THE BUSINESS GIRL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18468, 3 August 1923, Page 14

THE BUSINESS GIRL.

J\;A r business wom&n of many years standing and with a 'wide.; experience ; of. girl ; clerks, 1 ' has some good if rather plainspoken advice for the" young girl about to enter an office. -._i. ; : 'I: daresay, she says, it has fallen to everyone's lot; to know, as I've done, two girls, both "equally "intelligent; 1 and •: welltrained, start off; on A their: careers—and & t the end of a few years one of them would be holding - a highly-salaried, responsible post, and the other would still :be pounding away at her machine on a salary.of two pounds ten a week. : ; - ' . Why is' it? ' > -,:>,";'/ ■■(:':-"•;-■ J^l'm; not thinking of girls of really exceptional talent? and business capacity. These will find their way up to the. top whatever happens;;.;, But I'm -thinking of ordinarily efficient, bright, well-educated girls who start in the usual way as typists. -... , t - , -. Both Myra and Jessie, two girls I knew, ,were thoroughly feminine people ,under their business venesr. They started work together in the same office. ; The only difference in their methods of working I gradually discovered, was that Jessie left 'her femininity at home. when she ■ went ; into town,; and : Myra—either ::' she didn't or couldn't. : Myra did not flirt, 'in any -sense of the word,' but in everything she undertook she ? :was; personal, and Jessie ;was; purely impersonal, looking at everything from the merely business standpoint. Myra, -who was an expert typist, and one of the quickest shorthand ■• writers "the place, was soon ■ given" an inexperienced girl clerk to work under her. Instantly she took a dislike to the girl, and in a very little -while her work showed signs ;of storm; so to speak; ::V She nagged the little clerk,- and the child, aggrieved, paid 'her;;out in :a : childish way ; by mislaying her notebook and making mistakes in her own typing—for which Myra was respon- . , sible—<md omit/ing to give her telephone messages, and :generally upsetting her; Result,: the girl clerk was put under somebody v who did know how to manage her, and Myra Mtasn't ; considered fit for the responsibility of an assistant.. , - Next thing, she conceived '? an immense admiration for one Of the other seniors and a desire to work under him, and although • she was 'i used las stenograph | by: all the heads of the firm in general, she always contrived to be busy when it wa3 anyone ; else who wanted her. -? In < consequence,, within a year, she had acquired a:general reputation 'for efficiency but :unobligingness with all the other sub-managers., ■ ■ / And, meanwhile, : Jessie, who ; was acting as' secretary to ; a singularly irritable, exacting, and unappreciative ; employer, went quietly on with her. work, receiving neither praise nor blame, but having already built up, without knowing it, a reputation for supreme reliability. ; ;*; ; V ; i . That is, in : my opinion, the great mistake made by so many otherwise clever girls— ; can't leave their - personalities at home. But theie are other ones, which don't come under the obvious heading either. -:.--; ■"'}'■, ;.-'-i ; *A-:;' i ;'--/ '*;:-:•.';■' : ';- : i ; Other girls have " moods"' when they're not disposed to listen ■to reproofs, or to put off their summer holidays 'to a later date, or to work Saturday morning when they ve been promised it off—and though they may give' in, they do it with that sullen air that is most infuriating to an employer. --.- ' -