Don't underestimate the opportunities afforded by your position. There really is no position offering better chances for advancement than that of the willing and competent stenographer. There are many incompetents, and for such salaries are small; but there are plenty of positions at good salaries open to the really competent. A stenographer handles many confidential matters, learns the business secrets of his employer, and has every opportunity to learn the business. The stenographer who takes advantage of the opportunities to learn becomes a private secretary, and rapidly advances to even more important positions.
Don't betray secrets. This is the most important don't of all. Remember that your employer dictates many confidential letters, imparting business and private secrets. Do not, under any circumstances, impart these confidential matters to others, and never talk about the business to those outside the office.
FILING DIVISION
Only a small per cent of the records of a business are found in the books of account; the larger part are in the form of business papers of various kinds. And, since the records in the books are, in the main, based on the records found in these papers, the papers themselves are not less valuable than the books. Letters, orders, invoices, receipts, vouchers, contracts, specifications, and estimates form the basis of the larger part of the business transactions of all houses, giving authority for transactions and offering proof that the transactions have been completed. The proper preservation of these papers is, therefore, a necessity, and, since they form so important a part of the records, they must be accessible.
The filing division is, therefore, one of the most necessary in the office of any enterprise, and should receive the careful attention that its importance deserves. Whether the equipment of the filing division consists of a single file or many large cabinets, it should be located where it will be accessible to all departments. It should be given as nearly a central location as the general plan of the office will permit. In a very large enterprise a separate room may be required, while in a small business the files may be arranged along the wall or around a corner. But whatever its location, aisles leading to the filing division should be left open, that it may be reached conveniently from any part of the office. Since good light is not so essential as for some other divisions, it is sometimes advisable to locate the filing division where the light is not sufficient for another division—as the bookkeeping division. At the same time, there must be sufficient light to enable the file clerk to do the work properly.
As a general rule, all filing should be in one place, although under certain conditions, which are referred to later, special departmental filing is justified. It should be possible to obtain from the general files all papers that have a bearing on a particular transaction, or all of the correspondence of a given concern. More or less confusion results when certain of the papers are missing. For example, if a part of the correspondence about an order is filed in the sales department, the papers in the general file may not give a complete history of the case, and the order may be accepted or rejected under a wrong impression because the most important letter is missing.
When independent filing systems are maintained by the different departments, it is sometimes difficult to determine just where certain papers will be found. To say the least, it is quite difficult to collect all of the papers referring to one subject, when the filing is handled in this manner.
Experience has demonstrated that a central filing division is really more convenient for the department manager, than to maintain his own filing system. If the system has been properly installed, he can obtain correspondence or other papers from the general files about as quickly as from his own files, with the added advantage of obtaining all of the correspondence with a particular person. If another department has been in correspondence with the same person, he has their letters as well as his own. When the credit man, for example, reviews the correspondence of a customer from whom he is trying to collect an account, he will not be ignorant of the existence of a letter from the sales manager in which special terms were offered to secure the order.
The File Clerk. The filing division should be in charge of a file clerk and the clerk should have full control of the work of the division. In a large business, a chief file clerk and several assistants will be required, while in a small business it is customary for the stenographer to do the filing. No matter what the extent of the filing, the principle is the same; if but two persons are employed and one is expected to do the filing, the other should neither file nor remove papers from the file. When a letter is wanted, the file clerk should be asked for it.