Question of the day

A combination of constant abuse and a non-living wage?

Depends. Are you a lemon when you go to see them?

The church secretaries I've met have been nothing but nice.

I guess you have not met the delightful person who is secretary here.

I would respectfully suggest you avoid generalizations and ad hominems when making sour comments.

Both of our secretaries at our parish are wonderful...as a matter of fact, I am not sure that I have ever run into a sour or grumpy church secretary.

Our parish secretary is generally sunny, sure, she has her days like the rest of us, but her attitude is overall quite good.

I'm pleased to hear there are some nice parish secretaries out there.

I just spoke to one of the sour variety.

I would hope *everyone* understands my question of the day was a generalization. It was simply meant to get the conversation going, and had the desired result: you all get to brag about your wonderful secretaries.

I've met some nice parish secretaries; I've met some sour parish secretaries.

I've met parish secretaries who thought they were doing you a favor just for picking up the phone.

I've known more than one who thought they had to know the intimate details of why you just HAD to talk to the good Father, and some who would say "he's too busy, couldn't you talk to someone else?"

I've known parish secretaries who had priests on a pedestal so high that they were oblivious to what was going on around them. I've known parish secretaries who maintained their sanity in a rectory by being oblivious to what was going on around them.

My parish has nice secretaries who are always willing to help me, and who remember my name. I'm lucky if my pastor does; we've had four of them in the five years I've been there. (There's a lesson there for somebody.)

As to the lesson here, suffice it to say... it takes all kinds.

Perhaps the sour ones were baptized in lemon juice instead of water?

Perhaps our resident canon lawyer can tell us if that would be a valid baptism...

I am not sure about liveable wages cause our sour secretary drives a Lexus....... I dont know...LOL

My church can't afford one...

you all should bop over to Oblique House and read some of what a parish secretary goes through.

Ours are nice!

The secretary here is one of the sweetest, most gentle persons I've ever met... and a dear friend of mine.

My mom used to be a church secretary. She's not sour at all.

I try to be nice. (Unfortunately the 'sour' is something that I push to the back of my mind and then unload it all on the family.) It is a fun job (yeah there are heartbreaking moments - yesterday we had funeral arrangements for a three year old...) and never the same day twice. I don't know about the pay thing......I hadn't worked in so many years that when I took the job any pay looked like a gold mine to me.

And let's remember that some parishes can't afford a secretary, so that job falls to the pastor or volunteers. (I didn't realize that until I called a parish in South Dakota for a baptismal certificate and it took multiple calls just to find the pastor because he had several parishes and did the sacramental records himself. And he was quite cordial. I would think he would have cause to be sour.... Or at least put on a sour voice and an alter personna (sort of like Mrs. Doubtfire) when he didn't feel like dealing with the public.

PS - Thanks for the nod, Alicia!