BUSINESS LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14820, 25 October 1911, Page 10

BUSINESS LIFE.

MISTAKES BUSINESS WOMEN

MAKE.

The complaint that discipline sits nardiy on a woman has some foundation. After all, is it surprising that a whole code of social usage cannot be reversed in an instant in the mind of Miss So-and-So, merely becaiEse she has been put on the salary list? A girl enters the employment of a firm. She has a reasonable guarantee that she will be paid ; none, however, that her manager's mother has taught him manners. Ho may walk into his typist's presence with his hat on his head and a cigar in his mouth. She may think him ignorant or a cad, but that is no excuse for her eyes blazing—" I'd knock that cigar out and that hat off for two pins ! " It is no excuse, that is if she wants to keep her situation and have things to go smoothly. Though if she can afford the luxury of independence it might be beneficial to let him know what she feelsand go. ' . Barring insolence, however, women should not be too . sensitive to the withholding of smaller politenesses. The business standard is not the drawingroom standard. Indeed, when; women are more seasoned to work-a-day conditions it is probable that they . will recognise the greater- protection to themselves which ungrudging conformity to the masculine etiquette confers. la say " sir-" to a man who is officially, though ho may not be socially, superior, is to abjure the deference of sex. It is to adopt the same formality which does not make it degrading for a duke to defer to his schoolmaster, or any subordinate in armies or navies anywhere to his superior officer. Loyalty and intelligence are the blue ribands of the business woman. They are qualities which have their faults. For the good and diligent feminine clerk has a tendency to overwork, not fair to herself, and not always " cricket" as concerns her masculine colleagues. Meals may have to be missed, but her lob must go through. She will put up with snacks when it is sound doctrine to insist on a knife-and-fork dinner. Almost any extra pressure of work is permitted to disorganise her leisure and refreshment. Consequently, the real effort and endurance that occasionally a business crisis demands leaves her hovering on the brink of nervous breakdown. The last lesson, apparently, the business woman will learn is that health is her capital, and that she is part of a whole. Man does not stint himself in food" he is not such a fool." Woman must prize her physique; and she must remember that every unfair condition she agrees to fastens additional burdens on her comradesmen and women.

IDEAS OF ECONOMY. A promising little British company built an addition to its factory, but lacked £1000 to complete it. Instead of borrowing that sum, the directors lefr the addition for half % year until the business made enough to complete it, thereby losing the profit on the additional output that might have been turned out with larger facilities. Economy of management is the highest ideal of the average Briton. It leads the little shopkeeper to save all the old string and wrapping paper. It brings the typical British shareholder to company meetings with his ceaseless demands for retrenchment, no matter what the profits. Just the other day a company with a chain of tearooms in London declared its customary dividend of 25 per cent. The Veport had barely been finished when a shareholder rose to protest against the extravagence of the management He had lately taken the trouble to vsit several of their tearooms, he said, and in his opinion, the public was being given far too much for its money,.