'No coffee for you!'
IDF secretaries to get more respect in framework of far-reaching army reforms
TEL AVIV – Army secretaries will soon be able to say to their commanding officers what has been brewing inside them for years: “No coffee for you!”
A study conducted by the army and Bar-Ilan University found that hundreds of secretaries, who are mostly female, said they are humiliated constantly by their commanding officers, who turned them into the “office wives” by making them clean and serve them food for the entire 2-3 years of their service.
Moreover, administrative staff members will soon be able to undertake more challenging work during the 2-3 years of their mandatory army service, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper has learned.
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They said their roles in the IDF were unsatisfying and added that their commanders tended to keep many of them around to boost their own status.
“This is not why we enlisted in the army,” said one secretary, who declined to be named.
Coffee machines to be placed in bases
An army committee proposed several changes that are expected to be implemented later this year, such as cutting the number of secretaries allocated to each officer and training those left in computers. The number of male secretaries will also increase. Currently, 86 percent are women.
“This program brings us to a better place with less secretary jobs for women and more challenging and creative roles for them,” said Brigadier-General Orna Hassid. “(Remaining) secretaries will at least know now that their job makes them respectable and won’t walk around with a feeling of humiliation.”
Soldiers and officers will also be made to clean up their own workspaces. However, the most significant reform is that self-serve coffee machines will soon be placed in army bases.
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