AdminSecret

Seriously, whether we're respected depends on the industry and the person you're dealing with.  I've had some bosses that had the utmost respect not only for my skills but my opinions as well.  They would often ask for me take on situations when making up their mind about things.

And then there are the others.  I had one boss at a small non-profit who invited all the employees to a meeting about the future of the agency...except the assistants and receptionist.  Not only were we not invited, those in the meetings were told not to discuss what was talked about in the meeting, so we didn't even know what was said.  Needless to say, we all left to find other jobs within 3 months.  That was just too much of a slap in the face to be accepted.

Over the years working in an office as an Admin Assist I encountered people that felt that what I did was a low man on the totum pole type job, beneath them.  They felt they were too good to do it and those that did were not prime employees.  Unfortunately that still prevails today by people at various levels of a company.  If those at a higher level were more respectful of the position, then others at levels lower than theres would generally follow because they look up to those in a senior position in the company. 

I disagree that respect has nothing to do with ones profession.  If you do not have respect for people no matter what their profession (president of a company or janitor), you will always have conflict.  It's just plain common courtesy to be respectful of your fellowman.  Thank goodness there are those who know that and do unto others as they would like to be have done to them and rise above that disrespectful person's manner and keeps doing what is good and when conflict is present, it will not conquer the situation, but defuse it. 

Yeah, not being invited is one (crummy) thing, but being explicity kept out of the loop is another. That's horrible!