RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29900, 14 August 1962, Page 23

RANDOM REMINDER

TACT

University degrees seem to be incrasingly important requirements of young men wanting to make their way in business. Having a father on the directorate also helps. Manly good looks are an asset, industry is sometimes essential; but of all the virtues needed to make a success in the world of commerce, none is so important as tact. This was a lesson learned by a Christchurch businessman re-

cently, He had a complaint from a customer, or client, and on investigating within his office, he discovered that one of his office girls had forgotten to give him a message, with the result that an important appointment was not kept. But did the man bawl her out in front of a a staff alternately thrilled and shocked by his terse turn of phrase? He did not. He used tact. He asked the girl, quietly, and with no hint in his vojee that anything was amiss, to step into his

office. When she arrived, he courteously showed her to a chair. And when he began the preamble to his address on her forgetfulness, he did nothing to hurt her feelings unduly. He used tACt. He began: “Now, Mba Jones. Supposing you had a date with your boy friend, would you forget to meet him?” “Oh, no, of course not," she said, blue eyes round with horror at the thought. ‘But” she added “I’m frea tonight."