the buzz log

When Secretaries' Day got a tune-up, the name didn't just get longer. The whole observance got stretched out to take up an entire work week: This year, Administrative Professionals Week falls on April 20-24. But, in homage to the one-day occasion that started back in 1952, hump day is also Administrative Professionals Day.

Confusing? Well, that's why you have assistants to explain things to you. Mental Floss observes the event with a perky overview of office life: For instance, cubicles were invented  to give more room to working stiffs, "until Corporate America got hold of the idea." Another cheery note: Office desks may have 400% more bacteria than the public restroom...which seems like an argument for moving the desk to a bathroom stall.

But spouting off gross trivia won't endear you to staffers, who've had to do more with less in this modern economy. They crave tangible appreciation. That's right: Either deliver the fruit basket or there could be, as Divine Caroline puts it, "repercussions." Detroit Free Press gives another compelling reason: The office assistant could end up as the boss, if the Bureau of Labor Statistics trends bear out.

Incidentally, while the word "secretary" had been shunned for its supposedly lesser connotations, people still use the term: "Secretary's day" makes up nearly a third of the searches for the occasion. After all, folks like Robert Gates, Timothy Geithner and Hillary Clinton didn't demand any title tinkering. And really, United States Administrative Professional of State would be a bit clunky on the biz card.

Filed under: Holidays, Work

Back in the good ol' pre-industrial days, working from home wasn't such a bold notion. As the public sphere takes us farther and farther away, our hankering to return to the hearth intensifies. Child care costs, better technology, even higher gas prices have all made the argument—and buzz—for telecommuting even stronger.

The yearning desire to "work from home" ranks in our top 2,500 searches this month. The wanna-be working homebodies hail from coast to coast, with Colorado, Missouri, and Florida leading the job search in the past week. While traditional envelope-stuffing gigs are popular, searches for "home online jobs" such as data entry are much higher, likely due to better home computers and faster Web access.

Women account for more than two-thirds of the nesting searches. Another rapidly growing job query revolves around "work at home moms," aka WAHMs or mompreneurs, and an increasingly popular home-work force.

The buzz for "telecommute," a notion nearly a quarter-century old, isn't as fervent as the desire to work from home. Still, the interest in securing time away from the official office environment has more than quadrupled since last summer.

Not everyone has the discipline to get the job done at home, and people will have to assess whether home is where the productivity is. At least the cure for cabin fever lies in the modern-day labor center: the neighborhood "internet cafe" (+10%).

Filed under: Employment, Work, Jobs, Telecommuting

A good boss determines the success of the company, the happiness of the employees, and the state of the supply cabinet. Fortunately, surveys find most American workers would give a positive review to their higher-ups. The Buzz minions back it up with an 113% surge in searches for "national boss day." Loyal employees wouldn't even trade their boss for someone with more glam. Still, we did check the Buzz in-box and found searchers checking out a few larger-than-life bigwigs, ranging from beleaguered to tyrannical...

Filed under: Work, Boss Day, Bosses