Office (workplace)

“ They are not elegant; the office is a big barn of a place, crowded full of desks, where we sit and write from eight in the morning until any hour at night when it occurs to the boss to tell us we can go. ”

“ The post-office, the land-office, the custom-house, are, in like manner, institutions of the country, established for the good of the people: and it may well alarm the lovers of free institutions, when all the offices in these several departments are spoken of, in high places, as being but "spoils of victory," to be enjoyed by those who are successful in a contest, in which they profess this grasping of the spoils to have been the object of their efforts. ”

“ Considers all factors entering into office organization and management, with special emphasis on the human element. Chapters are devoted to office lay-out, selection and training of employees, rules and regulations, discipline, promotions, encouragement of savings, pension systems, discipline, welfare work, mechanical equipment of offices, records, mailing department, etc. ”

“ The office is perhaps a somewhat peculiar as well as delicate one, and for the relief of any of the weaker brethren who may find in this a singular outlet for monastic energy, and it may be even stumble thereat, I may perhaps explain a little further the circumstances out of which such a state of things have arisen. The problem is in reality a simple one. ”

“ Flood every object and apartment with gaslight, and you have the scene at night—through all the night, for couriers and dispatches never cease to arrive—and the journal issues with the dawn—and the workmen are relieved by constant and continuous relays. Such an office gives employment to hundreds and bread to thousands. ”

“ If I were a minister wondering nearly every day how to work in for my religion a fair chance at men, I should often look wistfully from over the edge of my pulpit, I imagine, to the head of ——'s department store, sitting at that quiet, calm, empty looking desk of his in his little office at the top of his big building in —— Street, with nothing but those little six or seven buttons he softly puts his thumbs on connecting him with a thousand men. ”

“ Well, if you don't want pay, I want some one with a head on his shoulders in this office. Any of the fellows in the outside office would be glad of the chance to get in here, but I want a man who understands what he is doing as well as I do myself. ”

“ Judged by the aggregate amount of work done, the last year has been the greatest in the history of the office. I believe that the organization of the office is efficient and that the work has been done with fidelity. ”

“ In those firms which manufacture a large range of machinery, the drawing-office staff is separated into departments, each under its own chief, and there is seldom any transference of men from one to another. ”

“ A great office which is attacked envelops itself, like a cuttle-fish, in a cloud of technical statements which successfully confuses the public, until its attention is drawn off in some other direction. ”

“ Of course, our paper has not been contrary; but we have noticed a good many times—every one in the office has noticed it, the boys and girls in the back-office, and the boys and girls in the front-office—that whenever we take a stand for anything, say for closing the stores at six o'clock, the General swings the Statesman into line against it. If he has done it once he has done it fifty times in the last ten years ”

“ A newspaper office is one of the few business establishments in which the human machinery is at work the whole twenty-four hours round. The business department, which requires the same staff as is needed in an insurance office or bank, starts its operations, as a rule, at nine in the morning, when the heads and clerks of the advertising, circulation, and other departments assemble. ”

“ It is the office, then, of the eye to supply the rich materials or rudiments of thought and intelligence, but of the ear to furnish the more valuable materials or rudiments of those numberless affections which enter into the composition of the human will. ”

“ They lurk in every Gov'ment lair,
⁠'Mid docket dull and dusty file,
Solemnly squat in an easy chair,
Penning a minute of rare hot air
⁠⁠In departmental style.
In every office, on every floor
⁠Are Swanks, and Swanks, distracting Swanks,
⁠⁠And Acting-Swanks a score. ”

“ The rest of their visible office consists, in the honour of attending parliaments and councils, and bestowing preferments in their own gifts; in which last employment, and in their spiritual and temporal courts, the labour falls to their vicars general, secretaries, proctors, apparitors, seneschals, and the like. ”

“ His little office was very cosy, too; and the work of auditing the accounts of the most important customers of the house required accuracy but no amount of labor. It was an ideal occupation for a man of his years and limited training. ”

“ The ‘office’ is a small room, presided over by two pretty young ladies, who I imagine look upon us as intruders, but I talk at them so much, they are obliged to speak occasionally,{30} although it seems an effort. ”

“ Offices.—The numerous office-buildings that have arisen so rapidly in recent years in the cities also have large corps of women workers. They have personal relations with employers much more frequently, for there are thousands of offices where a few stenographers or even a single secretary are sufficient. Office work is skilled labor, is better paid, and attracts women of better attainments and higher ideals than in department store or factory. ”

“ There is no adornment of an office equal to a library, just as there is no adornment of a mechanic's shop equal to his tools. You know what you think of a doctor when you find his office equipped with the latest appliances. ”

“ The office, unfortunately, is regarded as one of great dignity, and puts the holder on a level with the highest society, and compels him to associate on equal terms with men who spend more than my whole income on the mere entertainments and other trimmings and embroideries of their lives. ”

“ I propose to make a beginning by putting two capable men and a boy in an office, with instructions to cut out, preserve, and verify all contemporary records in the daily and weekly press that have a bearing upon any branch of our departments. ”

“ Up there in the big office-rooms, year in year out, these refined, well-educated women kept ledgers and accounts and did the general office work of the Civil Service with a precision and neatness and correctness equal to the work of any men, and invariably to the astonishment of any interested visitor who was permitted to inquire into the system. ”

“ XIII. Let all persons entrusted with office attend equally to their functions. Owing to their illness or to their being sent on missions, their work may sometimes be neglected. But whenever they become able to attend to business, let them be as accommodating as if they had cognizance of it from before, and not hinder public affairs on the score of their not having had to do with them. ”

“ It is the duties of the office, not a run of infirmities peculiar to the incumbents of office, that make the outcome. Very much like that of the medicine-man, the office is one which will not abide a tolerant and ingenuous incumbent. ”

“ If you wanted to learn it you had to go not only to the Paymaster General's office and make an inquiry there, but you had to go from one office to another in order to pick up your information by little items. ”

“ The secretary comes to the office every morning neatly clad and on time. The hour at which his employer comes in has nothing to do with him. There is a definite time at which he is expected to be at his desk. ”

“ Duties of Office Employes. Each clerk in the office should have his work clearly defined. If specialization is profitable in the shop, it is equally so in the office. Every man who has been responsible for the management of an office will agree with us that in no other branch of business is there a greater tendency to allow work to get behind.
Lack of system is mainly responsible for this state of affairs. While his duties may be more or less clearly defined, the work of the average office clerk does not follow any well defined plan. ”

“ Why, the very waiting room of the employer's ordinary office is a much more cosy and pleasant place than the homes of many of the most [Pg 136] industrious workers of England. I plead that the elements of the human order should begin to pervade the relations of the workshop, that the workman should be less of a drudge and more of a human asset than he has been, that he should be brought into partnership in the undertaking and in the management ”

“ And Professor Bache in his reports declared:—
“The office under the charge of Major Stevens has improved in the system and order of every one of its divisions; and the zeal and ability of the assistant in charge has been reflected in the spirit of the officers under him, and in the general diligence of the employees. The office is characterized by a very marked spirit of industry, of working to results, and of progress. Every encouragement, as it should be, is afforded to those who endeavor to advance in their several occupations. ”

“ The center of the room is occupied by a considerable office-desk, which, to judge from its appearance, has for many a year known no occupation but that of being piled with the most miscellaneous chaos of account-books, invoices, bills, memorandum-books, and the like, all buried in the dust of the iron age through which they have accumulated. ”

“ If we look at the post-office in the more philosophical and elevated aspect of a grand governmental measure, enjoined by the people for the good of the people, we shall be brought to a similar conclusion. ”

“ If we are conducted through the instrument rooms of the General Post Office, we want to ask heaps of questions, probably, but we are like folk who have learnt enough of a foreign language to ask a question but not enough to understand the answer. ”

“ The clerk goes to his office, the workman to his shop, the artisan to his loft, the merchant to his warehouse, the professional to his cabinet, and the official to his duty;26117 they are devoted, first of all, to their pursuits, to their daily bread, to the discharge of their obligations, to their own advancement, to their families, and to their pleasures; to provide for these things the day is not too long. ”

“ You will find that you have nothing to do but walk up to the office like a gentleman, as you are, (if you be not a lady,) send in your card, state your wishes, and you will not only obtain the wished permission, but the offer of a proper equipment, and candles, and be directed to a competent guide and cicerone. ”

“ I saw at once that my only hope of filling the situation, with satisfaction to the survey and to myself, was in at once applying my exertions to enlarging and adapting the organization of the office to the increasing wants of the survey. The office work would necessarily increase for two or three years without any increase of field work. ”

“ The office is one of great honour as well as power, and has generally been conferred upon some individual distinguished by an influential position in society; so that his rank and character might reflect credit upon the craft. ”

“ In some offices, especially in those where large amounts of money are stored or handled, there are door men in uniform and often plain clothes huskies near the entrances to protect the people (and the money) on the inside from cranks and crooks and criminals. In others, a physician's office, for instance, or any small office where the people who are likely to come are of the gentler sort, a young girl with a pleasing manner will do just as well as and perhaps better than any one else. ”

“ The landlord and his guest formed an excellent bureau d'esprit: people of office, especially of the same office, have more to tell each other, namely, their own history, than your idle May-chafers and Court-celestials, who must speak only of other people's.—The Senior made a soft transition from his iron-ware (in the stable furniture) , to the golden age of his Academic life, of which such people like as much to think, as poets do of their childhood. ”

“ The first thing to do is to come to a clear understanding of (and to let your employer know you understand) the two principles that underlie modern business. There are only two kinds of affairs that are attended to in an office. ”

“ There are now six lads in the office, whose terms vary from two to nineteen months.
“During the past year there has been a visible improvement of the office in all its branches, and it is my pleasure and duty to bear unqualified testimony to the zeal and efficiency of the several assistants in charge of the departments, and of the numerous employees under them. Each man has shown an honest purpose to do his duty, and I have been much oftener obliged to moderate exertion than to rebuke indifference and neglect.” ”

“ My duties required me to report at the office at 10 in the morning and remain there until 4 in the afternoon. I went along in the even tenor of my way for six months, during which time my husband was searching for employment. He came to me one day, the first time that he had been in the office since my entrance there, to tell me that he had a position offered him, but that he must acknowledge [149] that he was married, as the gentleman who wished to employ him could not engage a single man. ”

“ That is all, except that to-morrow notices will be posted in every department stating that my office door is open to any man who works for me—any man may come to me with complaint or with suggestion at any time. The notices will state that I want suggestions, and that any man who can bring me an idea that will improve his work or the work in his department or in the plant will be paid for it according to its value. In short, I want the co-operation of every man who draws wages from this concern.... ”