Placed

I'm starting to feel a bit like I'm in Dolly Parton's movie Nine to Five. My office is in a bank building that houses a bank, a law office, and our office here in Singapore, so it's always interesting riding up in the elevator with all the bankers and lawyers and their clients. Elevators in Singapore are an entire ism unto themselves but I'll save that for another entry.

Riding down to the rainy streets for lunch this afternoon, I shared the elevator with two men and two woman. The men nodded and shook hands and then, as if it were scripted, introduced their secretaries. They each did it in the same manner, too, which was funny, "This is my secretary XYZ," one would say and the other would nod, smile, shake the secretaries hand, and proceed to introduce his secretary.

On floor 24 a woman got into the elevator and one of the men looked up. "Ah, Gina, how are you? How is your boss?" Gina nodded, smiled, and said, "Great." Then, man 1 turned to man 2 and explained who Gina worked for and that she too was a secretary. "Gina?" "Yes?" "Where is your bosses old secretary?"

I'm telling you, it's a secretary world. In the US I think that word has just gone out of style and people now say Assistant or Executive Assistant. For male assistants they say Helper.

When the elevator made it to the bottom floor, the women scooted out in front of their bosses, each holding a notepad and an umbrella.

I think I'm making this sound more sexist or harsh than it is - everyone seemed quite happy and content. Just an interesting observation.

And yes, it was a very long elevator ride - 36 floors down stopping on nearly every floor.