Boy, this has been a rambling letter and I hope the things I’ve told you will prove entirely unnecessary, but you’re just now embarking on an uncharted sea. You’ll no doubt run into breakers, squalls and stormy weather, yet, there is bound to be clear sailing ahead of you if you’ll be ever alert to stay off the rocks of conceit, leisure and intolerance.
Your loving,
“DAD.”
P.S.—Am sending you that hat you won on the election bet. You’ll note that it’s the same size as the last one I bought you.
Dad Drops in on a Branch Manager and Finds the Spirit of the Time
Dear Hal:
I’ve been reading a great deal recently in the newspapers and magazines, particularly in articles relating to sales problems, about the new order of things with respect to this year rewarding only fighters. In addition to what you say in your letters about your own company’s activities, the bulletins and circular letters you have sent me, it seems that every sales talk I listen to, or read, bears down particularly on that very apparent change that has come about in all business in recognizing changed conditions and cutting your expense-cloth according to your result-pattern.
You know, you sent me a copy of a letter not long ago written by the Big Boss himself, in which he said that they did not contemplate reducing their man power, but he said he expected you to do away with all incompetents; have one good man do the work of two mediocre ones and he intimated in no uncertain terms that your company had no use for drones around its bee-hive.
I have been just a little mite curious to get around and see just how literally your organization was taking the instructions so I welcomed the chance that presented itself last week when some business took me out of town for a few days. I happened in a town, Red, in which your company had a branch house (not in your territory, Boy, although I wished it were). This was what might be called a baby-branch, in that it has been in operation only a few months. Not having much to do, I dropped around to chat with the manager. The thing that first impressed me was that although it was before eight A. M. they were on the job and working. The next thing I noticed was that they didn’t have any surplus office furniture to loll around in. In fact, after I introduced myself and indicated that I was going to stay a few minutes anyway, they had quite a time finding something for me to sit on.