The Washington herald., 1915-02-06
SUPER-SENSITIVENESS.
BY oRIsoN SWEET MARDEN.


was recently talking with a perplexed
young man about his failure to get on
and he told me that he believed it was
due to his sensitiveness. He said that
his employer was constantly hurting him
so that he could not do his best. He
said his criticism seemed like a rehec-
ton upon his honesty or his ability.
In talking with this young man I
found that he was a type of thousands
of people who fail to get on because they
cannot take their medicine, cannot stand
adverse suggestion. They are sensitive,
quick tempered: they resent the least
implication that they are not doing their
level best or that they are not doing
things that they should do.
This young man has lost several splen-
did positions because he would fly off
the handle when criticised or scOlded and
give his notice to quit l said to him:
Your employer probably knows very
well that you have good material in you,
that you could undoubtedly get on IL you
could stand criticism, if you were not so
thin skinned, so sensitive; but no employer
is going to bother himself very much TO
help an employe to get along when he
sees that he resents every little sugges-
ton and every criticism. that he flies of
the handle every time his employer criti-
cizes him. Listen to him, follow his ad-
vice it in way will call out more. Do not
take it so grudgingly and resentfully as
to shut him up so that he will say TO
himself: 1t is not worth while to bother
with this fellow: there is nothing in him.
He hasn't got the stuff in him to take
his medicine. Let him 60" You must
treat your difficulties as tonics, not as
pOisons.
II you mean business, are determined
to get on i'm the world, YOU want to put
yourself in a receptive attitude for every
bit OF knowledge and all the better meth
DDS better ways of doing things that
you can get hold of. No matter where
they come from, from the office boy or
the boss, il is your business to absorb
knowledge. to gain skill eXpertness.
These are the steps upon which you will
climb into something higher. They may
not prove easy steps but there is no
other way il you are determined to sue
coed
| have in mind a stenOGrapher who is
so sensitive that when her employer
would scOld her and point out to her her
mistakes and blunders she would 80 and
cry until he found that il was no use
to bother with her, that she would never
become an expert stenOgrapher because
she could not take suggestion. criticism.
and nc made up his mind to let her go,
and took another who was not so thin
skinned. This young woman did not take
her difficulty a tonic but as a means
to financial suicide.
IL there is anything in this world an
employer likes and admires il is an en-
plOye who doesn't mind pounding and
scOldinG, II necessary, and who. no mat
ter how sensitive. is yet willing to take
the medicine that will cure his faults
and help him to get on. Such an en-
plOye is, himself. a tonic.
No effort is wasted on a character like
that. Remember, this is not mere thick
skinnedness." mere dullncss of percep-
tiOn, dumbness. II is the man who feels
the sting Of criticism. but interprets il
impersOnally, suffers the pain and turns
il into power the man who does not
shrink from a rcbuke or from censure,
but on the contrary welcomes these or
anything else that will tend to raise the
standard OF his wOrk-this Is the man
who will get to the top of the ladder
Everything depends upon the attitude
OF mind with which you approach difficult
ties. II you cover before you begin, and
show that you do not feel eoIIal to an
emergency you are foredoomed to fail
ure
Make it a life rule to do the thing that
will do YOU the most good. Do not think
of the disagreeable things connected with
the doing of it. Just think Of how glad
YOU will he that you did it after it is all
over.