No more Twinkies - Hostess out of business

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

It'll go even farther; just wait. A friend of mine who works in the legal profession told me that his law firm is testing out not assigning secretaries to the lower level lawyers; instead, they will email documents and things they need done to a floor of people they will never actually interact with. He thinks they'll eventually look to ship that sort of job overseas, too, or to a state with much lower wages.

That actually has a lot to do with the fact that young lawyers have typing and computer skills. Dictation, in the law firm setting, is becoming more scarce.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

That actually has a lot to do with the fact that young lawyers have typing and computer skills. Dictation, in the law firm setting, is becoming more scarce.

Absolutely, but they still use them for a lot of formatting and editing. The thing that's a change here is that they aren't even on the same floor with the lawyers; they are on a different floor and won't be seen. It's an easy step from that to not in the city or the country, entirely.

Rich partners, of course, will continue to have secretaries because they want to have someone to organize their day for them. And so it has always been- you're rich, you get to have servants.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Absolutely, but they still use them for a lot of formatting and editing. The thing that's a change here is that they aren't even on the same floor with the lawyers; they are on a different floor and won't be seen. It's an easy step from that to not in the city or the country, entirely.

Rich partners, of course, will continue to have secretaries because they want to have someone to organize their day for them. And so it has always been- you're rich, you get to have servants.

It's not about being rich and getting the "servants" it's about having an established and busy practice (something the young and/or new attorney would not have) that requires one or more people to help you manage it.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

It's not about being rich and getting the "servants" it's about having an established and busy practice (something the young and/or new attorney would not have) that requires one or more people to help you manage it.

Sorry; I'm being a bit irreverent here, though I know secretaries who tend to do a lot of personal assistant-type work at their jobs, even though it's not what they were hired to do. The original instance I was citing was a company that is changing previous policy, continuing to provide employees who do document work for the lawyers, but instead of having them on the same floor as the lawyers, is now moving them to a different floor, and all communication will be via phone or email. My friend who works there said they think it's a very small step to moving those document workers out of state or out of country, and there go more middle-class jobs (my friend gives generally high marks to the firm, saying it's a good one to work for, other than wondering if they're looking to move staff off premises)

My point was it was the blue collar manufacturing jobs, then the tech jobs, and now the off-shoring is moving into the white collar clerical jobs as companies figure out that more and more things can be done long distance.