SubscribeGuide to Hiring Women!
I received an email from a friend with this “Guide to Hiring Women” supposedly published in the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine. Apparently, it was written for male supervisors of women in the work force during World War II. I couldn’t quite believe it and decided to dig a little further. Looks like it is not just spam or a hoax after all! Snopes.com claims to have verified the legitimacy of the article and has images of the original print version on their site! All I have to say is, Thank God, I wasn’t looking for a job in the 40’s!
Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees
There's no longer any question whether transit companies should hire women for jobs formerly held by men. The draft and manpower shortage has settled that point. The important things now are to select the most efficient women available and how to use them to the best advantage. Here are eleven helpful tips on the subject from Western Properties:
- Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.
- When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.
- General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.
- Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.
- Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.
- Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.
- Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.
- Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.
- Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.
- Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.
- Get enough size variety in operator's uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy.
What the @$^% ?!!??!!!
The past few weeks have been the most frustrating weeks I have had since I started working a little over a year ago. I have been on this new project for about three months now and during the past few weeks I have had to work closely with this guy, who must be the laziest and the most annoying person in our office. No make that the whole entire world! He is quite senior and experienced, but instead of using his knowledge and skills to get the work done quickly and efficiently, he spends most of his time trying to come up with excuses to dump the work onto someone else’s lap. He loves arguing for the sake of arguing and does not care for other peoples’ personal space or time. We have all had to put in some long hours chasing bugs, since he never seems to test his code before checking it in for integration! And he spares no effort in trying to show everyone else down given half the chance. It is so, so, so, frustrating.
It is college application time. While kids scamper to put the application packages together, parents fret and worry about the choice of degree and choice of colleges. While the kids are busy rating how "party" friendly the different schools are, parents are busy trying to figure out how "pocket" friendly they will be. A teenager's idea of a cool career is bound to be different from their parents' idea. Unsurprisingly, this could lead to a lot of flare ups when parents don't quite agree with their children's choice and the children don't want their parents to interfere. 
If you read personal productivity or career related blogs/websites, you see one topic gets a lot of coverage – “Working Hard Vs Working Smart”. The problem I have with many of the blogs/websites that discuss this topic is that they convey the message, either intentionally or otherwise, that working smart is an alternative to working hard. I agree that just working hard is not enough. But I also think that only working smart quite won’t cut it either.
It happens to the best of us. An utter lack of interest. Unshruggable lethargy. Uncontrollable procrastination. Debilitating laziness. Uncaring apathy. With the kind of busy lives we live, it’s inevitable that once in a while our mind, body and spirit go on strike and no amount of coaxing seems to make things happen. No amount of cajoling can make you want to do the job in front of you. Unfortunately, none of the bosses (who themselves might be going through the same phase) care, since they have bosses and their bosses have bosses and so on. In a world where productivity and personal effectiveness are key, how do you survive through a phase of “down-time”? 
