The general characteristics of secretarial work refer to the characteristics of all kinds of secretarial work, but they are different from other jobs. General characteristics are different from essential characteristics. The essential characteristics of secretarial work determine the general characteristics of secretarial work; The general characteristics of secretarial work reflect the essential characteristics of secretarial work. There can only be one essential feature of secretarial work, and there can be multiple general features of secretarial work. Revealing the general characteristics of secretarial work is not only conducive to further understanding and grasping the essential characteristics and laws of secretarial work, but also conducive to a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of secretarial work and targeted secretarial work.

First, the unity of confidentiality and mass.

Secretarial work is a very confidential job. The word "secretary" means "secret" in Chinese. The stem "secret" in the English word "secret" and the stem "cekpem" in the Russian word "secret" both mean "secret". This striking similarity just reflects that secretarial work is confidential. This is because secretarial work assists leadership work, leading centers at all levels are the core of secrets, and secretarial section is the comprehensive office of leading centers at all levels. Secretarial staff working around leaders will inevitably come into contact with all kinds of secrets. In particular, the secretaries of important department leaders have a lot of important information and are more confidential. During the revolutionary war years, our party sent many underground workers deep behind enemy lines to serve as confidential secretaries of the enemy's party and government organs and military systems, which provided our party and army with a lot of important information and made important contributions to protecting the security of the CPC Central Committee and winning the revolutionary struggle. The secretarial department is a key department, and the secrecy of secretarial work is closely related to politics. The struggle between secrecy and stealing secrets is essentially an important manifestation of the political struggle among political parties, countries and armies; In the economic field, the middle party is a manifestation of economic struggle. Because of this, leaders at all times and all over the world are very cautious in selecting and appointing secretaries, demanding absolute political loyalty and reliability, high confidentiality, strict confidentiality discipline and strict confidentiality requirements. Our party and country are also very strict in the selection of secretaries. They have specially formulated and issued regulations on confidential secretarial work, requiring political review before taking office and regular confidential education after taking office, all for the objective needs of secretarial work. Because the general office is the key department and the core key department, the secretarial staff know more secrets around the leadership work. Therefore, the office staff should raise their political vigilance, pay attention to confidentiality and abide by confidentiality discipline.

However, it must also be noted that the secretariat department is the center for leading organs at all levels to collect information, and it is the bridge and link between all parties, and its work is characterized by broad masses. The drafting of many documents and the implementation of many decisions are directly related to the vital interests of the masses, and their opinions must be widely listened to. In the process of implementing various policies, secretaries must pay close attention to information feedback and listen to the voices of the masses in order to correct possible deviations and prevent conflicts from intensifying. Secretarial work not only serves the leaders, but also serves the masses. This kind of service is both indirect and direct. Secretarial work mainly serves the people by directly serving the leaders, because the leaders serve the people. Secretarial staff deal with letters from the masses, receive visitors from the masses, conduct investigation and study, and coordinate the work of the organs, which is the work directly facing the masses. People often say that the secretarial department is the "window" and "portal" of the organ, and it is also in this sense. Therefore, the secretary must establish the concept of the masses, keep close contact with the masses, care about their sufferings, reflect their voices to the leaders in time, and become a bridge between the leaders and the masses, not a wall between them.

The confidentiality and mass of secretarial work are dialectical relations of unity of opposites. They are interdependent, integral and inseparable. If we only see the confidential nature of secretarial work and ignore the mass nature of secretarial work, we will completely close ourselves off and keep the masses out of work, which will cut off the contact between leaders and the masses, resulting in ineffective information and unclear situation, breeding bureaucracy and bureaucratic style, and damaging the image and prestige of leading organs; On the other hand, if we only see the mass of secretarial work and ignore the confidentiality of secretarial work, we will lose our vigilance in official reception, visiting reception and daily communication, revealing secrets, causing undue passivity and losses to the party, the country and the organization itself, and the consequences are unimaginable. Therefore, secretarial workers must handle the relationship between the two, not only insist on close contact with the masses, but also pay attention to keeping secrets at all times. But as far as the personality characteristics of secretarial work are concerned, secrecy is its main aspect. Therefore, when there is a conflict between secrecy and contact with the masses, secrecy should be given priority.

Second, the integration of comprehensiveness and professionalism.

The secretariat department is not a specialized business department of the leading organ, but a comprehensive department of the organ. Therefore, the scope and content of secretarial work are very extensive and comprehensive, including drafting comprehensive messages, providing comprehensive information, conducting comprehensive research, handling comprehensive affairs, integrating the situation of various departments, and handling matters that are not within the scope of business departments. Comprehensiveness not only refers to the extensiveness of secretarial work, but also refers to the analysis, induction, abstraction and generalization of various situations or information from the outside to the inside, so that it can rise from the individual to the general, from the phenomenon to the essence, and summarize things with laws. This kind of synthesis is the real connotation of secretarial work. This feature is determined by the overall situation of the secretary's assistant leadership work. Leaders at any level are in the overall position of different levels of management systems, and they should take the overall situation into account, predict development, make overall plans and make comprehensive coordination. As the staff and assistants of leaders at all levels, all departments and secretaries at all levels in the Secretariat determine that the secretarial work is highly comprehensive. From the overall structure and function of organs, any organ must be organically combined with professional departments and comprehensive departments to form a reasonable organ structure. Moreover, the higher the level of organs and the more business departments, the more it is necessary to strengthen comprehensive coordination in order to give full play to the overall functions of organs. Secretariat agencies at all levels are such a comprehensive coordination department. It requires the secretary to have the overall concept, based on the overall situation of leadership work, to observe, analyze and deal with problems from the perspective of leadership, to make suggestions for staff, to be calm and to manage their own affairs; It is necessary to have a wide range of knowledge and become a "generalist" and "sage" of this organ and this system to meet the needs of leaders to control the overall situation; To do a good job in secretarial work, we must have strong comprehensive generalization ability and comprehensive coordination ability.

On the other hand, secretarial work has its particularity. This professionalism is mainly the special requirement of secretarial work. For example, secretarial work requires secretarial staff to have a high level of policy, writing and theory, strong staff consultation ability, research ability, information processing ability and processing ability, be familiar with documents, archives, confidentiality, letters and visits, meetings, communications, etiquette and other aspects, and be able to operate modern office facilities. It is not easy to meet the above requirements, and professional training is needed. Modern scientific management requires higher and higher specialization of secretarial work, and the "all-purpose oil" secretarial model in the past can no longer meet the needs of modern secretarial work. As a special social occupation, secretarial work is not available to everyone. Only after formal professional training and strict professional examination can we obtain the qualification of secretary. Since the reform and opening up in China for 20 years, the cultivation of secretarial talents has been paid more and more attention. Many colleges and universities have set up secretarial majors, and the National Self-taught Examination Center has also set up secretarial undergraduate majors. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security will implement the secretary professional qualification certificate system in the whole country, which is to ensure the quality of the cultivation of secretary professionals. The professionalism of secretarial work is also reflected in the fact that secretaries in different industries must be familiar with the professional knowledge of their respective industries. For example, Party committee secretaries should be familiar with party affairs knowledge, administrative secretaries should be familiar with administrative knowledge, military secretaries should be familiar with military knowledge, enterprise secretaries should be familiar with enterprise management and commodity economy knowledge, and foreign-related secretaries should be familiar with foreign-related laws and foreign trade knowledge, and so on. The more proficient a secretary is in industry knowledge, the more handy she will be in her work. Otherwise, if the secretary is not familiar with the industry knowledge, he will not be able to do a good job in an all-round way, let alone play the role of a staff officer.

Secretarial work is the dialectical unity of comprehensiveness and professionalism. Comprehensive is its main aspect, and professionalism is its secondary aspect. The two penetrate each other and complement each other. The richer and more comprehensive the secretary's professional knowledge, the stronger his comprehensive ability to take the overall situation into consideration; The stronger the secretary's comprehensive ability, the more thorough his understanding of the overall situation, and the more conducive he is to mastering professional knowledge. They are dialectical unity of mutual combination and promotion. This feature requires secretaries to deal with the relationship between "erudition" and "specialization", not only to have a wider range of knowledge and strive to become "professional generalists", but also to be proficient in secretarial business and strive to become "secretarial experts". Only in this way can they meet the needs of secretarial work.

Third, the unity of transactional and ideological.

The secretarial section is the office of leaders at all levels, assisting leaders in handling daily affairs and ensuring the efficient operation of leaders and organs. The daily work of secretariat departments is carried out around the administrative work of leaders, which can be roughly divided into four categories: the first category is daily procedural affairs, the second category is temporary and accidental affairs, the third category is affairs assigned by leaders, and the fourth category is departmental affairs. These affairs are characterized by frequent, messy and trivial work, but they are permeated with strong ideological content. For example, a slight negligence in proofreading a document, an error in proofreading a keyword, and the issuance of a document may have a major political impact; In the layout of the venue, if the leadership seat of the podium is misplaced, videos or photos are released, which may cause speculation in all aspects; In handling letters and visits, which letters should be sent to leading comrades and who should be received by leading comrades are all ideological issues. People often say that "there is no trivial matter in secretarial work", which means that although things are small, if they are not handled well, they will have a great impact. Because the affairs in secretarial work are closely related to leading government affairs. The transactional nature of secretarial work is determined by the foundation and fundamental purpose of secretarial work. Secretarial work is produced to meet the needs of leadership work. Leadership consists of two parts: government affairs and affairs. As the leadership work is becoming more and more complicated and the leadership's energy is very limited, it is urgent for leaders to focus on government affairs, concentrate on thinking and studying macro-decision issues, and leave the transactional work to the assistant-secretary to deal with, so as to reduce the workload of leaders and improve the efficiency of leadership work. It is in this sense that "the secretary is the assistant of the leader". Although with the development of the times, leaders pay more and more attention to the staff function of secretarial work, this does not mean that secretarial work can weaken the function of handling affairs. No matter how the secretarial work develops and changes, dealing with affairs is always one of its basic functions. This feature requires secretaries to fully understand the importance of affairs from the perspective of improving the efficiency of organs, correctly handle the dialectical relationship between affairs and government affairs, and start with dealing with affairs to achieve the purpose of participating in and discussing state affairs; It is necessary to cultivate a diligent, hardworking, careful and patient style, overcome laziness, fear of hardship and carelessness, constantly improve working methods and means, and strive to improve work efficiency.

On the other hand, secretarial work has a strong ideological content. This is because the secretariat is not only an administrative department, but also an important staff department, which plays an important role in leading the decision-making process. For example, conduct investigation and study before the leadership makes a decision, synthesize the situation, and provide information, plans and other decision-making basis; Draft information in the decision-making process, form written information about leadership decision-making, and turn it into practical policies and implementation measures; Supervise and check in the process of decision-making, and collect feedback information as a reference for correcting decisions to help leaders make correct decisions. All these works are permeated with strong ideological content. It is in this sense that we say that "the secretary is the staff of the leader". Under the new situation of reform and opening up, the process of scientific and democratic leadership decision-making is accelerating, and the position and role of secretarial work in the process of leadership decision-making are becoming more and more important, and the ideological nature of secretarial work is more prominent. This feature requires secretarial staff to seriously study Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory and strive to improve their ideological and theoretical level; We should conscientiously study the party's basic line and various principles and policies, and strive to improve the policy level; It is necessary to study and study the theories and methods of secretaries, cultivate their macro-thinking ability, "discuss major issues, think about the overall situation, and understand their own business", strive to improve their strategic level, closely focus on leading major decisions and the work of the unit center, do a good job in secretarial services, and resolutely prevent and overcome the tendency of "busyness."

Secretarial work is the unity of opposites between transactional and ideological work. First of all, the two are interpenetrating. On the one hand, secretarial work is highly ideological on the whole, but on the part, even highly ideological work is more or less transactional. On the other hand, the daily work of the secretarial section is inherently ideological. Secondly, the two influence each other. Transactional work is the basic work of secretarial work, and its ideological content is mainly reflected in dealing with affairs. Without routine work, the ideological nature of secretarial work will lose its foundation and noumenon. Ideological content is the soul and "core" of secretarial work and the key to doing a good job. Without ideological content, secretarial work will lose its direction and goal, and it is impossible to be efficient. Third, there is a master-slave relationship between them. In secretarial work, thought is the main aspect and routine is the secondary aspect, but we can't ignore routine work because of this. An excellent secretarial worker must be psychologically prepared for affairs: not afraid of complexity, not too trivial; We should also fully understand the ideological content contained in routine work and highlight the ideological content in specific routine work. Only in this way can we give full play to the role of staff officers and assistants.

Fourth, passivity and initiative should be unified.

The auxiliary and subordinate position of secretarial work determines that it has a passive side. This passivity is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, the secretariat departments and secretaries, as the staff and assistants of the leaders, must act according to the leaders' intentions and cannot act on their own. Although the secretary can put forward different opinions and suggestions to the leaders, he must resolutely obey the leaders and orders in action, and can't go his own way. In this sense, the secretary is in a passive position Second. Secretariat departments are the hub and gateway of organs at all levels, and there is a lot of random work, which is difficult to predict in advance. Although the secretariat also has its own plans and arrangements, it is often unstable, random and temporary. In this sense, it is also passive.

We admit that secretarial work has a passive side, but this does not mean that passivity is a feature of secretarial work. In fact, many jobs have a passive side, and passivity is not unique to secretarial work. Passivity and initiative refer to the freedom of secretaries, so it is unscientific to regard passivity as one of the characteristics of secretarial work. Although the secretarial staff are restricted by the leadership intention in their work, they still have a broad world to play their subjective initiative. For example, the secretary should be good at understanding the leadership intention and closely focus on the central work to find the direction of initiative; We should have a sense of being ahead of time and enhance the predictability and planning of our work; Be diligent in thinking, think more, and actively put forward work suggestions to leaders; Pay attention to the accumulation of various situations and materials, and master accurate, comprehensive and useful information at any time. These are inseparable from the initiative of the secretary. The practice of secretarial work has repeatedly proved that the secretarial staff of any unit are proactive, and the secretarial work function of any unit will be well played, praised by leaders and trusted by organs; On the other hand, if the secretarial staff of any unit is passive and tired, the secretarial work of any unit will not be effectively brought into play and the needs of leadership work will not be met. "Only when you do something can you have a place", this sentence tells the true meaning of secretarial work. According to Marxism, the most fundamental feature that distinguishes people from other animals is their subjective initiative. Humans not only actively understand the world, but also actively transform it. As the main body of secretarial work, only by giving full play to subjective initiative can people adapt to the auxiliary needs of leadership work and have an important impact. For example, the secretary selects important information from complicated information, which often becomes an important basis for leadership decision-making; The secretary collects and analyzes the feedback information in time, which can help the leader correct the work deviation; After the leader makes a decision, the secretary puts forward an implementation plan, which is issued after the leader approves it, and the whole organ begins to act. From this point of view, the secretary's action is often the beginning of a series of actions of the organ, so it is active.

To sum up, secretarial work has both a passive side and a more active side, which is the dialectical unity of passivity and initiative. A secretary must correctly understand and handle the relationship between passivity and initiative. It is a one-sided understanding to see only the passivity of secretarial work and not the initiative of secretarial work. This misunderstanding will inevitably lead the secretaries to put themselves in a passive position and be satisfied with what the leaders ask them to do and do whatever they encounter in their work. Without any initiative, they can't do secretarial work well. On the other hand, if the passivity of secretarial work is not recognized and the initiative of secretarial work is infinitely exaggerated, secretarial staff may get rid of their auxiliary position and the control of leadership intention, resulting in ultra vires behavior, which will also lead to the failure of secretarial work. The correct way is that the secretary should not only carry out the leadership intention and instructions to the letter, but also give full play to the subjective initiative, creatively carry out the leadership intention, strive to turn passivity into initiative and constantly create a new situation in secretarial work. Only in this way can we meet the auxiliary needs of leadership work. In the contradiction between passivity and initiative, initiative is the dominant aspect and the key factor to determine the success or failure of secretarial work. Therefore, secretaries must give full play to their initiative.

Fifth, the unity of regularity and surprise.

Secretarial work includes both routine work and temporary assault work, which forms the unity of opposites between routine work and assault work.

The so-called routine work includes frequently repeated work, such as writing, handling affairs, holding meetings, handling letters, receiving visitors, etc. ; It also includes phased work, such as the plan at the beginning of the year, the summary at the end of half a year, and the arrangement of major holiday leadership activities. Daily work is often foreseen in advance, planned and carried out on this basis, and the division of labor within the secretariat is clear. As long as the secretaries perform their duties and act according to the rules, they can ensure the normal operation of the organs. The daily work of the secretary is conducive to improving the overall work efficiency of the leading organs and making the whole organs operate effectively like machines. The secretariat should pay attention to the continuity of daily work, make proper arrangements and report to the leaders regularly. In daily work, we should also pay attention to summing up experience, accumulating data and exploring characteristics and laws. In particular, we should be sensitive to new things, be good at discovering new situations, studying new problems and proposing new methods from routine work, and avoid sticking to the old ways and standing still.

The so-called surprise work, on the one hand, refers to the sudden and unexpected events that need to be handled by the secretary, such as major disasters, social conditions, major accidents and other events, which must be dealt with in a timely manner; On the other hand, it also means that the secretary temporarily completes a surprise mission, such as being temporarily ordered to investigate an event, preparing materials for a temporary meeting, and providing relevant information for the superior inspectors who suddenly arrive. All this, the secretary must be done in accordance with the requirements of the leadership, can not be delayed. Dealing with major emergencies requires secretarial staff to be brave and resourceful, both quick and agile, and calm; To complete this surprise mission, the secretarial staff are required to have excellent quality, hard-working spirit, tenacious style and quick timeliness. In short, doing a good job of surprise is a comprehensive test of the secretary's quality and ability.

In secretarial work, regularity is its dominant aspect, while surprise is in a secondary subordinate position. The two are interrelated and influence each other. It is not easy for secretarial workers to deal with routine work continuously and cope with sudden and complicated situations. In fact, routine work and assault work are intrinsically related. Whether the secretarial staff is experienced and comfortable in handling daily work; Know the background materials of all kinds of problems like the palm of your hand; I have communicated with various channels and am ready to deal with emergencies at any time. The secretary completes the routine work, pays attention to summing up experience, accumulating information and strengthening prediction, which creates conditions for completing the assault work; Completing the surprise work can effectively exercise and improve the secretary's working ability, which is more helpful for routine work. This is the dialectical unity of regularity and surprise in secretarial work.