History of Virtual Assistants

squarefishinc.com/history-of-virtual-assistants

sfi February 19, 2019

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The Internet has changed the way we live and work tremendously. Online jobs are
experiencing a boom nowadays as Internet coverage and smartphone usage keeps
increasing globally, by the second. Technology has become so powerful that even our
concept of work has changed. More and more professionals are opting for a flexible, work
from home job that allows them to seamlessly connect their work and personal lives, a
feat difficult to attain with an eight to five office job.

Globalization’s impact in the business landscape has paved the way for business
outsourcing as a strategy to streamline operations and cut costs.  Office processes that
usually demanded face-to-face interaction can now simply be outsourced remotely to a
professional on a computer. Business outsourcing has become a norm and this has
reshaped not only jobs but also whole industries.

For instance, the virtual assistant industry has now replaced what has been described by
The Financial Times as the dying secretarial services industry. Increasing automation and
the drive to cut costs have led to the decline of the need for secretarial services. Now,
companies can hire a virtual assistant from anywhere in the world by the hour doing
beyond the tasks of the traditional secretary or executive assistant.

Beginnings: The secretary and the typewriter

Today, the virtual assistant industry stands as one of the most sought after and lucrative
jobs that promises companies returns on investment and VA’s high pay and a work-life
balance.

How did this exactly happen? The ascent of virtual assistants, or VA’s, did not happen
overnight, but during a long and complex transition beginning in the 1940s. The
secretarial services industry birthed what we now know as the virtual assistant industry.

Sir Isaac Pitman’s invention of the shorthand method led to the creation of secretarial
services as a viable profession. Pitman founded the first school for secretarial services,
admitting only men, at a time when religious conservatism still forbade women in the
workplaces. It was technology that eventually paved the path for women’s entry in the
secretarial services – with the invention of the typewriter. An unprecedented number of
women went on to occupy office jobs in the late 1880s and performed secretarial work for
companies and professionals on a “one boss, one secretary” arrangement.  By the 1930s,
men practically vanished from the industry, which was now predominated by women.
From then on, a secretary job became associated with a female.

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Typewriters had a significant role in the birth of virtual assistance.

Pexels photo by Rawpixel.com

During the 1970s, the typewriter soon evolved into the earliest word-processing systems
that made secretarial work vastly efficient. With features such as dictation and typing,
technology helped streamline secretarial services, allowing secretaries to work for more
than one boss and perform various tasks. As industries expanded, secretaries started to
build their own guilds to promote their shared interests. In 1942, the National Secretaries
Association (NSA) was founded as an organization seeking to professionalize the field in
the US. Later on, professionalization happened with the development of the Certified
Professional Secretaries (CPS) Examination. This exam tests knowledge, skills, and
aptitude in three areas  – office technology, office systems administration, and office
management. Until now, people looking to advance in their career as administrative
professionals can benefit from rating high in the CPS.

The move towards professionalizing the secretarial field was cemented in 1952 when
“Secretaries Day” was created, later to be renamed “Administrative Professionals Week”
in 2000. This special day recognizes all variants and job titles of people doing
administrative tasks for a living.

Thirty years after, the NSA was renamed Professional Secretaries International and six
years after that, to International Association of Administrative Professionals to avoid the
sexist stereotyping that became associated with word “secretary.”

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Secretarial going “virtual”

Technology refashioned traditional work to break time and distance barriers. When
exactly the secretarial services industry give rise to “virtual” assistance is not definitive.
But what’s certain is that technology made it possible.

The telephone and fax machine helped bridge people and workplaces thousands of miles
apart. During the 1980s, administrative assistance began being delivered remotely. Then,
in 1994, the Internet became a popular medium for businesses to make transactions from
long distances.

At least two stories surface on the birth of virtual assistance. The less popular version is
attributed to Anastasia “Stacy” Brice and life coach Thomas Leonard who, in a casual
phone conversation, blurted the phrase “virtual assistance” in 1996. This phrase soon
came to define what Stacy did for a living then, as a full time work-at-home secretary for
an international client. She provided several services over the Internet – administrative
support, personal assistance, and travel planning. She called herself a “virtual assistant”
and the term caught on and eventually gave reference to an exciting and emerging
profession. In February 1997, the virtual assistant industry was professionalized under the
organization AssistU.

The more popular version recognizes Christine Durst, who wrote the book “The 2 Second
Commute” as the founder of the virtual assistant industry in 1995. Durst called the
thriving profession as a “revolutionary way of working from home” and encouraged
professionals to maximize the Internet to pursue their life passions and authentic sense of
independence while earning.

To Durst, virtual assistants, “home-based administrative workers”, “work-at-home

secretaries,” or whatever titles they are called with, were people drawn to the job for
various reasons. First, the global economic crisis hit traditional employment and erased
several jobs. As companies closed their offices, small businesses grew and found the Holy
Grail of staffing on the Internet. Businesses can hire by the hour with the same or better
efficiency than hiring in house without the added costs of hiring an employee. Second,
hardworking people who because of circumstances (ill relatives, family, illness, lack of
promising jobs) find it difficult to get traditional jobs find space on the online job market
as virtual assistants. Third, and perhaps most importantly, there is freedom that goes with
being in a flexible job and this attracts those who seek to be liberated from the control of
the “eight to five” life.

Durst was herself a work from home administrative manager for several global
businesses. In 1999, she collaborated with Michael Haaren to establish Staffcentrix and
the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVSA). The IVSA is a professional
organization of virtual assistants and all work from home professionals in 16 countries at
present. The International Virtual Assistants Association was founded to professionalize
and create standards and codes of responsibility for those who provide work from home
administrative services.

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Virtual assistants in demand

It cannot be denied that professional virtual assistants are in high demand these days. As
small businesses and startups look towards scaling, they are realizing the huge amount of
returns that hiring virtual assistants pose. Among the many benefits that businesses can
gain from hiring virtual assistants include:

Taking stock of valuable time to grow your business and do what you love;
Getting rid of long-term contracts;
Having access to a steady stream of competent professionals;
Being able to choose the option of scaling up or down;
Trimming costs from insurance and others.
Cost-effective.

Virtual assistance has long matured from when it was first birthed by the secretarial
profession. It has grown and continues to professionalize its ranks. As globalization
continues to tear down flat organizational structures, the lookout for business outsourcing
prospects will remain high. This explains why online jobs and virtual assistance as a
profession will continue to boom like the ones offered by SquareFish Inc.

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