Working Girl Wednesdays: “Only Seventeen But What a Pusher!”

Welcome to Working Girl Wednesdays! Need advice on handling the complexities of the modern workplace? Well, fret no more! Whether it’s a senior partner making a move or a catty co-worker plotting for your plum position, Helen Gurley Brown’s 1964 book Sex and the Office has a solution. Every Wednesday on Glossed Over, I’ll present a new tip from the legendary editor of Cosmopolitan. Is her advice utterly ridiculous or startlingly prescient? You decide!

In Chapter 4, “Sneaking Up on the Boys,” Helen Gurley Brown explains how to make the jump from secretary to CEO. This excerpt spells out why being a late bloomer in the business world is better than being precocious.

Why am I plumping for a better job for you if I found taking one so painful myself? Because the only thing painful about it was the fear of failing. Aside from that, the better job, with its new men, more money and more prestige was a pleasure dome…

Don’t worry too much. A retarded beginning is better than taking off like a jet and having your tail drop off. Take the case of little Terry Jane Moss. Terry Jane and I worked together at radio station KHJ in Los Angeles as stenographers. The child was only seventeen but what a pusher! The day Pearl Harbor was bombed, little Terry Jane realized with her child’s mind that something Big was up. She popped on the bus, got herself down to the station and worked through the night with newscasters, AP and UP representatives, engineers and executives. She was even out on the roof spotting bombers for them. On Monday morning when the rest of us nincompoops showed up for work, Terry Jane was being driven home in the station manager’s limousine with a hundred dollar bonus in her purse. Now by all rights, Terry Jane ought to have her own broadcasting company by now. The last time I saw her (she would be about 41 now) she was working in a Laundromat. I figure she burned herself out as a teenager.

Next week: “Collect fabulous men as friends and lovers” using your professional connections!

Comments

[D.W.]

I especially love how Helen assumes this lady's life is horrible because she's working at a laundromat -- Terry Jane could be the happiest, most fulfilled person ever for all Helen knows. Seem a tad elitist?

[Athena]

There might be a chance that Terry owns the Laundromat and that maybe she has said business so that she could slow things down and have the time to enjoy life more. Also, I find it annoying that Helen seems to promote the idea of always being on the prowl for a man whenever you are at work rather than applying useful skills to advance in ones career.

[Rachel]

Get some perspective--Helen GB was practically the first to suggest that a woman could have it all. And it's entirely possible that she's right about Terry--even if Terry owns a laudromat, that's a far cry from her youthful enthusiasm in 1941 for radio. So what if it's "elitist"--is it good to settle? Helen doesn't say the woman is "horrible"--she just says she might have burned out early. Can't these commenters read?