The housekeeper’s relation to the servants is too large a subject to more than touch, but it is altogether too important to be left out entirely. It is well to bear in mind the fact that laxity does not mean kindness, nor does it always mean “good nature,” as some people appear to believe. Neither does severity mean dignity. It is quite possible to be dignified and approachable at the same time. It is quite possible to be systematic about methods and work, and strict in the observance of the rules of the institution, and at the same time thoroughly kind and tender hearted and womanly. The housekeeper who lets her servants know that she sympathizes with them in the trials and difficulties incident to their life will have much less trouble in governing them than the one who maintains a frigid air, shuts her eyes and ears to things that are large to them, and treats them like machines. There are a hundred ways in which she can touch their lives helpfully, and influence them to higher ideals if she chooses. Questions of dress, health, morals all suggest themselves at this point. The all too prevalent tendency with the servant class to spend their hard-earned dollars in silks, cheap feathers and tawdry finery, to follow the fashions, even if they have to go in debt, is something that can be observed in the hospital as elsewhere. This often has a bearing on health. Many who have spent their all in jewelry or finery which they did not need, are obliged to go without proper shoes, stockings, under-clothing and things that are really essential for health and comfort. If the housekeeper has won the respect and confidence of her help, she ought to have a decided influence in checking this tendency among her maids and promoting habits of thrift and wise expenditure.
Proper hours for retiring is another matter that will come in the housekeeping province as it relates to servants, and one that no institution can afford to neglect. Late hours are neither conducive to good health nor good morals, and certainly do not help in getting good work done. For all these reasons the housekeeper, where the help are housed on the premises, should insist that the same hours that nurses are obliged to observe in getting home, and getting lights turned out should be observed in the servants’ quarters. Whether she wants the responsibility or not, whether she thinks it or not, the influence of the head of the domestic department is felt in the lives of her servants. Characters are being molded and built up that will leave their impress on future generations. The world of the average servant is as a rule very small. They live on the surface of things. Trifles seem large sometimes. At other times very serious and far-reaching questions seem to them quite unimportant. Education of the conscience and of the hand can go on, ought to go on, together.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Problem of Waste
Next in importance to the three vital questions which daily confront the hospital housekeeper, in common with other mortals—“What shall we eat, what shall we drink and wherewithal shall we be clothed?” comes the question of how to prevent waste of the money and materials supplied for carrying on the work of the hospital. Few institutions afford such abundant opportunities for waste, along so many different lines. The sources of leaks seem to be endless. The individuals who are responsible for waste may be found in all departments, and represent all degrees of intelligence. The varied composition of the hospital household, the emergencies of the life and the fact that of necessity in a hospital of even moderate size the work is divided into departments with separate heads, renders the problem of the prevention of waste exceedingly complicated. Then the lack of any thorough system of inspection, the loose method of keeping accounts, and rendering reports of expenditure and income, the absence of uniformity of methods, makes intelligent comparison with other institutions difficult, if not impossible. Because of these conditions, waste may constantly go on in an institution where apparently everyone is trying to be economical.
Main Causes
There are usually three or four main causes existing where habitual waste goes on:
Lack of an accurate system of accounting for supplies.
Lack of careful supervision in the use of supplies.