN; A Male Secretary

Joseph Finder is a teacher and the author of "Red Carpet," about American businessmen in Russia. He is finishing a novel on Soviet-American intrigue, Finder, Joseph

1987

Overview

''Come on,'' she said, ''this stuff is too boring for you.'' She paused, then added, ''Honey, I've got to do this. You don't have to. You'll be moving into management. Guys aren't secretaries.'' With female secretaries, he dealt in a crisp, professional manner, softened with banter and jokes. With me, he pretended that I wasn't really a secretary at all. It wasn't as if he ignored me; every half-hour or so he would emerge from his office to talk sports with me and exchange dirty jokes. Both of us effectively ignored two facts: that my job was to do his clerical work and that he couldn't accept that. ''Hey, Joe,'' he would announce, coming out of his office and dumping a wad of paper into a trash can. ''You catch those Celtics last night?'' ''No,'' I'd say. ''How'd they do?'' It didn't take me long to see that I'd failed. I was neither going to win acceptance as a legitimate male secretary nor insulate myself sufficiently not to care what the rest of the office thought. I had expected I wouldn't fall into the old sex roles we assign ourselves, but I don't think I changed the minds of anyone I worked for or with, and I know I didn't change my own mind, either. I wasn't prepared to cause any serious trouble. After a few months working at the bank, I sold a book to a publisher, got a respectable advance, and no longer needed the secretarial job. On my last day of work, I stopped by my boss's office to say goodbye. ''Hey, Doug,'' I said, shaking his hand firmly. ''How 'bout them Celtics?''

• Publisher: New York Times Company