The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-26
EVENING CHAT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

Letters of a Successful Business Wom-
an to Her Niece.
Dear Niece Joan:
Is it possible that in TWO or three
weeks you will actually be through
with that school and ready to begin
earning that bread and butter in earn
est?
Well. my child. let me give you one
piece of advice as emphatically as 1
possibly can.
Don't be too ready.
OF course, I know you are anxious
to begin using all that newly acquired
knowledge; but a few weeks or a
month or two spent in resting and
taking your time about getting really
good position, isn't going to send you
to the poor farm.
And by the right position, I don't
mean the one where you'll get the
most money Immediately. There are
several things more important than
your initial salary. One of them is
the salary you can get later
There are lots of places where the
business simply can't pay stenogra-
pher over a certain amount know
girl who went to one of these places
| eight years ago at ten dollars a week.
! She was good stenographer and a
very clever business woman. With her
ability she ought to be getting at least
! twenty or twenty-five dollars a week
now; but she's getting just fourteen.
! She has learned a good deal about the
details of the business and is almost
/ invaluable to them, but they can't pay
her more because the money simply
| isn't there. There wasn't a great deal
| of dictation so her stenography has
gotten rusty, and the business details
| learned there wouldn't do her much
| good elsewhere, so I imagine II she
took another position she would hard
| ly get more than ten or twelve dollars.
That's the kind of place to keep out
| of, niece, no matter II the initial sal
! airy is pretty good.
I have two stenOgraphers and one
! clerk working for me now, Joan, so
maybe what I'm going to say next VIII
sound rather queer; but I'm going to
/ say it Just the same. Don't get place
| where YOU have to work for a woman.
/ 7 don't like to go back on my sex.
but honesty compels me to admit that
! women are usually about half as pleas
ant to work for as men. A man boss
never thinks of being jealous, because
| no matter if you do three quarters OF
/ his work he's too conceited to even
/ consider YOU as a rival. but woman
! boss is perpetuall'- afraid you're going
/ to creep up on her, and so she has
| to be perpetually showing her super
/ iority. As you value your peace OF
| mind and your chance of success don't
/ get a position where you have to work
/ for a woman.
Don't take a position without in
I sDecting the material conditions under
" y
/ girl who refused good position with
/ chances for advancemen t, for just one
/ reason-artificial light. I think she
did right. ObIiging anyone to work by
artificial light ought to be forbidden
/ by law, just as making girls stand up
all the time at their work is prohibited
! in some states. But as long as it
! isn't. make that your own law.
/ See what kind of a typewriter you re
/ going to have There's no worse han
dicap than a poor machine.
And last, if you are to work for one
man, pick that man carefully
/ IN some ways, business man and
| stenographer is a closer relation than
! man and wife. 1t can't help but be
| Many business men see their stenog-
raphers eight hours of the day, their
| wives four.
/ Wish I could lend you my experience
for this important performance OF
getting a position. Then again, may
/ be it would make you too cranky and
| critical and you'd get along better
| without it.
Here's hoping anyway.
! But whatever kind of blank OF