male secretary

Another Stereotype Falls: Germany's Best Secretary is a Man

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Female domination of the secretary's role may be coming to an end

When people hear the term "secretary," most will immediately, rightly or wrongly, think of a woman in that role. But Germany's new best secretary has a Y chromosome.

As men are quite often told, women possess far superior organizational skills and are much better at multi-tasking than their male counterparts. Watch a guy trying to change channels while sipping beer at the same time and take the spillage down his shirt as justification enough.

It seems then that a woman would therefore make the ideal "coordinator of affairs" for a high-powered executive of either gender. Where else could those superior organizational and multi-tasking skills be utilized than in the role of personal assistant or secretary?

No one would think a man would be up to the task, right? Answering the phone while checking a schedule and signing for deliveries as invoices skip across the desk? Not a chance. One thing at a time, please.

Mister, not Missus, Schlichtmann

All of which makes the announcement on Thursday that the winner of Germany's best secretary award is none other than Marc-Oliver Schlichtmann -- that's Marc-Oliver…as in "a man" -- quite a surprise.