Wage Inflation vrs. HPI

olly300

PasturesNew wrote: »

The employers can't tell the difference between a skilled secretary/PA and somebody who has used Word for years... but that's because they have rarely seen somebody like me working, they've not experienced the superior quality and faster speeds achieved; they just want a bum on a seat. So now, if you want a temp to come in and do some typing, it's the lowest rate everybody can get away with.

Just a point- if the employer wants someone to just type they will pay the rate they can get away with.

If they want a secretary/PA who will have more skills than typing - in fact in some companies the PA does no typing or very little typing - they will hire someone on more money.

I found this out when I was temping about 10 years ago. If I was doing actual PA work I was paid more but did very little typing.

PasturesNew

My typing speed is usually 105wpm, without errors. My shorthand was 180wpm. I also do audio typing at a fast rate. When I am typing, I automatically correct spelling and grammar mistakes made by the person dictating/writing, because that was part of being able to pass the RSA III paper. Part of the paper was written in really nasty spider hand-writing, with spelling and grammar mistakes, so you had to not only do the exam, at the required speed to complete it, without mistakes, but also had to type at that level while deciphering cr4p hand-writing and automatically correcting errors.

olly300

PasturesNew wrote: »

My typing speed is usually 105wpm, without errors. My shorthand was 180wpm. I also do audio typing at a fast rate. When I am typing, I automatically correct spelling and grammar mistakes made by the person dictating/writing, because that was part of being able to pass the RSA III paper. Part of the paper was written in really nasty spider hand-writing, with spelling and grammar mistakes, so you had to not only do the exam, at the required speed to complete it, without mistakes, but also had to type at that level while deciphering cr4p hand-writing and automatically correcting errors.

Audio typing is still needed.

Short hand less so as most of the meetings I've been present in they want notes in long hand. If they want an exact record of what someone says they record it.

Cleaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

My typing speed is usually 105wpm, without errors. My shorthand was 180wpm. I also do audio typing at a fast rate. When I am typing, I automatically correct spelling and grammar mistakes made by the person dictating/writing, because that was part of being able to pass the RSA III paper. Part of the paper was written in really nasty spider hand-writing, with spelling and grammar mistakes, so you had to not only do the exam, at the required speed to complete it, without mistakes, but also had to type at that level while deciphering cr4p hand-writing and automatically correcting errors.

I can therefore imagine that if you had a specialist company that needed a load of documents, reports or transcripts creating from an audio file or handwritten documents you would need someone with all of those skills and that person could probably charge a hefty premium. I doubt you could get someone with those skills for £5 or £6 an hour. I certainly don't know many people with the ability to do what you've described above.

But in a modern office for a typical PA / secretary job you wouldn't need these skills, just the ability to type at a reasonable speed and with decent accuracy. As I said above, knowledge of all MS packages, the ability to multi-task, get on with colleagues, use initiative, pick up additional stuff and quickly run with it is probably now more valued.

kriss_boy

I can hit 75 wpm with no mistakes.

Thats simply the result of being the msn/facebook generation!

vivatifosi

Cleaver wrote: »

I just timed myself - 69 wpm. You're right, 90 is fast.

But as discussed, I just don't know whether fast typing is a required skill in most general offices nowadays.

No you're right, its not. Though it does still surprise me when people don't know how to do the basics, like compose a letter. 69 is pretty respectable btw (no double entendre intended), do you use all your fingers? (I can't believe I just typed that sentence)....

PasturesNew

olly300 wrote: »

Just a point- if the employer wants someone to just type they will pay the rate they can get away with.

If they want a secretary/PA who will have more skills than typing - in fact in some companies the PA does no typing or very little typing - they will hire someone on more money.

I found this out when I was temping about 10 years ago. If I was doing actual PA work I was paid more but did very little typing.

There is very little PA work these days. In one agency I went into in 1997 they paid just 5p/hour extra for PAs. From what I read online, it seems that there are still PAs in London, but in temping type roles etc in the rest of the country there are few.

I used to be a PA, obviously. One of the ways you could tell "you'd made it" was to be a PA with a particular type of electric typewriter. I got one of those in one job, it was an IBM Executive Typewriter. It was proportional spacing, so if you did make a mistake then to correct it you needed to use microspacing to replace the letters. The letter "i" took up 2 microspaces, e/c/d etc took up 3 microspaces and an "m" would take up 5. The one I had used a brown carbon ribbon and typed onto yellow paper ... very posh for what must have been about 1982/1984.

http://www.etypewriters.com/d-exec.jpg

Cleaver

vivatifosi wrote: »

69 is pretty respectable btw, do you use all your fingers?

I've edited your sentence because I'm a child.

I can't touch type but I look at the screen and never my fingers. As I'm typing this I'm realising that I only use three fingers on each hand to type (thumb and the two next to it), unless I need the shift key when I use my little finger. The things you don't know unless you check, hey?

I guess many people can't put a letter together, but I guess in our office I could count the number of letters sent each year on one hand. We don't tend to write out to 'customers' very often and when we do it's normally a mass-created letter that gets checked and messed around with a lot anyway. All tends to be e-mail nowadays.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

No you're right, its not. Though it does still surprise me when people don't know how to do the basics, like compose a letter. 69 is pretty respectable btw (no double entendre intended), do you use all your fingers? (I can't believe I just typed that sentence)....

This posting marks the point at which this thread will degenerate.

Only three more pages and we can expect some reference to Hitler.

Cleaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

There is very little PA work these days. In one agency I went into in 1997 they paid just 5p/hour extra for PAs. From what I read online, it seems that there are still PAs in London, but in temping type roles etc in the rest of the country there are few.

I used to be a PA, obviously. One of the ways you could tell "you'd made it" was to be a PA with a particular type of electric typewriter. I got one of those in one job, it was an IBM Executive Typewriter. It was proportional spacing, so if you did make a mistake then to correct it you needed to use microspacing to replace the letters. The letter "i" took up 2 microspaces, e/c/d etc took up 3 microspaces and an "m" would take up 5. The one I had used a brown carbon ribbon and typed onto yellow paper ... very posh for what must have been about 1982/1984.

http://www.etypewriters.com/d-exec.jpg

A strong memory from my childhood (the 80s) was my Dad sitting at our desk at home in the evening reading out all his reports, letters and documents in to a dictaphone for his secretary to type out the next day.

Whenever he went out the room to get a drink or go to the toilet I used to grab the dictaphone and record myself: sometimes pretending to be an astronaut talking to mission control, sometimes as a football commentator, sometimes just saying words like 'bum' and 'wee'. I'm presuming they never made the final cut.