women and how superior women are to men. It is
pure nonsense. If all the men in the world were put on one side of a
scale and all the women on the other, the scale would probably stand
perfectly still.

The woman in business should never forget that she is a woman but she
must remember that above all things she is a citizen, and that she
herself has value and her work has value only as they contribute to her
community and her community as it contributes to her country. Courtesy
is one of her strongest allies, this quality which, alone, can do
nothing, but, united to the solid virtues that make character, can move
mountains.

We have said a good deal as we came along about courtesy toward oneself
and other people, but perhaps the most valuable of all courtesies in
business is politeness toward one's job. It is desirable for every woman
to be pretty, well-dressed, and well-groomed, but it is much more
desirable for the woman in business to be able to do capable and
efficient work. She may be ornamental but she must be useful, and while
she is at the office her chief concern should be with her job and not
with herself. The end of business is accomplishment, and courtesy is
valuable because it is a means of making accomplishment easy and
pleasant. It is this that gives us the grace to accept whatever comes,
if not gladly, at least bravely.

It is a poor workman who quarrels with his tools (or with his job), so
the proverb says, and there are two lines of Mr. Kipling's that might be
added. He was speaking of a king, but in a democracy we are all kings:

The wisest thing, we suppose, that a king can do for his land
Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under
his hand.

And the lines are just as true when "girl" is substituted for "king" and
the pronouns are changed accordingly.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE ***

***** This file should be named 23025.txt or 23025.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/2/23025/

Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Marcia Brooks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images from the Home Economics
Archive: Research, Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann
Library, Cornell University)