Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/293

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

they are simply making a superficial showing, and they are not working, not putting heart and soul into their work.

Be not deceived by their methods. Be sincere. Do your work so that each night as you pass the timekeeper or the cage in which sits the ule you can say in your heart: "To-day I have earned all that Mr. Blank pays me—and more."

These words are a satisfying chant, but if you simply make a pretense at working, there will be no song on your lips; rather a shaky feeling in your knees and a sinking in your heart not pleasant to feel. Whenever a girl tells me that she has an "easy" position, I mark her for a girl doomed for early dismissal. It is never really easy to earn your salary and incidentally work toward promotion.

Perhaps you do not understand just what I mean by sincerity in work, so let me give youa few concrete examples.

When you were in school you had to make a certain average in order to secure promotion. If you were not sincere in your work, when taking an examination you carefully selected the questions you could answer, and, once sure of making the average, you did not worry about the ones you had to leave unanswered.

Now that you are going into business, you think that here you can employ the same meth-