The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational Guidance — John Shaqi
The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational GuidanceWillison, Marjory MacMurchy, Lady
History
The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational Guidance
Willison, Marjory MacMurchy, Lady
Women -- Employment -- Canada; Women -- Vocational guidance -- Canada
The other illustration can be given in a few words, but it teaches a truth
about paid employment which many girls need to learn. One day a woman
called to see an important public man on a matter of business. When she
came he was dictating a letter. He saw his caller as soon as he had
finished. Before the conversation had well begun, his secretary came to
the door and asked him to what address he wished the letter sent. When the
secretary had gone out again, the man looked at his visitor and said
laughing, yet with an expression of annoyance, "I cannot teach my secretary
that it is her work to look up addresses. She is here to save me trouble.
I am not here to save her trouble. But I cannot get her to understand
that." The girl in question was behaving in her work as if she had been a
spoiled child at home. It is to be hoped that she would have been ashamed
to ask her mother, for instance, to tell her an address which she could
look up for herself. Yet this girl was being paid to find addresses as
part of her work.
The girl who is beginning paid employment will have to learn largely from
others how her work ought to be done, but she must learn to depend on her
own observation. Questions must be asked occasionally, but it is unwise to
ask too many. Ask information only from those who are willing to answer.
Everyone in the world of work is busy as a rule, and comparatively few
people will stop their work to explain to someone else how a task ought to
be done. There are two classes of workers--those who require direction
always, and those who are able and willing to take responsibility. The girl
at first begins under direction but, as soon as she is familiar with what
she has to do and understands a good deal of the purpose of her work, she
should try, if possible, to develop responsibility. It is a good plan to
study how other people do their work. There is sure to be someone among
one's fellow-employees who is a specially good worker. Study the methods
and character of this worker and learn from your observation how to do your
own work. The girl in a new position should resolutely avoid association
with lazy, indifferent, and idle fellow-employees. One of the first lessons
for her to learn, and sometimes one of the hardest, is that her time is not
her own. It belongs to her employer, who is paying for her work. Therefore
her own social engagements have no claim on her working hours.
It is apparent that certain qualifications and characteristics ensure
success in paid work--good temper, self-control, common sense, kindness,
and a sense of what is fair are of inestimable value to the girl worker.
Moreover, she must be in earnest in her determination to find work and keep
it. She should have some secondary employment at which she can work if her
regular employment is slack. And through all the changes and difficulties
of her working life, a girl should know how to keep well, for health is a
great asset.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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