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I've been following this debate...here are my two cents...
The technical writer who received a card should simply say, very politely, to
the person who sent her the card, in private so it is not confrontational,
"Thank you for the card, but you know I am not a secretary." And then explain
the differences. Maybe even explain why it is an issue for her. The card was
probably well-intentioned, and so the correction, while necessary, and it is
necessary (assuming she a) does not want to be used as an extra secretary by
the rest of her company, and there is nothing wrong with being a secretary but
this is not what she gets paid for, and b) wants some respect as a
professional), should be constructive and not nasty.
You do have to correct people when they make mistakes or they will never
learn. But you have to make the correction constructive and
non-confrontational; if you don't, you will be the one who loses in the end.
If you knowingly let ignorance thrive, you are worse than ignorant.
If the tech writer in question is polite about this and still gets grief for
it, this is probably not a place where she wants to be working anyway. I
suspect that the sender will be a little embarrassed, but thankful that the
person did not chew their head off in public.
