Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/298

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

she is a stenographer; never takes the pains to find out why she is asked to do certain things in a certain way if she is employed in a factory.

She gives merely a superficial effect of being tremendously interested in her work. In reality she is thinking of something else. In the end it is the something else, not the work, that wins out.

Loyalty is a splendid business asset. It wins the respect and appreciation of your employer, while disloyalty causes dismissal and loss of self-respect.

It is not always easy to be loyal to your employer, especially if you are an inexperienced girl or woman.

Somehow, in the average man there exists an inborn sense of business honor. He rather prides himself on being silent about the affairs of the man or the firm for whom he works. He can accept reprimands without feeling a mad desire to retaliate by "knocking" his employers the first time their backs are turned.

On the other hand, women must acquire this sense of honor. Some do. Others talk too much, especally when smarting under a rebuke more or less deserved. Without meaning to be disloyal to employers, they steer close to the shoals of petty, dishonorable gossip, not realizing that the employee who is worth good money to her firm is the one who feels that the firm's interests are hers, and who, therefore, is close-mouthed.