This concert
of action was curiously universal, no "overtime" was ever to be thought
of, and, as occasionally happened when the work did go over the hour,
it was not, to use the mildest term, done with care, neatness, or
accuracy; it was, to use a current phrase, "slammed off." Every moment
beyond five o'clock in which the worker was asked to do anything was by
just so much an imposition on the part of the employer, and so far as
it could be safely shown, this impression was gotten over to him.
There was an entire unwillingness to let business interfere with any
anticipated pleasure or personal engagement. The office was all right
between nine and five; one had to be there to earn a living; but after
five, it was not to be thought of for one moment. The elevators which
ran on the stroke of five were never large enough to hold the throng
which besieged them.
The talk during lunch hour rarely, if ever, turned toward business,
except as said before, when it dealt with underpaid services. In the
spring and summer it was invariably of baseball, and scores of young
men knew the batting averages of the different players and the standing
of the clubs with far greater accuracy than they knew the standing or
the discounts of the customers of their employers.
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