TRIALS OF TYPISTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 14

TRIALS OF TYPISTS.

UNPOPULAR EMPLOYEES. The sudden glare of limelight that has beaten pitilessly upon the typiste and lier fellow office-workers during the past week has revealed in stark relief her every virtue and failing. She has been criticised from head to heel; not even her finger-nails have escaped inspection, while her hopes and habits and aspirations have been the subject of public argument, criticism, and censure from every class of male worker, from office boy to manager. The question naturally presents itself, to any fair-minded person: What about the other side of the picture? What do typistes really think of their employers and why do girls leave their jobs?

These questions were put (says the Auckland Herald) to a number of typistes, ex-typistes, and others with long and varied experience of office work and employers, and the views expressed in - some instances were not merely illuminating—they were piquant revelations.

“Why did I leave my first job?” repeated a young woman of prepossessing looks and considerable experience. “Well, I was just a ‘flapper’ then, and when the man I worked for became very interested in my soul, I thought it very kind of him. But when he started every morning asking me where I had been the evening before, it became very awkward, as he did not approve of dancing or the theatre. Then he began to ask me to go to prayer meetings with him, and I said I did not think my mother would like me to go. I suppose lie was really anxious about me, for after that I was constantly finding little notes of''a semireligious character in all kinds of unexpected places, under my typewriter, tucked into my notebook, and pinned to my coat. “I began to give way under the strain, and when one day he suddenly asked me to marry him, I thought I’d better go, and I went. I have had many different ‘bosses’ since. then, and on the whole, I prefer the men who swear to those who pray in office hours, at any rate—you know where you are with them! • The average, man does neither; lie is usually considerate and likeable; but I know of , a number of employers who take it, out on their typistes when the baby has kept them up all night, or the toast has been burnt at breakfast.”

Another typiste confessed she had left her first job because it was too much for her. “He paid me fifteen shillings a week, because I was only just out of the business college and had to be trained,” she said. “The first thing he tried to train me in was to sweep out the office of a morning, but he failed in that. Then he used to send me out to N shop for his wife. He would bring down a list of things every day or two, and bits of silk and stuff to match, and say, ‘Oh, I expect you’ll be looking in at So-and-So’s during lunch hour. Would you mind just seeing if you can get one or two odds and ends for Mrs. Blank?’

“Then lie used to grumble if his letters were not ready to sign on the tick of five, and expected me to stay and finish them. When he took to bringing in a two-year-old baby for me to amuse while his wife went visiting, I , asked for an increase in salary, as I had not agreed to be a nursemaid, too, and he was so unpleasant about it that I thought I had better go and finish my training somewhere else. Oh, and I didn’t mention collecting debts! That was very unpleasant work, and I don’t think any girl should be asked to do it. Anyway, .1 did it so badly that he left off sending me after a while, I dare say he was aii exception, but it is these ‘exceptional’ employers that make things very hard for girls who have to earn their living. Yon cannot pick and choose your employers like they can their typistes.” One of. the points to which strong exception was taken by several stenographers was the unfair attitude adopted by some employers in the matter of hours. “In our office, we have to sign a hook if we are more than five minutes late,” said one girl. “But there is no corresponding book for us to sign when we stay till six or seven o’clock in the evening. I have known men who are downright rude to their typistes if the train is late or the tramear happens to break down in the morning, but they think nothing of dashing in and dictating a whole sheaf of letters a t a quarter to five in the evening. Of course, one cannot expect always to get away punctually, and no good typiste objectg. to working late at times, but when you know for a fact that your “chief” has been up the street discussing the football match with, his cronies, or talcing his lady friends out to afternoon tea, you have not the willing heart that makes work a joy.”

“I like my ‘boss’ very much indeed,” acknowledged another stenographer. “He has only one failing. He is too generous. He belongs to one of those societies that are always doing someone a good turn. Whenever there is a big forward movement, he throws himself into it heart and sou] and says to the organiser, ‘yes, give that circular to me and I will get my typiste to run off a few hundred conies.’ I must have run off thousands in my time ... my own time, .that is, for all that helpful work has to be done in adidtion to ordinary office routine. .It would have cost him pounds and pounds if he had had it done in the ordinary way.” Seveial interesting reasons were given by other girls of varying ages and temperaments as to whv they had parted company with their 'employers, voluntarily or involuntarily. “He tried to kiss me,” said one with a shudder, “and lie had a., beard as well as a moustache. No woman on earth could be expected to stand that!” Another stated that her employer’s son had become embarrassing in his attentions ; he hadn’t meant anything, she explained, but she had heard ’from other girls that paying court to fa-thei s steno.” had always been one of his little foibles.

‘He expected me to listen to all his symptoms, and take an interest in his aches and pains,” said vet another you no; woman of a practical turn of mind. “Many a time when I’ve been rushing off a mail, he has stopped suddenly in the middle of dictation to tell me how just such a twinge or spasm took him in the night, and how his •‘missus” had to get up and rub him.” He .always referred to me as his ‘typewriter.’ and treated me like one," was the burden of vet another girl’s complaint. “I would not have minded that so much, though, if he hadn’t expected me to be a gramophone too. He would give me all kinds of messages for callers, that he was out of .town, that he hadn’t received their letters, that he was very busilv engaged, and then shut himself up in his office so as to get out of unwelcome interviews. It was so horrid having to say untrue things over and over again that I left.” “Yes. it was entirely mv emplover’s fault that I left my‘first iob.” “said an ex-typiste reminiscently.' “It was on account of his attentions to the new tvpiste. I found it unset the work of the whole office, so I married him.”