Annie Laurie

San Francisco Examiner/July 2, 1908

Business Manners In Business Hours

Dear Annie Laurie: Has a girl got to make up her mind to stop being treated as a lady just because she goes into business? I went to see four business men the other day on a matter of business. One of them took off his hat when I came into his office, the other three kept their hats on all the time I was talking to them, and one of the three leaned back in his chair with his feet on the table and kept me standing all the time.

A BUSINESS GIRL

WELL, my dear business girl, I don’t know about bit. You must remember that when you go to see a man on business, you are going to his office and taking up his time.

He wouldn’t get up if your brother came into the room to see him about exactly the same matter. Why should you want him to get up for you?

You are not there as Misa Flossie Flyaway, the pompadour girl, for a flirtation, or even for a friendly chat.

You’re there for business, and you must make up your mind to take business manners in business hours, and get so that you never expect anything else.

When you do get something else it will come as a pleasant surprise and help to brighten a dull day for you.

Women are working in business offices in competition with men.

The manners of the drawing-room are out of place downtown in the high buildings; there’s no time for them, and the woman who insists upon punctilious courtesy in a business office, which she would expect and very likely receive at home or on a hotel piazza, shows that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

The man who made you stand while he sat with his hat on didn’t think of you as a girl at all.

He thought of you as a representative of Brown & Co., or whatever firm you did represent, and you ought to be glad of it. Put personalities and a personal view of things out of your mind, my dear, when you go into business.

It’s the only way to succeed, and to succeed honestly.