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Show I Dignity and Its Place I in the Business Off See I Lack of dignity in an office may seem a. small matter to the uninitiated, hut there is nothing that can bo completely demoralize demoral-ize the working personnel of a firm as I laxity In manner and freedom of speech I Perhaps tho. girl who Is fond of speaking or herself as an Independent person will at once conclude that In giving up the Inalienable In-alienable right of talking when and where and how she chooses she Is relinquishing a privilege dear to her heart. But women who enter business, and par tlcularly when they are very young In the t Suslness world, have a very wrong Impression Impres-sion of Just what constitutes their "rights." as a general thing. It must be remembered that there Is no such thing as individual rights, no matter how j much wo may like to believe it The individual who thinka that the "world owes him a living" and proceeds io get that living along the easiest possible line will find that the world docs not consider that It owes anything at all to the One Person, but that it is the TVopio as a Whole that are to bo considered. Disrupting Gossip. ' The rules that govern In the big world 1 are the same rules that must govern In business. Take, for instance, the young woman who talks In and out of season In the office. It goes without saying that ?he cannot pOMlbly do her part for the L firm; more than this, she has to have sometblDg to talk about, and nine times out of ten she chooses as her subject the other members of tho office force. Gossip has no place In an office but 1f one must gossip if la much better to talk-about talk-about clothes and fashions and frills of any kind than to take for one's subject either one's associates In business or one's employers It is not only lacklnr In dignity to talk over the personnel of the firm with which ono Is associated, but It Is nmft disloyal. All employes' have special working hour? I and are paid according to the hours, as well as the kind of work they perform TS hat right then ha? any girl to take the time which she Is paid for to do the work of the firm to talk over that firm's fault ; There is alwas room for the dissatisfied dissatis-fied employe somewhere else, and when vou reach the point where you musl be constantly taking your employer to task I behind his back, where ou -must always be criticising those with whom you work. w here you feel that you are always get-1 ting the worst of things, be very sure that you do not belong where you are, but nud very much better step out and give some one else the place which you occupy Men who build up a new business do so step by step. Just as any building Is erected, every person In the business edifice edi-fice represents a btone for the structure and those which ore worthless should get out and be replaced by others which are good enough to place that business on a firm basis and to keep It strong and true. There Is nothing that can go further toward disrupting an organization than can the girl employe who sets out to have a good time during the bouts paid for by her employer She Is tardy at work, tardy In her duties, spending as little time on them as possible, getting by In the easiest possible pos-sible way and camouflaging everything and anything that comes her way. Thl?i type of girl looks upon her work as of secondary Importance. She will tell you very frankly that she Is not going to work herself to death for anybody, hut she is always one of the first to appear at the cashier's desk on pay day, and she Is al-ways al-ways wondering why she never gets a raise. If you should tell her that lack of dignity dig-nity in the office was one of the main reasons she would probabl tell you thnt you were ridiculous and that no one paid a salary for office manners. But there she j Is very much mistaken for that Is just what men do pay salaries for. The girl I who Is dignified In an office may be so' through policy, she may be frivolous ai heart, she may be very light headed and light hearted, or she may be a gloomy sort of young person In her Innermost soul, hut the office Is not particularly Interested in her secret soul. In fact, the less we I show our souls to our fellow employe.! the fewer heart secrets we divulge In business busi-ness hours, the better off we and there associated with us will be. $, - An Employer's Time. -. What your emplover pays vou for Is for jour service in working hours, and ho expects ex-pects Just the very he.t service that you can possibly render him He docs not employ em-ploy you to furnish the office with cither tho latest fashions or the latest gossip, and he most assuredly does not Intend that ;n'i should spend the time for wM-h I be is paying vou In criticising him. his , methods or his workers. I ine person In an office who lacks in dignity, who Is given over to goEsdp. or who Is a meddler, can entlrelv disrupt a business Do not be that dlsorganizer If vou cannot be constrictive, if you cannot! help. If you cannot do your full part, then get out and let some one else do It. But do not steal your employer's time to tear down the business which he Is try- I Ing to build up. |
