THINGS LEFT UNSAID

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 277, 12 August 1918, Page 6

THINGS LEFT UNSAID

GIHL CLERKS. Since war broke out I have had to rs» place the seven men in ray office with ten women.' My wage 3 bill is higher now ; than it ever was, though the work has not risen to efficiency in the same degree, l'ar from it. And there are one or two things that I would like to tell the girls in my offioe. I would like to' tell them in a friendly way—if that wer9 fssible. But I know it isn't. Befori? had got well begun, I know that the staff would, one and all, put on their hats, powder their faces, and quit. Girls have brought the American habit of quitting to a fine art nowadays. Well, my first query would be, "Why do you object to keeping time?" Only one man in twenty is persistently unpunctualj only one girl in twenty has any idea what punctuality means. With a whole staff wandering in fifteen minutes late every morning, the net loss in. hours is quite substantial. Then when they are in, why not get to work at once? When a male clerk arrives, he says "Good morning," changes into his office coat, and without any further preamble gets into his day's darg. Not so the girls. First, there's the hair to arrange and fluff up, the blouse to pull straight, the complexion to examine and restore with a surreptitious dab of powder. Then, of course, there's the quite essential conversation with Clarice or Emma about last night, the sympathetic inquiry as to whether the morning's post has brought anything from "Him" or whether it's "all off" or not with the new one. Then "Oh, just a minute till I jot down the address of that little dressmaker who makes such duckv blouses for Bs. 6d. each Tours is simply lovely. Where did yew buy tho stuff?" *c, etc.—all of which takes up another quarter of an hour, while tha hooks are still unopened and tho telephone bell rings unheeded. I should like to ask my staff why so many giris take on jobs as efficient typists when they don't know the first thing about English or punctuation. Somo of the letters T'vo had handed to me for signature!! Sense wrong, gram, mar bad, everything muddled up. Tho sooner girls regard the position of stenographer asvin important one, which only an intelligent, well-educated person can fill, the sooner will the worries of dictators of letters cease.

It's funny to watch the different ways in which tin "affaire dn coenr" affects the respective wort of a man and a girl.' When a youth falls in lore it makes him n different fellow. He-takes his job seriously, and is as teen as mustard for advancement, for he knows that unless he worts up and improves his position his chances of marrying his little lady are small. But. let a ptirl nlerk fall in lovei—l speak from experience—her days of utility in an office are numbered. She sits at her desk nibbling her pen, her eyes fixed on space, her thoughts miles ' away. She carries "his" letters inside her blouse, and every spare minute. »'he is jotting down answers. Insteudof her mind being set on finding the niisjiing shilling in the monthly balance, it is obsessed by the mighty problem of whether "he" will ring up as he promised, or if he will ask her, out again on Sunday night. So far as usefulness is concerned, she might as well be on holiday. In fact, whenever I sec symptoms of lovetdekness in any of the stuff, I think it s about time to advertise again. Again, I should like to politely inquire what tho start imagines telephones are installed into offices for. My girls answer the ring of a business firm in a voice full of indignation at. being disturbed. When their own friends get on the wire they waken up to the use and j;he pos-> eibi'lities of tho 'phone, calmly answering 'line engaged".when any urgent ciwtomer dares to butt in. „.,,., I wish I could toll my staff that thfl "boss" isn't a silly old johnny, good only for giving increases of salary and from whom one asks days off. I wish they would learn how fascinating business can become if they put their hearts into it. I should like to ask them to stop using perfume. T want to tell them to stop gossiping during office hours, to study correctness in small details. lam anxious that they should know that plain shirt blouses aro much more' to their employer's mind than fancy affairs of lace and openwork with more or less pink and blue ribhony things below. .1 would like to stick np a notice, powder or lip salve to be used during' office honrs." But T daren't. Thov are too many for me. those girls. After all, it is rather pleasant to have them filling a va!e with fresh flowers every day and putting it in my room, or placing a primrose buttonhole on hit desk of a morning. So 1 meekly submit—and go on reading those .mesmeric articles wliich annear so often in tho paper on "The Snlei'did'Work Our Girls Are Doing."-H.8.M., m the "Weekly Scotsman."