TYPISTS AND TEA.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1924, Page 4

TYPISTS AND TEA.

EMPLOY ERS’ DISAPPR OVA L.

AUCKLAND. July 21

Information that the directors of a large city establishment are about to meet to discuss the question of tea drinking by the staff during office hours Jed to an inquiry, on tile subject. It soon became apparent that the mere mention of tea sessions in office hours was liable to make some employers rather hot. “Tea!’’ exclaimed one man. “The tea habit is turning this establishment into a kind of club for women and girls. It started during one cold winter, it continued during the summer, it was established right through the next winter and now it is an institution as sacred ns the shearers’ ‘smoko'. There is no holding business Women when once the concession lias started. It grows like a snowball and it is just as difficult to stop. The reason is quite obvious. A man can’t talk to women like a Dutch uncle. Eor instance, if a tearful little girl wandered red-eyed through the establishment most of the men and some of the girls would think the boss has been n brute and so he would he' hurt in that way. Employers of women are tinder strong discipline as a rule.’’ “How much time is wasted? About an hour a <ui\ I should say if you count the time spent fiddling with hair, in powdering lines and |iiaiiicii,i;ing linger nails. I’m no taskmaster, but 1 find that the easier conditions are made for girl clerks the slacker they become. If we do act take care they will he establishing a lontinuous Jmffet*. at least they will have the kettle boiling all the time and inviting their friends to call and have a cup of ten. “Yes.” said a woman clerk, when told that tea drinking was regarded its an agent of inefficiency in business, •‘it is the kind of generalisation Hint the birds of ireation usually indulge in when faced with a particular case. It is tlie kind of liiaile that marks the inferiority of male mentality.“ Her attitude made her rather cold, lofty and distant. Apparently she was versed in tin*, literature of modern feminism. (.Tuning suddenly in earth she demanded to lie informed if the male portion of the cemmeri ial community did not drink tea in office hours. “The men in my office, including the manager, have morning lea and afternoon tea and the girls make it for them,” she said. “J.ots of hoys [ know go regularly to the tearoom in the forenoon. They make excuses to go out, hut everyone knows they hate gone for tea. If they went to an hotel their employe.,s would stop ii immediately, and the fact that they wink rt excuses for having ten is proof that they believe a little break and jcIresliment is in the interests of efficiency. tj.cry experienced typist knows she can get through far more work if she has a break in the forenoon and the afternoon.” Ail interesting piece of information gathered in the rouise of the inquiry was that in every hotel tea is brought to the barmaids and barmen, belli in the forenoon and in the afternoon, j The lady who assured her customers that the prevalence of tea drinking is , evidence of racial decadence, and the ! liarnrni who maintain that England ■ was built on beer and that Scotland owes its pre-eminence to the regular and general consumption of whisky te. quiro tea io sustain them between meals.

A gentleman v.ho hails from mnth of Tweed asserted that if folk nowadays ate a substantial In e.ikfi'sl, including a large plate of ) orridge. they would not feel famished and in need of nouri: hiuent in the forenoon. The trouble to his mind is that girls and hoys all •st :v iii lied to tlie last minute having usually liron up too late, and then bur. riedlv cat* a piece of toast and drink a cup of lea.” It was suggested to him that an adequate breakfast would not hoop ouo who va • ougagod in a sodontary occupation warm tlnoiighoiit the whole of a cold forenoon, lie retoited that there wore oilier means of keeping warm, lint as tar as ho could judge girls in cilices did m l uso these means even though Now Zealand was a woolgrowing country.