THE GIRL AT WORK IN AN OFFICE
The girl who hopes to succeed in office work should be able to spell
correctly and should have a good general English education. It is true that
some girls have taught themselves to spell correctly after they have
entered business offices; and ambitious, sensible girls, who find that
letters dictated to them contain words the meaning of which they do not
know, study until their vocabularies are greatly enlarged and improved.
But, while they are learning, the employer is not receiving the service
to which he is entitled.
The only practical way for the average girl to enter a business office is
by studying stenography. But to have a really satisfactory school training,
the girl who means to be a stenographer should be ready to pass the
entrance examination into a college or university. Three or four years'
attendance at a high or secondary school is a necessary preparation for
first-class office work. The girl who is a college graduate is not too
well equipped to be a stenographer. Even if a girl is compelled, by the
necessity of earning her living, to begin office work early, still she can,
by determination, courage, and hard work, equip herself with a good
business education. But it is only the exceptional girl who can do this.
The girl who wishes to engage in office work should have three years, if
possible, in a good secondary school, before she enters a business college.
The business college should be chosen carefully, and the girl in training
should attend the classes for nine months or a year. This is the least time
required for satisfactory training. Unfortunately, too many students take
only six months, or even three, at a business school. The result is that
they begin work only partly equipped with training for the office. Many
employers complain that stenographers are incompetent and careless.
One reason for this is that they have not had sufficient training; their
stenography, typewriting, and other instruction have been only half
mastered. Office work would be a better employment for girls if these
half-trained and incompetent workers were not lowering wages, irritating
employers, and limiting the work and responsibility with which girls
would be entrusted if the average stenographer knew her work thoroughly.
The girl who leaves a business college to enter an office should not feel
that there is nothing more to learn. No one can be a thoroughly competent
stenographer until she has been a year at work in an office. The school
teaches her how to handle her working tools. But the real problems of
office work are solved only in the office. There are endless details to
be mastered. Every office has its own rules and customs and its own
methods. It is necessary to learn how to meet people and deal with them.
The girl must study the people with whom she works. She must learn how
her employer likes to have his work done. The best workers keep on
learning year by year.
Many of the qualities which go to make the ideal home-maker belong to the
ideal worker in an office. The business girl will need self-control and
tact. Her manners should be quiet and agreeable. An office is a place for
work; and part of the usefulness of a business girl is in helping to make
it a good place in which to work. She should therefore understand order and
method. She should be tranquil and well poised. She should get her work
done quickly without seeming to be in a hurry. Such a girl is a treasure
in an office.
The business girl should be dressed suitably for her occupation. One of the
first lessons for her to learn is that no employer is likely to believe
that she can do good work if her general appearance is careless or untidy.
Her dress should be quiet and pleasing, and it should not distract her
attention from her work. A workmanlike dress can be very attractive.
Business girls as a rule show taste and judgment in choosing their clothes
and in keeping every detail of their appearance neat, suitable, and
pleasing. Thrift in the matter of dressing and a suitable appearance
are necessary factors in the success of a business girl's work.
The business girl must be trustworthy. She cannot be a success if her
employer is in doubt as to whether she may talk about office business
outside. Her memory should be good. It is a great help to have someone
at hand who can remember a business conversation, where to find documents,
addresses, and other memoranda. The girl will find that it is
unsatisfactory to spend much time in social conversation. If she wishes
to earn and keep the good opinion of her fellow-workers and her employer,
she will attend to work, with only an occasional remark on anything not
connected with office affairs.
The salaries earned by business girls vary greatly. There are girls at
work in offices who are paid as little as five, six, or seven dollars a
week. But these girls are very young, they are badly trained, unable to do
good work of any kind, and they should hardly be called stenographers. They
can address envelopes, do a little typewriting, answer the telephone, and
so on. The well-equipped office girl should realize that she must keep up
the standard of her employment, as one which needs thorough training and
competent, well paid workers, so the work of the girl in business may
remain a highly-respected and desirable occupation.
The supply of first-class office workers is never sufficient to meet the
demand. A common wage for younger competent stenographers who have had
some experience is twelve dollars. Experienced stenographers may get
fifteen, eighteen, twenty, or twenty-five dollars, according to the
positions they occupy, the character of the work, and the responsibility
involved. Girls with managing ability may be promoted to hold important
positions. They may become assistant managers of offices or confidential
clerks or secretaries. Women in these positions receive salaries of from
two to three thousand dollars a year. In an exceptional case a woman who
is a manager may receive four or five thousand. But such positions and
such women workers are rare indeed. Eighteen dollars a week is regarded
as a good salary for a capable stenographer of some years' experience.
The average stenographer receives as a rule two weeks' holidays with
wages. This is an important consideration for it helps to secure her
health and general well-being.
It is often said that a small office offers the best opportunity for a
clever girl to win promotion. She is given work of all kinds to do and can
make herself indispensable to her employer. On the other hand, the work
may be easier in a large office since it is organized on well-established
lines. Salaries, generally speaking, are higher in large offices, but
there are fewer opportunities for promotion.
An unusually competent office girl with some capital may become a public
stenographer. But, in order to succeed, she must have business ability and
should understand clearly what she can afford and what she cannot afford
in office equipment, rent, and so on. The work of a public stenographer is
very exacting. Many stenographers are employed in the service of the
Government. In general, an examination is required for a position in the
civil service. The work and hours are regular and not exacting, and the
pay is good. Many girls, however, find work in a business office more
interesting, and opportunities for promotion are also better.
Some girls who have not the ability to become expert stenographers, may
be exceptionally good typists. Such girls may find employment in typing
letters from phonographs or dictaphones. Work with multigraphs,
adding-machines, or comptometers is required in larger offices. Special
positions may be obtained by girls who are of a mechanical turn or who
have considerable manual dexterity. The girl who devotes herself to
bookkeeping, if she has special ability, may occupy an important business
position.
In whatever capacity she may be employed, the earnest and competent
office-worker will find herself highly valued and well paid for her share
of responsibility in the world of financial and commercial development.