Bridge Secretary

[Wesmas]

Okay, I like assisting Captains. I find it incredibly rewarding to do all the odd tasks. But its awkward to do. So, I suggest a new job, called something like the Bridge Secretary or General Secretary. They would need a small office located near the bridge, for doing paperwork. They would be responsible for managing the Captains time. RD wants the captain to check out something, the secretary organises the vist. Captain has a meeting, secretary takes notes. Peoples have messages for captain, secretary takes them. They would exist to screen the captain from all the non important infomation and to help keep them organised.

This would also be a great way for people to get to grips with what a captain does, with less responsiblity.

[Faris]

Sounds like a good idea, I've also tried to be assistants to certain heads of staff or even an assistant to the Warden when it comes to corporate regulation.

[Arrow768]

What prevents you from just asking the HoP / Captain if they need/want a assistant ?

Once you have played enough times as one and performed well in that job, they will ask you to do it if they see you aboard.

[Carver]

What prevents you from just asking the HoP / Captain if they need/want a assistant ?

You underestimate how much people complain about things like these, even though it shouldn't really matter at all. If you can avoid people randomly bitching, it's a great RP opportunity.

[Wesmas]

I have a character who is almost entierly for doing this kinda thing. But a large number of Captains and HoPs dont understand it, so I get told to get a 'real' job. I know it may seem stupidly small, but just adding it in could make this a much smoother process.

[Dreamix]

I have a character who is almost entirely for doing this kinda thing. But a large number of Captains and HoPs don't understand it, so I get told to get a 'real' job. I know it may seem stupidly small, but just adding it in could make this a much smoother process.

And it probably means that a permanent secretary isn't needed or wanted, don't you think?

[The Stryker]

What if we made this a stepping stone for a command role?

Also, do they have a jumpsuit or certain uniform?

[Nikov]

Adjutant or Captain's Adjutant. Someone at the Captain's side to go run a message or take this guy to medbay or get me some coffee or remind me about space law is a real godsend, and lets another character learn different command styles. It also forces the Captain to sit up straight and not dick around, since someone is sure to be watching. Uniform is a suit and tie if not some other jumpsuit. Gear is a secure briefcase, recorder, camera and folders. Role is by in-round appointment only; promoted to from any other role, such as assistant, visitor, or surplus department staff. Access to the bridge and meeting room.

Oh, and so far down the CoC that if the entire command staff is killed the Adjutant is only authorized to fax Centcomm and relay their orders.

We had similar "senior" promotion roles suggested before, and its plainly useful.

[Kaed]

I can't really endorse this idea. Like someone said earlier, captains and HoP are often not terribly interested in having a personal assistant, and it is rare that players ask to be one. The positions can be done just fine without assistants, HoP is already barely a one person job as it is, all you'd be getting is a gopher - and you don't need to promote someone to 'secretary' to get a gopher, just tell a passing assistant to grab you some coffee. You say you have a character designed to be an executive assistant, that's not the responsibility of the design team to give you a special position just to allow you to do this thing you made up that was never a thing before. Secretaries are usually found in big businesses, not research stations manned by less than 40 people. During my trial as a mod, there was a security officer who was 'trained as a mech pilot' and demanded that he get a Durand to justify his backstory. It doesn't work like that, you can't just make a backstory that doesn't fit with the opportunities everyone else gets, and expect everyone to accommodate you.

This thread is 100% the result of salt for the times that the player was given a promotion to an imaginary position with (near) all access by a captain and everyone just rolled their eyes at them, and/or when the captain went to cryo, stopped respecting their promotion and told them to go back to being an assistant. You don't need mechanical support for this kind of thing. Just ask to be a secretary, and enjoy it while people accept the captain's authority on the matter. When that authority expires, find a new job rather than being huffy.

And for the love of all that is holy, don't take it upon yourself to decide you are the new acting captain/HoP because you used to be their secretary.

[Guest]

The issue with this is;

What if a head of staff doesn't want a secretary? As someone who's played HoS/Captain/HoP quite a lot myself I've never really seen a need to have one. Sure you may argue that it "opens role play opportunities" but... so does everything else. To combat that argument, role play opportunities should not be made via mechanical changes, rather from the result of player interaction.

The Head of Personnel (aptly known as Mr/Miss Paper Pusher) deals with all the paperwork side of things. The Head of Personnel usually is rarely ever too busy to help the captain out. The captain can easily delegate duties to the HoP if they were too busy to do so, but a captain should be able to get off their rear to get something to drink or fill in a bit of paperwork. They also have all their heads of staff to advise them if a situation arises. What knowledge would an assistant have that could out-do the knowledge of an already assigned head of staff? Adding a Bridge Secretary is essentially creating a glorified assistant that will quite frankly be in the way more often than not, simply due to the fact that not everyone would be comfortable with having one. If a Head of Staff wants an assistant, they'll look for one. I've done this myself as Head of Security and it's nice... once in a while.

Essentially it's a redundant role that wouldn't really benefit anything or anyone bar the extra meet and greet.

If you want it as a means to learn command roles then do something to stand out to active Head of Staff players and show them you want to learn command roles. A thing I personally used to do and try to ask others to do was see who was applying for a whitelist then have them run alongside me through the round and see how they perform. It's rather useful to see if someone applying for HoS would actually be good for HoS. If I felt they were doing a good job, I'd promote them to acting HoS if I needed to leave the round. In that way they got the experience they needed.

[Owen]

I don't really want this to be a thing, honestly. I like to think that I'm pretty experienced in both being a Captain and Head of Personnel and there are rarely times besides either super chaotic events or sometimes Mercenary where things get so out of control that nothing can be done.

During normal extended shifts or quieter rounds, I feel that if there is a Captain/Head of Personnel, there isn't really a need for an assistant. I personally don't like having assistants and don't have them when I'm in Command. I get it, people like having an assistant which is totally fine as they can promote someone who isn't doing anything to help them. I just feel that if we had that role I would purposely be avoiding Command roles that deal with them just due to my general disliking to having them.

Basically, no to secretary, people who want one can promote an assistant if needed.