The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-08-06
HAL
BOYLE
SAYS
By HAL BOYLE

NEW YORK R-The tired bust
nessman at last has a Florence
Nightingale of his very own.
She is DR.. Sara M. Jordan, a
lady doctor from Boston, who is
certainly American industry's lead
ing candidate for the woman-of-
the-year in 1852.
What have the Republican or
Democratic parties done for the
tired businessman? Nothing. He
isn't even mentioned in their plat
forms, and he can walk a plank
for all they care.
But DR.. Jordan, one of the coun-
try's top female physicians, has
come up with a concrete program
to make the tired businessman feel
less tired.
For years the tired businessman
has been a misunderstood figure,
subject to public laughter and the
loud leer. Everybody suspected
that he was really gay dog worn
out from too much play rather
than too much work. 1t got so that
even the owner of hamburger
stand became afraid to complain
about his fallen arches for fear
he would be labeled as a social
climber trying to pretend he was
"a tired businessman"
But DR.. Jordan has put the stamp
of medical authority on the fact
that the tired businessman really
is tired. And her prescription is:
He ought to take it easy and PAM
per himself more.
Specifically, the ingredients in
her prescription for businessmen
over so include: (1) The habit of
taking one or two relaxing drinks
a day; (2) restful one-month vaca-
tions twice a year; (3) leisurely
noon lunch, followed by a nap;
t4) moments Of relaxation between
business appointments to break
the tension of the work day.
These are sound, sensible recon-
mendations. The only quarrel the
average fellow will have with them
is this:
"Why wait until I am so? Let's
start living that way now"
There is some justification for
this viewpoint, as all impartial
surveys show that the ordinary
person who starts earning his liv-
ing at 81 begins to feel tired be-
fore his 22nd birthday. Often a
sensation of ennui can be noted
even before he draws his first pay
check. After that time merely
deepens it.
What DR.. Jordan may have in
advertently done is open the door
to a great revolution in the Amer
lean business office.
Since the office is mans work
a-day home, it should have all the
facilities of a well-appointed home
and social club-a bar, a library,
some card tables and pinball ma
chimes, and a few comfortable
couches.
/ don't know whether DR.. Jordan
has made any research into what
makes the tired businessman tired.
But l have.
My theory, based on long OBJ
servation, is that the average char
acter in the office zoo, be he boss
or hired hand, by the limitations
of the human animal actually can
work hard only five hours in his
day. The other three
hours he spends pretending to be
busy-rustling papers, walking
back and forth to the water cooler,
at his desk.
1t is these three hours of acting
that cause so much tension and
send the businessman home so
tired he is even ready to talk back
to his wife. A three-hour daily stint
on the stage is an ordeal even
for a professional actor What kind
of a strain must ii be then for the
millions of amateurs in American
offices?
The real way to cure the tired
is to take this burden
of pretense off his back. Some
body ought to set up an expert
mental office in which everybody
hits the job hard from $50 until
noon, and from 2 pm, until 5
pm. The rest of the time they
would be free to lunch, take maps,
play gin rummy or make love to
each other.
don't know how long an office
set up on that basis would stay
in business. But nobody would 60
home tired. And the boss would
have to pay them double even to
force them to take a vacation.
BY RELMAN NORM