A DAY IN MY LIFE.
The Girl Army Pay Clerk Tells Her Experiences.
The work is to keep accounts, do ledger work, filing and indexing. Passing an easy test is all that is required to gain her this position. She begins at a salary of eighteen shillings a week, and rises to thirty shillings.
Her hours are from 9 a. m. to 6.15 p.m., with an hour for dinner and a quarter of an hour for tea; and on Saturdays from 9 to 12. She works according to Army regulations, and if she stops away without producing a doctor's certificate. her pay is stopped for the hours she is absent.
I remember last Christmas, before I knew of this rule, I was persuaded by a well-meaning hostess to stay over Boxing-night. This meant that, instead of arriving at the office punctually at nine o'clock, the morning train would not reach London until 11 o'clock.
On my arrival the supervisor said the major wanted to see me, and I was then informed that, by the rules and regulations of the Army, all my Christmas pay had been forfeited, exactly as a soldier's pay would have been stopped.
The life is right for the girl who has just left school and who lives at home; or for the woman who, not having had any experience of office work, wishes to "do her bit," to help the country, and is not dependent on the salary she may command. The business girl of experience, however, generally finds a better-paid post, for in those days one can hardly do more than exist on 30s. if bed, and board have to be paid for.
Still, the few months I spent in the Army Pay Corp were happy ones. Previous to this I had been a mother's help. I chose this way of earning my living because, though I was fairly well educated, I had neither the time or money to take up shorthand or typing to make myself proficient as a clerk.
The Army Pay Corps demands neither of these accomplishments, and the training I received there, working my way to the head of the room, enabled me to get a well-paid post in an office.
The work of the girl in the Army Pay Corps brings home to her continually the tragedy of war. The only bright visitors are the men home on leave, who make the office their first calling place to collect their leave-money.
TEN DAYS' LEAVE.
THESE boys, with the mud of Flanders still upon their coats and boots, are proverbially cheery, but a broader smile is on their faces when they call on us—the smile of anticipation of the good times they mean to crowd into their ten days' leave.Other visitors, who call to collect or see the accounts of their dear lost ones, carry the tragedy of their sorrow on their faces. But even here sometimes the visit has a happy ending.
A JOYOUS REUNION.
I REMEMBER one day an old lady called to go through her boy’s accounts. He had been reported killed. She was -heartbroken and her sorrow was pitiful to witness. After hunting through the files, someone remembered that this particular account had been sent for by another department. A messenger was sent for it, and came back with the joyful news that, not only was the record of the boy's death a mistake, but the boy himself was actually in the office at that moment, claiming his account.He had no knowledge that he had been reported killed, and you can imagine the joy of the reunion. Never shall I forget the look of joy and thankfulness on that dear old mother's face as she and her boy passed out.
Many a woman now occupying a good position owes it to the training she received in the Army Pay Corps, and if the wages had been better I should-not have left.
[One of a series of Woman's Weekly articles about new job opportunities for women brought by the war. They seem to be honest about the good points and bad points of the jobs - here the author of the article is very clear that the pay is not enough to live on by itself, but that being a pay clerk could be useful experience for some women.]
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