usiness days that have elapsed since
Columbus discovered America!

It may be argued that we would be better off if we lost more than a year
every day and did all our work at more leisurely pace. This may be, but
the time to rest is not when the telephone bell is ringing.

The telephone on a business man's desk should always be facing him and
it should not be tricked out with any of the patent devices except those
sanctioned by the company. Most of them lessen instead of increase
efficiency. A woman in her home where calls are infrequent may hide her
telephone behind a lacquered screen or cover it with pink taffeta
ruffles, but in a business office it is best to make no attempts to
beautify it. It is when it is unadorned that the ugly little instrument
gives its best service.

There should always be a pad and pencil at hand so that the message (if
there is one) can be taken down without delay. The person at the other
end probably has not time (and certainly has not inclination) to wait
until you have fumbled through the papers on your desk and the rubbish
in the drawers to locate something to write on and something to write
with.

"Hello" is a useless and obsolescent form of response in business
offices. The name of the firm, of the department, or of the man
himself, or of all three, according to circumstances, should be given.
When there is a private operator to take care of the calls she answers
with the name of the firm, Blank and Blank. If the person at the other
end of the wire says, "I want the Advertising department," she connects
them and the man there answers with "Advertising department." The other
then may ask for the manager, in which case the manager answers with his
name. It is easy to grow impatient under all these relays, but a
complicated connection involving half a dozen people before the right
one is reached can be accomplished in less than a minute if each person
sends it straight through without stopping to exchange a number of
"Helloes" like a group of Swiss yodelers, or to ask a lot of unnecessary
questions.

It is not necessary to scream over the telephone. The mouth should be
held close to the transmitter and the words should be spoken carefully.
In an open office where there are no partitions between the desks one
should take especial pains to keep his voice modulated. One person
angrily spluttering over the telephone can paralyze the work of all the
people within a radius of fifty feet. I