Rules and Regulations
By Geiger, 1872
Office employees will daily sweep the floors, dust the furniture, shelves, and showcases.
Each day fill lamps, clean chimneys, and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.
Each clerk will bring in a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s business.
Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to your individual taste.
This office will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p. m. daily except on the Sabbath, on which day it will remain closed.
Men employees will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go regularly to church.
Every employee should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefits during his declining, so that he will not become a burden upon the charity of his betters.
Any employee who smokes Spanish cigars, uses liquor in any form, gets shaved at a barber shop, or frequents pool or public halls will give a good reason to suspect his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty.
The employee who has performed his labor faithfully and without faults for a period of five years in my service and who has been thrifty and attentive to his religious duties and is looked upon by his fellow men as a substantial and law-abiding citizen will be given an increase of five cents per day, providing a just return of profits from the business permits it.
And you thought the rules of today’s workplaces were tough! 😛