Mundane Musings

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 93, 11 July 1927, Page 5

Mundane Musings

Sacked!

Louise staggered into the room. White as a sheet, she fell into a chair and burst into tears. I thought she had been run over, had developed some incurable disease, or had lost her young man. “What is it,” I breathed frantically. “The end of everything,” she sobbed. Then, to my relief, she added: “I am sacked!” “Sacked!” Well, to me it sounded at that moment one of the nicest words I’d ever heard. I, who had.been dreading some horrible disaster, could have screamed with joy. But I knew how she felt. She had got into a groove, and it hurt badly being yanked out of it. She sat there as though someone had hit her on the head with a bag of bricks. I guessed her heart was thumping as one’s heart does thump when, for instance, one finds in the street that one’s handbag is open and the notes it contained have vanished like the snows of yesteryear. Yet I knew that on second thoughts Louise would see that what had happened was a good day’s work! You see, like so many women who earn their own living, she had got into a habit. She made enoLigh to live on and lived on it, she lacked the initiative to get out and hunt up something better. And then the blow falls. She is sacked. The tragedy dazes her.

She is, in fancy, already sleeping out on the Embankment. Life is over. Whereas in reality it may have only just begun! “SACKED” MEANS “FREEDOM” Now, what I should like every woman who is sacked to ask herself is this: “What was I getting out of life while I held my job?” Was I saving money? Was I having any fun? Was I likely to get on to something better? If the answer is “No,” then her dismissal is about the best thing that lias Come her way. For the word sacked means freedom. it means a new start, it means fresh friends and opportunities. After all, a job is very like a path which one follows through a wood. One hopes it will lead out into the open country and the sunlight, but suppose it does not? Surely it is better to branch off to the right or left .and take a chance than to keep on plodding in an interminable fashion? Every man knows this, but women who work have a habit of attaching themselves to a familiar round, they too often gain a mild affection for their employers, they fear insecurity, and they are lucky if they get a good jolt in time. BETTER TO MOVE THAN TO RUST So do not imagine because you work for Smith and Brown that they are the only firm which will employ you, or that the work you do is all you are capable of achieving. It is better to move than to rust, and it is better to starve than to stagnate. And even if you are sacked you will not starve—something always turns up—and I know this from personal experience. Also, the most fatal thing is to get into a rut—stagnation is death. Thank your stars if you get out in time!

SEWING BEE FOR HOME PAPATOETOE WOMEN AT WORK That the little inmates of the Papatoetoe Orphans’ Home are not forgotten by the outside world was evidenced on Thursday afternoon, when a number of kind-hearted women gathered at St. George’s Kindergarten and spent a very profitable afternoon in sewing for the little ones. Much good work was accomplished, which will greatlj r assist the matron in her arduous task of providing clothing for the children. At the conclusion of the afternoon’s work a dainty afternoon tea was served. Patent-leather shoes or bags which I have become dull and shabby can be ■ brightened if a little turpentine* is I rubbed into them.