The Secretary

There is a saying that goes, if you want to know what is going on in an office, ask the secretary.  Of course, for the few past decades, such positions are often referred to as Administrative Assistants, or some similar term. A secretary is often an unsung hero in an office situation. They keep the boss, and others, on track, and often have to find information or documents deeply buried in files, which may now be electronic. In the electronic environment of today, they may be the most tech savvy individuals in an office, save perhaps, just perhaps, those in the IT department. Confidential administrative assistants know as much, if not more, than their supervisor. My wife, has taken on the roll of secretary, albeit maybe reluctantly, in our household. To say that she likes the roll, would be an overstatement.

My wife pays the bills, makes lists of what needs to be done, kept the kids and me in line and on time, and makes more lists. She generally keeps her many to-do lists of what we need for groceries or other supplies. Not to mention her lists of what are in the freezer. She needs a list of her lists, or perhaps a spreadsheet to let her know where all her lists are located.  I doubt I could find someone who likes lists more than she does. Her favorite saying to our two boys, when they needed something for school, sports or whatever, was "Who do you think I am, your secretary?" I would be at work early some morning, and would receive a call, about the most recent fire drill, like something one of them needed for school that day and forgot to mention. There used to be a running joke between her and one of my employees, that my wife kept in me in line while home, and the employee did the same while I was at work. It is not as if I am accident prone.

Regardless, of all of her lists and acumen with numbers, and the like she has happened upon a situation that now taxed all her secretarial skills.  As she will soon turn 65 she has signed up for medicare, and has taken on a supplement plan and drug coverage plan. All of the paper work has now arrived and she finds herself having to take care of all of the paper work, not to mention having to go to the bank web site, the provider sites, or whatever, to allow for the required payments. Websites certainly don't make it easy.  She needed chat assistance as to how to set up a direct payment for one account. I am not sure, but I think IT people go to school on how not to set up a website to make something easy. Why it takes so much work to set up something to pay someone is hard to fathom. It is almost like they want you to do it the old fashioned way. By check. For example, to pay vehicle registration online one has to pay a surcharge.  There is not a surcharge for sending it in via US mail, so that is the way I prefer to work the payment. In any event, the wife was getting rather frustrated, and, I believe, her patience was challenged. I suggested that the secretary needs a secretary.  I don't recall any smart a@# comeback, which shows how engaged she was in her secretarial work on these items.

As she was struggling through the paperwork, she said that when I turn 65 she will make sure I do it all myself.  However, she has made it easier for me since we have now gone through the studies of the different plans and the options they provide.  It pays to marry someone older than you. She once made me pay all the bills for a month or two by our online method, so I will know how to do it.  Of course, the bank has merged with other banks, and as a result changed its name and then its electronic systems since I last did this, so now everything is probably different. As she reads this she will come to think it is time for me to be retrained. 

The oddities and challenges posed by medicare and its multiple varied parts, the hunt for advantage or supplemental plans (and hoping you make the right choice), and setting up online payments all pose challenges to a near 65 year old. I am not sure, but I think there is some irony that these challenges hit a person at retirement when they are trying to take things easy, and not get stressed. Hence, why my secretary needed a secretary.  They may have been able to help navigate the varied web sites. For secretaries are often quite good at putting out fires, as my wife did with the kids. Of course, sometimes they like to put fuel onto the fire. If she, the household secretary found this disagreeable, I wonder how I will handle the paperwork and payments.