As has ,been frequently said, a business organiza tion is in many respects comparable to a factory, al tho in business most of the machines are human beings. If any employe is not on time either in per forming his task or in keeping an engagement, Ile lessens the efficiency of the entire organization. Busi ness men know this fact and therefore insist upon punctuality.
For the rank-and-file worker punctuality is a car dinal virtue ; lacking it he will not even hold his job.
10. The man in a men both young and middle-aged contract certain business habits, learn fairly well the routine way of doing their tasks, and then plod along patiently, faithfully and conscien tiously, but somehow are never promoted. They are prisoners of the rut and do not realize that their em ployer does not promote them for the reason that they have never given him the slightest ground for suspect ing that in a higher position their usefulness to him might be increased. They are doing. fairly satisfac tory work in the jobs to which they are accustomed. Why make any change? To-day I heard a man finding fault with his secre tary for having done something in a routine way—i.e., without thinking.
"But that's the way it's always done," pleaded the secretary.
"I know that,'.' he replied, "but it's a. stupid way and vou would have found a better way if you had thought for two seconds." Nobody likes to get into a rut. Is that true? Not a word of it. The rut woos the young man. most se ductively. "Just come to me," it says, "and I will make you comfortable. See how easy I make things for those who love me. If you will only walk up right in my beaten path you will never worry or get Nvrinkles or break your legs, and your salary will be automatically increased on every New Year's Day." That is the siren call of the rut, and 90 per cent of young men think it sweet music.
Can you imagine John D. Rockefeller walking in a rut; or Andrew Carnegie. or Frank Vanderlip. or Jacob H. Schiff, or Thomas A. Edison? "But those men have extraordinary brains and you surely can't expect us ordinary fellows to do what they have done." You are mistaken. It is not their extraordinary brains that have made them successful. Those men have made good because they were willing to think and because they hated the rut.
11. Hidden perils.—Many hidden perils lie in the path of the routine worker, all of them apparently so insignificant that Ile does not realize their importance. In this section we will point out some of the things that must not be done if the routine worker wishes to forge ahead: (a) He must not visit in business hours. To do so is to waste his employer's time. When young men and young women are working in the same office, the routine worker is often strongly tempted, but he must not yield. In business there is plenty of time for courtesy, but not for gossip and flirtation or com pliments.
(h) He must not be sullen or grouchy when asked to do extra work or to work overtime. In all busi ness organizations emergencies arise which can be met only by extra effort on the part of some of their employes. A temporary increase in the volume of business necessarily means extra work and overtime for somebody, for it would not be fair to expect the employer to keep on the payroll a number of inen who have nothing to do except at extraordinary times. The ambitious rank-and-file worker should welcome the extra work, for it gives him a chance to show his mettle, his spirit, his love of work.
(c) He should not be an envious, sneaking, tale bearer, seeking favor with his superior by reporting the misdeeds or delinquencies of his fellow-employes. It is his business to do his work faithfully, not to watch his fellows. The tattler is always a trouble maker in an organization. If your employer wants you to be a spy, he will tell you so.
(d) He must not come to work in the morning all tired out because of late hours or dissipation. A man who has had only half enough sleep is always below par. He usually thinks he can conceal the fact, but he cannot. If late hours and dissipation are a habit with him, those working with him will soon know it, and before long Ile will hear unpleasantly from the "boss." (e) He must not be a sorehead, forever complain ing about his work or his pay. A man of that sort is like the one bad egg that spoils an omelet ; Ile is an enemy of esprit de corps, that subtle force which is the very soul of the organization.