45 years at ministries – this is how Päivi Lahe’s work as a secretary has changed

She had memorised the address: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ritarikatu 2, second floor. That was the destination of young Miss Päivi Lehtonen on her first day of work in 1972. At the job interview they had asked about her typing speed and customer service skills. Lehtonen, then 21, had fortunately practiced those skills in her previous job answering calls on the switchboard of the gasworks.

“I’d learned to answer the phone with ‘Kaasu Gas’, to be polite and to find out about things I didn’t know. Those days I had no idea how important these skills would end up being throughout my career.”

She had found the job at the Ministry through a friend. That wouldn’t work now, says Päivi Lahe, executive secretary, sitting in her office and thinking about her career.

“Today the application process for all the jobs at the Ministry consists of various stages, and the requirements are high.”

The daunting Bakelite telephone

On her first day as a junior clerk, Päivi Lehtonen sat in an office with another clerk. There was a pile of carbon paper on the table with a thick memo in somebody’s illegible handwriting.

“There was nothing else for it, I just had to put my fingers on the Remington keyboard and start typing. The black Bakelite telephone was also quite daunting at first. Was I really supposed to answer it? Even the receiver alone was really heavy! The words of my superior kept ringing in my head: ‘Just say Political Department, Lehtonen’.”

Many things are different now.

“The other day I was watching people at their computers and was thinking that today even the managers create their own PowerPoint presentations. And it’s been a long time since I typed anyone’s memos, but I do still take photocopies.”

Debits and credits memorised with a pointer

Job initiation was rather brief in the 1970s. Päivi Lahe remembers auditor Eila Hukkinen tapping her on the head with a pointer during the office personnel’s induction course while saying: “Miss Lehtonen, remember these: debits and credits.”

“But I felt at home right away. I’m the sort that adapts easily, and someone who doesn’t seek change. And anyway, life was so wonderfully straightforward those days. Finland was growing and developing. The world was so simple with the east and the west, and the Soviet Union on the other side of the border.”

Over the nearly hundred years of the Ministry’s history, many things have changed in both society and public administration. Management, ways of working, tools and premises are under continuous development.

“But a secretary’s most important skill is still to instinctively know how the boss wants things done. I never made the mistake of thinking I was the boss. That would have been the end for developing matters and getting them done.”

A job well done is invisible

In the 1970s, Päivi Lahe’s position in the hierarchy of the political department in the administration of foreign affairs was clear. She once heard that young secretaries only wanted to work at the Ministry to find a successful husband.

“I managed to find my husband elsewhere. But we were kind of invisible those days. I still think that I’ve done my job well when it’s invisible. This has always suited me.”

When Päivi Lahe reads diplomats’ biographies, she never finds any references to the work done by secretaries.

“That is understandable in this job environment. Diplomats have always had a high status here. It was obvious that we would address them very politely. But I never felt that my work was not appreciated. I simply love my job, and I guess this has been obvious to others.”

A skirt and tights, even in high summer

The dress code was strict in the 1970s. Secretary of the Secretary of State, Leila Warres would advise her colleagues about the dress code, and trouser suits were not accepted, Päivi Lahe says.

“The dress code could be rather uncomfortable. We’d have to wear tights even in summer, and the skirt had to be of a certain length. When trouser suits were finally accepted, I had two suits tailored for myself: one for summer, another for winter.”

When Päivi Lahe happened to glance at the HR guidelines for the dress code for summer temps at the Ministry some fifteen years ago, she had to smile.

“It said that crop tops and jeans were not recommended.”

The Dictaphone revolution

In 1989, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs moved to new premises in Katajanokka, Helsinki. Päivi Lahe was working at the Prime Minister’s office at the time, but in spring 1990 she returned to the Political Department of the Ministry.

“I liked working at the Ritarikatu premises a lot. And I still remember the ladies’ room there. We all had our own lockers for personal things. Somehow that little locker seemed very intimate and important in those solemn surroundings.”

Eventually Päivi Lahe started to feel at home in the new premises as well. But a change that was bigger than the move was the development of information technology.

“I’ll never forget the first email I sent. I did it with an all-in-one computer.”

Looking back today, work must have been quite complicated without email, video calls and Skype. Phone calls to embassies were restricted, telegrams would be sent from the telegram centre and letters would take many days. Typing the endless handwritten memos required detective’s skills. When one of Päivi Lahe’s superior started to use a Dictaphone, it was like a revolution.

“Some things make me realise how long I’ve worked here. Everyone’s talking about paperless offices now, and I’m still reminiscing about the glorious watermark paper we used to have. And those parchment effect papers and envelopes!”

Päivi Lahe has been observing with interest how the Communication department have been working in an activity-based environment. They seem very pleased with the new premises.

“My department will soon have the same environment. Not me, though, as I retire in 2018.”

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