My Brother-in-law & other stories
By Johnny S. Novera

I look for an efficient secretary

When I was active bank executive, I was very meticulous about choosing my secretary because to me this employee is very important for an executive's job performance.

The first day I am on the job in a new branch or office, I always choose a new secretary or even hire one from outside, if necessary. I transfer the previous one serving my predecessor to another position. In this way I can train the new one the way I want her to be because she does not have old habits.

My employees noticed that I always choose a secretary who wears her hair long. I have not explained this before. Actually, the reason is to distinguish her from my wife who wears her hair short. This is a precaution so I will not make a mistake.

But in being very choosy about my secretary, I meet all kinds.

At one time I hired a new one named Princess. Well, she does not only have long hair, fair complexion, a good figure, but, I thought, also efficient.

As a new secretary, I am amazed that she does not make any mistake at all in typing my correspondence. I liked her: very efficient and no erasures or corrections in the letters she typed.

One day, at half-past noon when she was incidentally already out for lunch, I was looking for a clean envelope and pulled out the lower right drawer of her desk which is unlocked where I thought she was keeping some supplies.

Now I found out why she does not make any mistake. Some 2 reams of stationary with letterheads were kept there with unfinished letters discarded because they have a word or two errors!