The 1950s and 60s brought many new things to American offices, including the Xerox machine  , word processing and -- perhaps less famously -- the first National Secretaries Day, in 1952. Secretaries of that era expected a bright future, and many saw their job as a ticket to a better life.    But nearly 60 years later, on the date now promoted as Administrative Professionals Day, we 're living through the end of a recession   in which around two million secretaries lost their jobs after bosses discovered they could handle their calendars and travel arrangements online, and found their assistants unnecessary. Clearly, technological advances haven't made things turn out quite the way those mid-century futurists imagined. 'New technologies did make the lives of 20th-century secretaries easier. But even from the start, the relationship between secretaries and technology was fraught. As early as 1966, with the introduction of the first computerized word-processing system, secretaries were worrying that  machines could, replace them. Coffee has long been a flash point for emotions about the differences between service and servility  in offices . In the 1970s, when the second wave of feminism   began to change the traditional relationship of male boss and female secretary , more than one secretary was fired for refusing to make , fetch or serve coffee .In Los Angeles, in 1973, one secretary , Leona Pendleton, was fired for being "unqualified , and failing to obey instructions " after refusing to make coffee . This sort of thing still happens today . It's interesting to note that strengthening their positions as being important indicators of social status has often been one way secretaries have tried to keep themselves from being dismissed.. After all these years , a human being still needs to plug in Mr. Coffee and deliver his output . But that won't save an assistant's job from the stomach of computerization . Secretaries can only hope that bosses won't take the human in question for granted , a sign that not everyone will be celebrating this Administrative Professionals Day. Why were so many secretaries fired during this recession? ?     ,
Many companies were closed down.              ? Bosses have become less dependent on assistance. Secretaries no longer make coffee for their bosses. The social distance between secretaries and bosses has changed.