“ Lo, to Hiring we have come, all for to look for places, If the master and we can agree, and he will give good wages. The master that a servant wants, will stand now in a wonder, You all must ask ten pounds a year, and none of you go under, It’s you then, must do all the work, and what they do require, So now, stand up for wages, lads, before that you do hire. ”
Hiring
Definition and stakes
Hiring, the process of bringing an individual into the payroll, has long been a central topic in discussions about labor and employment. From legal structures to social customs, scholars have examined its complexities: William Hone analyzed contractual responsibilities, pointing out that open-ended employment typically implies a one-year period, while Adam Smith discussed historical traditions of yearly hiring in England.
The Consumers' League of New York City criticized casual approaches to employment in hotels, stressing the undervaluation of workers' length of service. Meanwhile, Thurgood Marshall addressed contemporary legal differences between regular employment and freelance work. These viewpoints show hiring as both a formal arrangement and a reflection of wider economic and social values, shifting from strict legal rules to flexible, context-dependent practices.
Quotes about “hiring”
Consumers' League of New York City, Behind the Scenes in a Hotel
“ Even where there are employment managers the actual hiring is done by the heads of departments whose attitude is only too often, “These girls won’t stay long anyway, so it doesn’t much matter who is hired.” ”
William Hone,
The Every-day Book and Table Book…
“ The contract arises upon the hiring: if the hiring be general, without any particular time limited, the law construes it to be hiring for one year; but the contract may be made for any longer or shorter period. Many farmers are wary enough to hire their servants for fifty-one weeks only, which prevents them having any claim upon that particular parish in case of distress, &c. ”
Harriet Ann Jacobs,
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
(1861)
“ If he lives until the next year, perhaps the same man will hire him again, without even giving him an opportunity of going to the hiring-ground. After those for hire are disposed of, those for sale are called up. ”
“ Servants.—A general or indefinite hiring of domestic or menial servants is said to be in law a hiring for a year, and the contract therefore, unless the service is to begin on the same day or the day following, ought, strictly to be in writing and signed ”
Adam Smith,
The Wealth of Nations
(1902)
“ The principal effect of introducing settlement by service has been to put out in a great measure the old fashion of hiring for a year, which before had been so customary in England, that even at this day, if no particular term is agreed upon, the law intends that every servant is hired for a year. ”
George Robert Hogan, Municipal and Official Handbook of the City of Auckland… (1922)
“ The employer shall have the option of hiring by time or distance, except for removal of furniture, which shall always be paid for by time, the carter being bound to use all reasonable expedition, and in all other cases the hiring to be by time, unless at the time of hiring the hirer exercises his option and hires by distance. ”
Thurgood Marshall, Community for Creative Non-Violence v…
“ Section 101 plainly creates two distinct ways in which a work can be deemed for hire: one for works prepared by employees, the other for those specially ordered or commissioned works which fall within one of the nine enumerated categories and are the subject of a written agreement. The right to control the product test ignores this dichotomy by transforming into a work for hire under § 101 (1) any "specially ordered or commissioned" work that is subject to the supervision and control of the hiring party. ”
James Champlin Fernald,
English Synonyms and Antonyms
“ In this connection employ is a word of more dignity than hire; a general is employed in his country's service; a mercenary adventurer is hired to fight a tyrant's battles. It is unsuitable, according to present usage, to speak of hiring a pastor; the Scripture, indeed, says of the preacher, "The laborer is worthy of his hire;" but this sense is archaic, and hire now implies that the one hired works directly and primarily for the pay, as expressed in the noun "hireling;" ”
H. Percy Boulnois, Dirty Dustbins and Sloppy Streets
“ This shows that the cost of hiring would be slightly in excess of that of keeping a stud of horses, and when we consider the unquestionable benefit to be derived by adopting this method, I think most Urban Authorities who are now hiring their team labour would do well to consider the question of purchasing and keeping their own stud. ”
“ May every labourer be able to keep His children and wife on Twelve Shillings a week. {195} There are very few Statute, or hiring, fairs now in existence, and perhaps it is as well, as a great deal of drunkenness and immorality used to occur at these meetings. The servants stood in groups according to their callings, each bearing some token of their employment; for instance, the carters carried a piece of whipcord. Employers of labour came and personally interviewed them, wages were agreed upon, and the hiring was for a year certain. ”
Basic Employment Policy Act of the Republic of Korea
“ The heads of employment security agency and the public vocational training institute shall, when requested by employer, workers’ representative or trade union to support for such employment managerial practice as recruitment, hiring or assignment, development of vocational Skills, promotion and wage system, etc., for workers, provide necessary supports in counselling and guidance, etc., using the employment information. ”
W. B. Phillips, How Department Stores Are Carried On
“ The hiring of help is largely centered in one individual for the entire store. Departments requiring additional help should notify the employment office, and give particulars of the kind of help required, which fact should be noted and filed for reference, a preference being given former employees seeking reëngagement. ”
United States. Congress, Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act…
“ Direct Hire Authority- ` (1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding section 3304 and sections 3309 through 3318 of title 5, United States Code, the head of the loan guarantee program under this title (referred to in this subsection as the `Executive Director') may, on a determination that there is a severe shortage of candidates or a severe hiring need for particular positions to carry out the functions of this title, recruit and directly appoint highly qualified critical personnel with specialized knowledge important to the function of the programs under this title into the competitive service. ”
Anthony M. Rud, When the Winner Lost — I—Employed… (1919)
“ I answered dryly, “provided recommendations are not necessary.” “They mean nothing to me,” he retorted. “No one can place a man with me unless my estimate of him is a sufficient recommendation.” “You are in the habit of hiring men from the streets?” “Yes, when I come across the man I want. I don't mind telling you that I have had a man watching the idlers near the post office ever since the War Exposition and the chill drove them out of Grant Park.” ”
Elizabeth Mary Wright, Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore
“ The relative merits of various ‘places’, and warnings against ‘bad meat houses’, i.e. houses where scant rations prevailed, were transmitted to new generations of servants in doggerel verses repeated at the hirings, such as: Bradford breedless, Harnham heedless, Shaftee pick at the craa; Capheaton’s a wee bonny place, But Wallin’ton bangs [excels] them aa (Nhb.) .A Runaway Mop was a statute hiring-fair held a few weeks after the customary ones, said to be composed of servants who had been hired at a previous fair, and had run away from their situations. ”
Various, Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No…
“ R. and I mean to make up another party and be off to the diggings. We cannot do all the work on the farm ourselves, and hiring servants now is out of the question. Men are asking seven shillings and sixpence a-day wages, and will only hire by the week at that rate. ”
Oliver E. Lyman, Popular Science Monthly (1883)
“ With those who are not hired for any particular time, as is the case with the majority of domestic servants, the case is different. The servant is considered as hired with reference to the general understanding that she shall be entitled to her wages for the time she serves, and either party, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, may determine the service at any time. ”
Edwin A. Pratt,
A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England…
(1912)
“ The company accordingly offer six positions annually to members of the existing staff, under twenty-five years of age, who display the highest standard of knowledge and ability in a competitive examination, the successful candidates in each year being promoted to an advanced scale of pay, and taking a "higher grade course of training," which, it is thought, should fit them to hold positions of responsibility in the future. ”
Thurgood Marshall, Community for Creative Non-Violence v…
“ The structure of § 101 indicates that a work for hire can arise through one of two mutually exclusive means, one for employees and one for independent contractors, and ordinary canons of statutory interpretation indicate that the classification of a particular hired party should be made with reference to agency law. ”
Booker T. Washington,
Character Building
“ If there was a rule followed in every family that employs persons, that no man or woman should be hired unless he or she brought a letter of [Pg 155] recommendation from the last employer, we should find that the whole matter of domestic service would be lifted up a hundred per cent. ”
American Anti-Slavery Society, The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus
“ The familiar distinction between the two classes, is "servants," and "hired help," (not paid help.) Both classes are paid. One is permanent, the other occasional and temporary, and therefore in this case called "hiredA." A: To suppose a servant robbed of his earnings because he is not called a hired servant is profound induction! If I employ a man at twelve dollars a month to work my farm, he is my "hired" man, but if I give him such a portion of the crop, or in other words, if he works my farm "on shares," every farmer knows that he is no longer called my "hired" man. ”
Katherine M. H. Blackford,
Analyzing Character
“ Employees in the organization at the time of the installation of the employment department are analyzed as opportunity offers. In this way the supervisor determines whether or not they are well placed as they are, or whether they have talent and abilities which would make them far more valuable in some other part of the institution. The analysis of each employee is made out either completely and in detail or in a general way, according to his importance, his future possibilities, his probable length of service with the institution, and other conditions. ”
S. A. Reilly, Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years…
“ Any servant of agriculture who is serving a term with a master and covenants to serve another man at the end of this term and that other man shall notify the master by the middle of his term so he can get a replacement worker. Otherwise, the servant shall continue to serve the first master.No man or woman may put their son or daughter to serve as an apprentice in a craft within any borough, but may send the child to school, unless he or she has land or rent to the value of 20s. per year. [because of scarcity of laborers and other servants of agriculture] No laborer may be hired by the week. ”
Weird Tales/Volume 36/Issue 1 (1941)
“ But just as an ordinary industrial worker can, through LaSalle Home Study, become a foreman, so a foreman, a cost clerk, a cost accountant, a mechanical engineer, a department manager, an inspector, an assistant superintendent, and all the other minor executives of any industrial organization—can fit themselves for that desirable job ahead—with its tremendously desirable rewards! ”
R. R. Lutz, Wage Earning and Education
“ Foremen are selected from the working force or, in a few cases, trained especially for their positions. Although there are few opportunities each year for advancement to foremanship, employers declare they cannot get enough persons of ability to fill vacancies. A study of the previous experience of foremen and forewomen made by the survey shows that they come from nearly every department of the factory. ”
James Henry Mapleson,
The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888…
“ Of course on general commercial principles the labourer is worthy of his hire; but in operatic matters the hire is, as a rule, so entirely out of proportion to the services rendered, and the conditions of the enterprise so unlike any other venture, that a little latitude certainly ought to be allowed. ”
Henry Earle Riggs, The Valuation of Public Service Corporation Property
“ The personnel of the staff was considered to be of the greatest importance, and, in the selection of men, the requirements desired were: experience in the construction and operation of railroads, thorough technical training, high standing in the Profession, as shown by membership in the American Societies of Civil or Mechanical Engineers, or of other Societies of high standing, and high moral character. Politics, residence in the State, or local influence, had absolutely no weight in the selection of any of the men. ”
Isaac McBride, "Barbarous Soviet Russia"
“ A wage earner who is working outside his specialty, and who has stated his wish that this be only temporary, shall retain his place on the register on the Department of Labor Distribution until he gets work at his vocation. ”
Charles DeLano Hine,
Letters from an old railway official…
(1904)
“ Talk with your employes about this and you will be astonished to find how many will fall in with this idea of leaving open a door of hope by filling just so many vacancies with outside men. Your official or your employe seeking a transfer or hunting a job will be impressed with the fact that all assistance rendered will be with a view to favoring him because he is a good, worthy fellow. He will not hear it put on the ground that any company is fortunate to have his services, that his future employers are being especially considered. ”
Walter John Buck, Wild Spain (España agreste)
“ To go into the market-place and hire, instead of standing there to be hired, are obviously very different things. It implies, besides, permanent wages at increased rate, without manual work to do, for the capataz only orders. ”
Consumers' League of New York City, Behind the Scenes in a Hotel
“ It is suggested that employees be interviewed and hired by a person understanding the technique of the selection of workers and the requirements of the various jobs in the hotel, with the purpose of securing an efficient force of workers and reducing the turnover of labor. An experienced person, preferably a woman, should be responsible for the introduction of the new employee to her job, her training, her transfer or promotion. ”
Varius, The Survey, Volume 30, Number 5… (1913)
“ To understand better the employer’s relation to vocational guidance, the bureau organized last year a conference of employment managers. Men representing a score or more of important manufacturing and business establishments have met regularly for informal discussions. In December an employment managers’ association was formed. One of the most important fruits of this close contact is the possibility of formulating plans for organizing the generally chaotic entrance into occupations. ”
Edward Hungerford, The Romance of a Great Store
“ These workers are gathered in a variety of ways—by volunteer applications, by newspaper advertisements (in New York and outside of it) , by outside free [Pg 206] employment agencies, by circular appeals generally to educational institutions, and, best of all, through the solicitation of its regular employees. There is no appeal for a worker that, in my opinion, can compare with the suggestion made by an employee that the place of his or her employment is a good place for his or her friends, as well. ”
“ The contractor will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. Such action shall include, but not be limited to the following: employment, upgrading, demotion, or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship. ”
Sherman Minton,
Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company v…
“ In the event the union is unable to furnish competent workers, the Employer may hire from outside sources, provided that employees so hired shall make application for membership in the Union within fifteen (15) days of their employment. ”
Isaac McBride, "Barbarous Soviet Russia"
“ In case of urgent public work the Department of Labor, in agreement with the respective professional unions, may order the transfer of a whole group of wage earners from the organization where they are employed to another situated in the same or a different locality. ”
Lorenzo Snow,
Journal of Discourses — Volume 19…
“ Some twelve or fifteen work in this establishment, and the people sustain them in their operations. Those engaged in the various branches of labor feel confident that the people will patronize them, and carry out what they have agreed in this particular, and they do not trouble themselves about any other employment, or business. ”
Jr. John D. Rockefeller, The Personal Relation in Industry
“ In carrying out this plan, the wage-earners at each camp are to be represented by two or more of their own number chosen by secret ballot, at meetings especially called for the purpose, which none but wage-earners in the employ of the company shall be allowed to attend. The men thus chosen are to be recognized by the company as authorized to represent the employees for one year, or until their successors are elected, with respect to terms of employment, working and living conditions, adjustment of differences, and such other matters as may come up. ”
