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CHAPTER V

Secretarial Jobs at Forty— And What It Takes

Almost from the first we had known we were up against it in the secretarial field. Because of the age factor, various employment bureaus which we had visited in several cities had had strong advice to give us when we applied as secretaries. "Sorry, but we honestly have no idea when we could place you." "What else can you do? We have so few calls for the older secretary." "Just leave your applica­tion and if anything comes up, we can get in touch with you." "Why don't you try some other kind of job?" "I am sorry, but we have nothing at present."

Because of these stubborn and disheartening facts, we kept our more serious attempts in this field for our home city. For here we would have more time and could make a thorough-going effort to get secretarial jobs. So now we concentrated on finding out for ourselves just what the chances ac-…

...tually were for the older secretary.

Heretofore in the job hunt, the emphasis had been placed on getting jobs. All kinds of jobs— any kind of jobs. We were trying to prove that jobs were to be had and that the right technique would land them.

We had become aware, through many different sources, of the desperate plight of secretaries—particularly of the mature ones. Each new business curtailment, each new closing of departments threw more of these trained women out of work. Offices that had employed a battery of twenty or twenty-five were frequently managing on six or seven. .There were thousands of excellent secretaries who had been looking for work for months, and who could see absolutely nothing ahead of them. We realized now that our job formula was about to have a most serious test.

Ordinarily, in getting a special kind of job, we should have considered the employment agencies as one likely field and the Help Wanted ads as another. But we already had the verdict of the em­ployment bureaus. We should have to rely on our own special efforts and on the Help Wanted ads.

But we were not ready to begin on either yet. Far from it! We had to get a clear picture in our…

minds as to what constituted a good secretary. What did employers want? Was there any reason for their preferring the younger person? Could we offer some extra or additional value as secretaries that would offset our years? What were the preju­dices against the older secretary? Or what were the real reasons against her?

When we could answer those questions to our satisfaction, then we would have some basis on which to work. So the first move seemed to be to talk with older secretaries who were holding jobs. We would observe them and listen to them and learn everything we could.

And then another thought stopped us. That might actually prove nothing. Many of these secre­taries doubtless had held their jobs for years. Being retained was a matter of course as well as of effi­ciency. But there was one group that would give us the right slant—namely, the older women who had lost their jobs and had been able to find new ones in the discouraging spring of 1938. We talked at length to five of them whom we knew personally or of whom we had heard through friends. We got some pretty sound data on secretarial positions.

The first one whom we were able to contact was Agnes Almes. She was a vigorous woman in her…

middle forties. She was not exactly a bird brain, hut she was certainly not one of the intellectuals. She cared nothing about books, or any kind of rending. As for current events, she passed them by on the other side. But she was an agreeable person. We liked her right away. And analyzing that reaction afterward, we decided that it must have been for the simple reason that she seemed so genuinely to like and admire us. She talked rather well, but never about her work or her employer. She had a nice reticence there. And while her conversation was pretty much on the personal plane— (Aren't the hats difficult this spring? I could have stayed through that movie twice. I've got to change my permanent. Yes, I am going to try that restaurant some day this week. The seafood is supposed to be marvelous.)—it was all interesting enough and not one whit spiteful. She seemed to know everybody, and always had some little complimentary thing to say. She had obtained a new position within ten days of losing her old one.

When we asked her if she knew why she had gotten a job so quickly, she said that of course she did. And here is her reason just as she gave it:

"I always get my jobs through friends. I never try any other way. I guess you could almost say that I have made...

...a business of friendship.

"I do feel friendly to people, and like them. So it is not put on. But it is awfully important to me in my work. You see, I never had any money back of me, and my family never could help me. So what I have had to do ever since I went to work and started to take care of my­self was to take advantage of every opportunity for know­ing people. It's been a life saver.

"Another thing. I never could see why it is any dis­grace to lose a job if it's not your fault. So the minute I see one of my jobs getting ready to fold up, I tell the world. I don't act worried or upset. I just tell everybody I see about it. And pretty soon along comes a telephone call, and someone has found me an opening."

Friends, we wrote down as her special aptitude in job getting. And nice personality.

Mildred Manton was the next one with whom we talked secretaries. She was a different sort en­tirely, and a very interesting person. She was a col­lege graduate, matronly, substantial looking, and as wholesome as a loaf of fresh bread. In age she must have been close to fifty. She was likable, but she probably never had a suitor in her life. The minute we saw her, we set her down in our minds as competent, capable, resourceful and efficient.

She told us that most of her jobs had been with doctors. "I am so safe to have around," she con­fided. "I never cramp the patients' style."

In the course of the conversation we learned that…

...no doctor had ever willingly let her leave his em­ploy. They had died, or moved away, or had had to cut expenses.

But losing jobs seemed to hold no terror for her. "I always step into something else before long."

And then she told us why:

"In the first place, I have a little secret method of my own for finding jobs. When I'm out of work I hire myself down to two or three of the big hospitals where I know some of the doctors. I catch different ones on the fly I ask them if they know of any openings for me, and if they will especially remember me if they hear of any.

"Then, of course, when I get an interview, it's up to me to put myself over. So many people talk in generalities, about how reliable they are, and how adaptable, and how dependable. Well, that does not really mean anything when you say it.

"What I try to do is to draw for the doctor a picture of the way I would serve him. Before I go to talk with him, I pick out different things to tell him. Real experiences,
you know. For instance, I saved a big case for my last doctor. I found him when everybody said he was out of town and couldn't be reached. Then another thing, there
isn't a patient in the world that I can't handle in the wait­ing room, and pacify when the doctor is held up.

"Then at the end I tell him that I have one big talent. And when he asks what it is, I say that I am a past master at collecting bills. No one but a doctor knows how hard it is to get money out of patients. Well, that is one thing I can do—and I don't make the patients mad, either. I think that my bill collecting ability is frequently what clinches the job."

There was certainly no mystery about her get­ting jobs, age or no age. She just put her good mind to deciding what a doctor needed, and then set about proving to him that she had plenty of what it takes to fill the post. Apparently she has never given a thought to her years, and her latest job would seem to indicate that some doctors paid no attention to them either.

Ruth Raynes was the third secretary with whom we talked. She was a slight-figured, dainty, pretty girl of thirty-two. Her voice was low and well pitched, and in her bearing she was quiet and dig­nified. She told us frankly that while she was a good stenographer, others more competent than she were out of work. And who dressed more ex­pensively, too, she added. But not in better taste, was our observation. For she looked charming in her simple little dark blue dress with a plain felt hat in the same shade of blue.

When the time seemed propitious, we asked her why she thought others often had difficulty in get­ting new jobs while she seemed to have none. She hesitated a moment, and then an amused expres­sion came over her face as she laughed and said:

"Well, I just use a little sex appeal. Oh, I don't mean anything silly and obvious like showing a lot of stocking…

...or wearing tight clothes. That is cheap and stupid, and would keep people out of jobs, I should think.

“What I do is to take some of the social graces to the office. When I go to interview a man about a job, I walk right in as if I were going to a tea. I say ‘How do you do,’ and then let him say something while I size him up.

“As he talks, I listen with the same flattering attention that I would give a man if I had a party date with him. I subtly suggest that he is a wonderful man. And I think he is too, if he can afford a secretary in these times.  And I try to make him like me, so he will think I am a pleasant person to have around.

“Why, what chance would a person have if a man took a dislike to her on sight?”

What chance, indeed! For while he wants his work carried on efficiently, the employer, in addition, has a right to demand that the atmosphere be a pleasant one, with well mannered, agreeable people about him.  And so long as these are prerequisites, Ruth will have little difficulty in getting a job.

Irma Innes was another type.  She was the hustler, the girl who could take on any amount of work and mow right through it. She was snappy looking, bright, alert, and with a contagious smile. Regarding her as she sat on our davenport wrapped in her air of complete assurance, it was difficult to imagine anything as being too much for her.  We did not ask her age, any more than we had asked…

the others. But several of them had volunteered it. But not Irma! She brought up the subject and in­stantly disposed of it. She said: "I never could see any point in all this talk about your age. It's your ability that counts, not whether you have lived a certain number of years, more or less."

We were inclined to think that Irma had lived a "certain number of years more," not less. But we were extremely interested in the apparent ease with which she seemed always to land on her feet and to be able to step from one job to another. "Why not?" she asked. "I am so all fired compe­tent!"

Then she told us how she had made her latest connection.

"I heard about this place where they were going to need a girl, and I walked over to see what was what. Some­body said that there were a lot of special things a person had to do, and that the job would be hard to get. But that didn't faze me.

"When I got to see the man, he was very nice, and we talked on for quite a while. Then he said: 'Before we go any further, can you run a comptometer?"

“ ‘I certainly can!' I told him, all enthusiasm. In fact, throughout our conversation, I had been as pepped up and as interested as I knew how to be.

"Finally he told me to come in the following Monday and he would give me a try.

"The minute I left, you know what I did? I looked up…

a comptometer place and flew right down to learn how to run one. Catch me telling the boss that there is anything

I can’t do!

"It was hard, too. But when I explained to the comptometer people just why I had to learn quickly, they gave me every help, and let me stay and practice for hours.
A lot of people make mistakes by saying that they don't know how. What's to hinder them from learning?"

Thinking it over afterward, it seemed to us that any employer would like to have someone around to whom nothing was ever hard—who could take a job right over and create the feeling that every­thing was in competent hands, and that there was nothing to worry about.

Nan Nannes was the last secretary with whom we talked in this connection. She was perhaps forty years old, rather heavy, but well groomed for her size. Her costume, which we admired, had cost next to nothing, she told us. And she certainly had little enough to invest in clothes. For on Nan's capable shoulders rested the responsibility of her widowed sister and the sister's two young children. She had been in her new job less than a month, but felt that she was going to like it very much. "It was a terrible wrench, though," she said, "to leave a job you have held for eighteen years. When I learned that the paper factory was going to close, I…

thought I could not stand it." She gave herself a philosophic shrug. "But, heavens above, you can stand anything. By the time you have reached my age, you certainly ought to be able to take it."

How had she felt when her job ceased, we asked, and did she have much trouble in getting another one?

Her answer was worth remembering:

"If you mean, did I feel sunk, of course not. I guess always in the back of my mind I have been preparing myself as well as I could for emergencies. You did not think that I was only a secretary at that paper company, did you?

"Why, all the time I was there I kept learning new things. I picked up their bookkeeping methods, and filing. That was why I was the last person to be laid off. And that is why I got this new job. I answered an ad and told all the different things I could do.

"The job I have now takes in filing and stenography and helping some with the books. And something tells me that this is a good time to learn to handle the switch­board. So I'm going to learn. I might need it sometime, too."

Efficient was the word that we picked to describe Nan—efficiency and great adaptability. A glutton for any and all work about any office with which she might be connected.

It was now apparent to us that the persons who were finding new secretarial jobs were the super-…

secretaries. Those who had good personality, abilility together with some special pluses of enterprise, or experience, or skill that caused them to be singled out. From what the employment agencies told us, and from our own observation, it seemed to us that the older person who rated herself as an average secretary would have to take measures to step

herself up, or else change her type of work.

None of those women to whom we had talked had gotten her job directly through the agencies. One had canvassed her friends. One had gone to hospitals and talked with doctors until she had found an opening. The others had resorted to tele­phones and letters, want ads and word of mouth, to dig up a line on a job.

We talked the whole situation over. We were now planning to watch the newspapers for secre­tarial jobs, and we had a pretty clear notion as to how we were going to answer them. Then one of us had an idea.

"If I were a secretary out of a job," she said, "and I had to find something right away, I would not sit around waiting for someone to advertise for a secre­tary. That might be too slow. What I would do would be to make up a job for myself."

And so we did. We made it up at home, with the…

help of the telephone book.

We looked in the classified section of our di­rectory under Physicians & Surgeons, M.D., and made a list of those who lived in our neighborhood. There were two reasons for this procedure: We did not want any carfare to pay if we could help it; and if the jobs materialized, we wanted to be able to get from one office to another in a very few minutes.

We called up two women doctors first, one of whom proved to be an osteopath. We told them that we were an experienced secretary, building up a clientele. We asked at once if they had a secre­tary. And both of them said: No. So we explained that we would like to post their bills once a week or once a month, and how would it suit for us to clear up a lot of their personal correspondence for them one morning a week?

We assured them that we could write any kind of letters and felt that we could make ours sound as if they had been personally written.

From both women we got a pleasant reaction. One said that we sounded very enterprising, why not come down to her office and talk it over. "If you can really take care of my letters," she said, "I can certainly use you a full morning a week. There are a lot of contacts that I know I am losing,

but I just have not the time to write the notes or the congratulations or the letters that I should. However, I could not go into much money on this."

After a little further parley, we agreed that we were to get $3 for one morning's work a week. It was to be a trial, of course, and we would have to show ourself responsible by references, and would have to take the letters home with us, as she did not want the work done in her office.

The second woman was also very much inter­ested and showed a willingness to talk it over. But her immediate idea was to exchange services in kind—we were to post her bills and take care of her correspondence in return for a complete osteopathic treatment every week. It was a fair enough offer, but did not help in paying bills for food and clothing. So we said that we were sorry.

Our next calls were to men doctors. Some of them had secretaries, just as we had expected. But we kept right on until we had discovered three who were possibilities. We gave about the same talk to each one, sounding as enterprising and en­thusiastic as we could. We are now firmly con­vinced that we could get full time secretarial work, by this method if we put through enough calls.

Two of the doctors were interested in our proposi­tion. One gave us a morning's work, and the other took an afternoon. From the third, who said he had nothing for us to do at the present, we asked for and received the name of several of his col­leagues who might be able to use our services. With the understanding, of course, that we were not to mention his name.

From these results, we felt that there might be quite a field for older secretaries in the small time jobs. Clergymen, business women, professional women, all sorts of people who were busy and suc­cessful and yet who neither needed nor could afford a regular full time secretary, might welcome the chance to have their mail constantly up to date, their letters answered and off their minds. Espe­cially, when they could get such a service for a few dollars a week. Of course, to get a dozen such jobs would take some pushing, and there would be no occasional quiet afternoons or slack seasons as there are in most offices. But they would pay money—and they could be made very interesting.

We turned now to the Help Wanted columns and watched all ads for secretaries. Over a period of time there were quite a few of them, and some of them brought in the age question—favorably to the…

older person. Here are a few of the high lights of a two weeks' observation:

SECRETARY—physician's helper; stenography essential. Must be over 30.

SECRETARY—to work on membership list in institution; must be mature, accurate, good letter writer.

CONFIDENTIAL SECRETARY with department store experience; 35-40, capable, good appearance.

SECRETARY—Christian, for church position; good ste­nographer; quick and accurate; age 22-40. Salary $18 to start.

SECRETARY—with printing and buying experience. Executive ability. Not under 30. State references and salary expected.

STENOGRAPHER WITH BOOKKEEPING experience for roofing supplies business. Over 30; good salary. Call mornings before 12.

SECRETARY wanted for small publishing firm. Act as receptionist. Must be tall, slim. Salary open. Write in full detail in own handwriting. Age over 28.

We got two of these jobs, as we shall presently detail. But once again it ought to be stressed that we older people are not entirely blameless for the build-up against us. If we want to compete with youth, we have got to meet it on its own ground. We have got to show in every word and act that were still pliant, still adaptable, still vigorous, still willing to fit into a job to our full capacity. If the prospective employer even for an instant toys with the thought that he could not ask us to run up and…