The · Tragedy of Carelessness
WHO could ever estimate the lives lost, the vast number of human beings injured, and the tremendous loss of property caused every year by carelessness? Just a little indifference or carelessness, just a few little bubbles in a casting, and the whole building is wrecked, or a bridge goes down into the river, carrying its train of precious human freight. Just a little flaw in a rail, or in a wheel, or in a bit of machinery, just a little carelessness, and scores of people may lose their lives. We are always on the lookout for big things; but it is the little things that escape detection that cause the great mischief. O, the tragedy of carelessness, enacted every day in our country by employees, which comes from indifference, from lack of interest, from not thinking, from a wandering mind! How many customers and how much money are lost by business houses every year from careless letters, careless packing, and careless addressing — useless blunders. How many lives are lost from the carelessness of railway employees, of switchmen, and of motor-men! It is a most unfortunate thing for a large establishment to be honeycombed by carelessness of its employees. Boys break things, ruin goods, furniture, china, glassware, works of art—all sorts of things—by sheer carelessness. In our homes everywhere we see evidences of carelessness and indifference. Our furniture is always falling to pieces; because not properly glued or properly doweled, and our beds breaking down, casters coming out, and chairs coming to pieces. The little mistakes of the employees in John Wanamaker’s establishment cost the firm more than twenty-five thousand dollars a year. The manager in a large Chicago house says that he has to station pickets here and there all through the establishment in order to neutralize the evils of inaccuracy. One business man states that inaccuracy costs the city of Chicago one million dollars a day, and, when we remember that somebody is blundering somewhere every minute of the day, this does not seem strange. Yet the most of those who make mistakes would say that they are little things to make such a fuss about; in the aggregate, however, they amount to a small fortune. These careless clerks doubtless wonder why they are not promoted, and would be greatly surprised if told that these trifling errors are the cause of their slow advancement. Some minds seem to be almost incapable of accurate action. There is loose-jointedness about their very mental make-up. If we analyze these people, we find that they do not observe definitely or think sharply. They lack mental method and system. Slipshod thinkers are loose-jointed doers. “O, that is good enough! Do not spend so much time on that thing. We can not afford it, Charlie. We do not get pay for it.” This was the exclamation of the proprietor of an upholstery shop to a new boy who was employed to run errands and to get and deliver goods in a push-cart. When the boy had a few minutes, he borrowed tools and repaired furniture. He soon became so skilled that the proprietor set him to work at upholstering furniture. The only fault he had to find was that he was too particular, and he would say, “Do not use two nails where one will do. Do not spend two hours on a job when one will do. We do not get pay for that sort of nicety.” But the boy was not satisfied with “good enough,” or “pretty fair.” He always insisted upon everything being done to a finish, and would never let a job go out of his hands, if he could help it, until it was done just as well as he could do it. This was his trade-mark. The determination of this young man to do everything to a finish has carried him to a high and very responsible position within a very few years, and, now he has hundreds of men under his authority. The reputation of being absolutely accurate and painstaking is equal to a large amount of capital to a young man going into business for himself. Banks are more likely to give him credit, and jobbing houses will trust him, when they would not place confidence in a slipshod man of equal ability. Thoroughness is the twin brother of honesty. When an employee gets the reputation of doing a thing not pretty nearly, but exactly right, it has more influence with his employer than talent. For example, a young stenographer who is accurate in taking notes, who spells correctly, punctuates properly, and whose judgment and common sense enable him to correct involved sentences, or matter that has been hastily dictated without reference to grammatical construction, will never be out of a place. There is never a day in a business office when accurate understanding and clear-headedness are not at a premium.—Success.