Courtesy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 14

Courtesy

Sir, Commenting on “Widow’s” question, “Just how ignorant are some business people in this town?” I am surprised that she received even one reply to her many applications for employment. I hope the letter is given to the Canterbury Museum, where it may mark the end of an era in which graciousness virtually died. Unfortunately, ignorance often begins' at managerial level among people who might be expected to set a better example. Many executives have neither the manners nor the imagination to successfully interview prospective employees, let alone write to them. Courtesy, once the first essential, is now largely regarded as a sign of weakness and certainly not encouraged in staff relations. In choosing new staff, employers are often more interested in people who will fit into the existing sterile atmosphere rather than those who might introduce the civility and vitality on which good business depends.—Yours, OUTDATED. AprillB, 1967.