But it is her appearance which counts, not her experience. If the candidate is young and nice looking, undeformed, and there is a job open, she will get it. If she is older and getting fat, all the experience in the world will do her no good. Her looks demote her to the bathmaid class and she will find it hard to get a job as that. So she is casual in giving her experience and she is casually hired. She doesn’t learn much about the wages and hours or about the food and the room she is to have if she is to live in. The girl decides to try it out for herself to see if it is “a good house for tips, how much you can pick up from the floor, what the watches are, how hard they work you, and what the grub and rooms are like.” If she doesn’t make out she’ll leave—it doesn’t much matter. She would do something else if she got half a chance—but she’ll stick to this awhile anyway. * * * * * [Sidenote: Learning the ways of the hotel] During the first few days in the hotel, she is shoved about and utterly lost. Perhaps no one even asks her name for several days. She doesn’t know where her “station” or her “floor” is and how much territory it covers. She doesn’t know where the time clock is, where to get her meal ticket, where meals are served, where the toilets and dressing rooms are, where to get supplies and bed linen. She fumbles about “lost like” until she learns for herself. Sometimes she grows discouraged and leaves in the first few days. Sometimes she finds a friend who shows her around, takes her down to lunch, tells her what the rules are, and introduces her to her friends. There were, of course, a few exceptions. In several cases rules and regulations were posted in linen closets and pantries and occasionally the housekeeper would put a new worker in charge of another girl to learn the rules. All hotels required the new worker to sign a contract stating that she would obey the rules of the establishment and would allow her baggage to be searched. The contracts seemed meaningless in that in most cases the workers had no way of knowing what the rules and regulations of the hotel were. * * * * * [Sidenote: The training of new employees] As for learning her job, “You’re experienced, aren’t you? Well, then, you know what to do,” and the housekeeper dismisses all responsibility. The idea that any woman knows how to do chamber work or cleaning is prevalent in the housekeeping department. The girl is left to work alone, then scolded for her mistakes or even discharged without notice. One worker was turned out at 4 o’clock in the afternoon with no money and another girl put in her bed that night because the housekeeper “didn’t like the way she swept.” In a few exceptional cases the housekeeper taught the new girls by the “you watch me” method.