THE NEW SECRETARY: HOW TO HANDLE PEOPLE AS WELL AS YOU HANDLE PAPER by Dianna Booher (Facts On File, $21.95).

Business consultant Dianna Booher gives step-by-step instructions on becoming the quintessential secretary in her new book. Booher describes--and dissects--a plethora of personality types found in today’s offices. She furnishes solid advice on how to cope with the windbag, clown, pessimist, and others. She’s also deft in dispensing guidelines in technical aspects of the job. For example, how to efficaciously schedule meetings, answer telephones or handle correspondence. The book becomes disappointing in the obsequious tone it takes when the new secretary deals with the boss.

For instance, on the touchy subject of doing personal chores for the boss, she deduces, “. . . it only makes sense that the one making the least money should do the task.” Ipso facto .

Secretarial work ranks as one of the world’s most venerable professions. However, most secretaries today are aware of the increased business opportunities for women, are better educated, and more ambitious. Still Booher paints an image of cooing contentment in the ranks. She claims that in her interviews, “many in the secretarial field are quite happy where they are.”

Any self-respecting secretary could pick up a few tips from this book, but don’t expect anything new. Booher’s new secretary is simply a remake of the old perceptive, well-organized, diplomatic secretary. If you’re looking for a different slant on the role of a secretary, you’d benefit more from a book like Janet Dight’s “Breaking the Secretarial Barrier.”