WOMEN AT WORK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11784, 23 August 1916, Page 3

WOMEN AT WORK.

AN INVASION OF O BANKS. TRAINING AS TELEGRAPHISTS. IMPRESSIONS FROM EMPLOYERS. [From Ouh Correspondent.] WELLINGTON. August 22. Tho war lias given women the entry into hanks, where they never before had the opportunity of brightening up officialism and its surroundings with tho touches of femininity which they take with thorn wherever they go. Morning tea. and afternoon tea were phenomena strange as Chinese- tokens in the banks, but the teapot has appeared in the counting houses, thanks to t!i<t war, which has done so much to 1 i;p.-ot all former theories. " We don't know about it,'/ remarked a prominent bank official in Wellington who was asked by a representative of the " Lyltelton Times'' if the. advent of women had resulted in the introduction of the morning tea habit. Me smiled in denying, and more than hinted thai so long as the ladies liked to stop work a little while to refresh themselves tluty could do so, "quite unofficially." The post office, which is a much more experienced employer of women, officially recognises tho feminine right to a quarter of an hour morning and afternoon for relaxation, which involves boiling the kettle. OtVrrwi.se there is little change in the staff routine as a result of the introduction of women. The Bank of New Zealand, whjeh took the lend in this matter, regards them as necessary in tiding directly the pnn caused by enlistment. Tho married, men in hanks are mostly of *rt age lrvcnd the nrlitary limits. They remain to hold the positions of eyeeut've ro.sponsibi'ity. THow them cow the grct class of rising htmi. who find thc ; r bo. e t opportunity ro-vrdav= on the Emigre's ba+tleI fields. Tlvu tho'-e ar« f''e iuniors, too ' young to take the polders' places, so ! women co" | ic into tTr>t brca'h. The i Prnk of New Zealand has on'v j trained hockkecp-rvs or shorthand I writers and typist-, nod there has been jno trouble in petting them into tVr i wavs of the office. Pome banks have J taken untried women, and the story I has not one of unnnt'gafocl satis- ! faction. "Women are used in the banks ' for practically all the routine work short of ihe> tcl'ers position. The hanks are shy of phiciuo; women in direct cont"ct with the renoral public. There is a fear, so one of the most experienced staff officers confided pr'vately to the correspondent, that urder stress of business the women wou'd Income "snann\sh." A man in' tho teller's nos ; tion is picked for physical as well as business ability. He. can stand the strain. and. to put it in the staff officer's phrase—" Men are trained to viva civility: the women to expect it." The post ofVro Ins no misgivings. The most trying counter toll in the WelH?->jr-toivGeneral Post at the tclogrnpb counter. Telegrams are put in for all kinds of destinations, and' under a variety of i">tes. A wire might be at " week-end " rates, or carry a concpccion because it relates to a wounded sold'er. Tt may be for Osaka, in Japan. i or for Otaki. close at hand, and the : clerk has to deal smartly \riib_ it, for a awaits. For the first tune sinco the office onpnod. two women have been phioed at this counto", and the Department believes thev will be expert in this trying work in a few months. THE WOMAN'S WORTH. Reduced.to a definite commercial formula, the hanking people assess the relative value of women's work at the p' oportion of three women to two men. This is how tho re-staffing is carried out to fill gaps caused' by enlistments. From the money point of view, the banks are not gaining by the employment of women. There is a higher salary iist for the same amount of work, as a' rule (except in regard to shorthand and typing, where woman holds the palm), and the introduction of the feminine sex into the offices brings fresh problems. Tho Bank of New Zealand ride is that women are not to be employed in an office where the staff is fewer than four. A salary of £3 per week is paid to the best typistc.? in tho baifhs, whilo the trained bookkeepers, to whom the mystery of balancing is as plain as figures should be on a cheque, get £2 10s, with the prospect cf working up to £3_ weekly. In the public service, an agitation on the lines of il equal pay for equal work " is growing in volume, and the ad-ocates of that policy have a good precedent in the post office plan of putling women into the same classification for salary as the men. with one difference, that women cannot rise to as high a maximum salary as the " superior " sex. How far has the weaker sex penetrated the conservative precincts of the New Zealand' banking houses P The Bank of New Zealand now employs about 160 at various large offices. The proportion is relation to males is shown in the distribution: Out of a staff of fifty-five in Wellington twelve arc women: in Dunedin there are eleven women on a staff of fifty-two; in Auckland tweutv out of eiahty: and in Christcliuroh the =ame proportion. The Union Bank in Wellington has eight women on its staff. TELEGRAPHIC TRAINING. A serious dearth of telegraphists has catred the Post, and Telegraph Department to abandon a long-standing objection to women in that capacity, and training schools are now being operated in Wellington. Christchurch and Dvinedin, where 110 girls are picking np the art of tapping out sense in Morse code. They are doing well, but it is expected that training will have to go en for nine months before they become expert enough to be trusted with real work. Then they are to be put on to the branch wires, where work is not too strenuous, and the hours normal. What has previously barred women fro in fir's branch of thr- Department's business has been the fact that the male section, of r. staff has had to hear '.he br-.ii.it of night work, of which •(here is a great deal in the large rifti.-es, handh-ig cable and "''press" work. In Wellington there is only one wi.ro where women can he employed all the year round, but Christ-church has a number of branch wires which can b- operated by the women when the schools can turn them our. well (rained. Auckland can find useful places for them. too. and a telegraph school is to !r- established there in about a month's time. The girls are paid at the rate of £lO per annum while training, and will go on to the ordinary f-cale of salary when efficient. So far. I have dealt with the employment of women in the ordinary course of commercial work. Women, however, have hem more prominent than men in many lines of vohmtary activity associated with the war and this is a subject for a future article. As for 1 h • appearance of feminine fingers at tho bank ledger and bill-book and delicately tapping the Morse telegraphic sounder will it be a permanent feature of our commercial life? Experience in older countries suggests that it will. Al the novelty of the new situation in ths banks will have worn off before the war is over. But there will alvravs remain the one great disability which is, after all, a source of great satisfaction to the community, thctogh troublesome, to employers-—that after doing admirable work for a few years in au office the best woir.cn generally tind that their ready pern.T.r-ent sphere lies in their own h;.:m: - . capably man£vg> ! uyz Uk-!i own d'lmciln' bu;,u;<;£s.