Etiquette and the Business Girl

The business girl has every right to expect her boss to treat her politely!

EACH year sees more girls go into the business world, and etiquette therein is entirely different from that of the social world, though there is not, and never will be, any good reason why a woman should not always be treated as a lady wherever she happens to be. But there are certain small courtesies practiced in society that would be out of place in the business office.

The woman employee, the stenographer, the private secretary, the book-keeper, or whatever her position, has a perfect right to expect her employer to treat her politely, and if he is a gentleman he will certainly do so. But she has no right to expect from him the small attentions it would be his duty and pleasure to offer were she acquainted with him socially. The best bred girls, as well as those most successful in business, never try to make the two absolutely dissimilar worlds mingle, but keep their social life entirely for home.

It sometimes happens that a girl makes life-long friends among her business associates, but it is always best to err on the side of caution. Make many acquaintances, but few friends, and let the latter be tried and true. Be pleasant to everyone, but be in no hurry to form intimate friendships; if you do this you may be spared many painful mistakes and many regrets.

If a girl is pretty and attractive, she is sometimes offered attentions by the men in the office. No well-brought-up girl would think for a moment of accepting an invitation to lunch with any man who has always been a stranger to her; she would resent such an invitation as an insult and treat the stranger accordingly. Yet the working girl, if she values her position, cannot resent such attentions very strongly. but she can positively and firmly refuse them.

The girl who enters an office must not expect excuses to be made for her on the ground of her sex. It might al- most be said that she stands on an equal footing with man in the business world, but this is not the truth as yet, though it may be in the future.

Woman is discriminated against all through the industrial world just because she is a woman. She may do as good or better work than a man in the same position, but she cannot yet command the salary he can. But if she keeps on doing her very best and is prompt and energetic and neat in appearance, with a pleasant word and a cheery smile for all comers, she may indeed go a long way.

The Government service in Washington shows just what a woman can do when she is given the opportunity. Some of the highest paid employees of Uncle Sam in the departments there are women. Many of them have held their positions for years, going higher up the ladder year, by year.

And each year the Government is taking more women into its service. They are passing the civil service ex- aminations in all parts of the country, and most always they are women who have had some sort of business training taking the examinations. And in each successful case they have studied the etiquette of business, and they have found it too great a matter to pass by with but a sight acquaintance.– Chico Record, 1913

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