I'd love to play music at work, but the one time I did, using headphones to cut out the noisy three-way telephone conversation behind me, it triggered an 'all staff' email about NOT using personal stereos/earphones in the office. no explanation as to why not.

First company - shorthand typist/clerk for a glazing company
Second company - shorthand typist for a bank
Third company - several positions as I worked there for 20 years. Started as shorthand/typist in office services/admin/co secretary department, with cover for MD's secretary. Eventually ended up in IT, as technical support/secretary/trainer. (Thoroughly enjoyed that one, and had a dishy boss  )
Fourth company - team secretary to surveyors for construction company - could do better, but too lazy to find a job which pays more, as I'd have to commute into London, this job is currently only a 10 min drive away.

I am in the fortunate position of having a boss who is happy to give his time. we work in an open plan office, and I sit closer to him than I sit next to my husband. So he can't escape if I want a word. Mind you my previous boss also sat next to me, and you couldn't pin him down at all!!

The most important thing is to watch for the right moment, and keep it short.

To me, job titles are not relevant nor do they reflect the role. For example, I am a team secretary, and I had an administrator/team secretary reporting to me. She replaced an admin assistant.

Now my role includes doing some of the tasks the admin assistant used to do, such as filing and archiving, printing drawings, and the administrator/team secretary has just been given an admin assistant to help her, which makes her a manager.

To add insult to injury I have 30 years experience and am a qualified secretary, whilst the a/ts is 23 and has had no formal training.

We have an EA to the Chairman (I'd call her a Private Secretary)  , but she doesn't handle projects, the Chairman has Executive Associates for that  , nor can she make decisions in the Chairman's absence. No-one can do that, not even the other directors   

Finally, we have Directors Secretaries, who work on a one-to-one basis, one of whom is also a manager (with a team secretary and an admin assistant). But we have an admin assistant who works for a director, because his secretary was made redundant, and a director who has no support at all!

So, all in all the job title probably reflects the attitude of management, the size of the company, rather than the role performed. Ultimately, we are all admin assistants, and all bosses are managers.