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IDEAL HOME LIFE |
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Courtesy
Another thing that we want in even our youngest employees is courtesy. Many children do not realize how much politeness counts for in life. People in a store would always rather buy from a clerk who is good-natured and polite than from one who is cross or rude. If the schools will teach the boys to be polite, they will teach something that will be of a great deal of practical value to them.
Then, again, we want them to have an idea of propriety. That is, we want them to know that certain things may be perfectly proper for certain places, but altogether out of place in others. For instance, our boys and girls ought to know, without being told, that it is not the right thing to do to chew gum in a store, or in any other public place. I have no use for a clerk who will chew gum while standing behind the counter, or waiting on customers.
I try to make my young people feel that the customer is boss of the store, even more than I am. I tell them that it is not worth while for them to jump up and get busy just because they see me coming, but the time for them to jump is when they see a customer coming. If they please the customer, they please me. If they do not please the customer, it is impossible for them to please me, no matter how busy they may seem to be.
A few other suggestions may be made concerning matters that were not touched upon in the statement above.
1. Dress according to your work. It is a bit hard for a young person who wears good clothes in school to put on rough garb for rough work. One is apt to fear the ridicule of his chums. The chum, however, is not the one who pays the wages, and nothing pleases a sensible employer more than to find his workers clothed as if they expected to do their work. The business man to-day fairly dreads the girl who comes to his office garbed as if for afternoon tea. This word is particularly needful in the case of boys and girls who work for their own parents, and who think because they are re- |
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