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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 7, No. 10 October 4, 1944
General Observations and Advice
General Observations and Advice.
As students are likely to be required for vacation work during the coming summer the following points may be worth keeping in mind.
| 1. | If students cannot get work closely associated with their vocations it would seem that outdoor work, particularly on farms, is likely to give them the greatest satisfaction. |
| 2. | Work in dairy factories is unsuited to student labour. The work is too gruelling for persons not accustomed to hard physical labour; the working conditions are trying (steamy and wet) and are likely adversely to affect the health of a student who has been indoors all the rest of the year; the pay is low—impossibly low if board and lodging have to be found from it—and there will certainly be nothing over for the coming year's expenses; the accommodation for casual workers in rural areas is likely to be bad. Avoid going there if you possibly can. |
| 3. | Some jobs in freezing works where very long hours are worked are likely to be exhausting. The same applies to some domestic jobs for girls. Make careful inquiries before taking up work of either variety. Unless you are exceptionally robust it is unwise to work regularly in poor working conditions for more than 56 hours a week on jobs involving effort or concentration. By working 56 hours or less you will not be adversely influencing the war effort, since researches have shown that efficiency and output usually decrease when longer hours are worked. |
| 4. | Stand up for your rights. One student put the matter well: "There may be cases where students have been imposed on while working during the vacation, but surely they should have enough gumption to learn to stand on their own feet, and to seek redress through the unions for any wrongs suffered. I object to students being treated with any distinction from other sections of the working community." Needless to say the right to object when unfairly treated implies the obligation to pull your weight when decently treated. |
| 5. | Your jobs may not be interesting in themselves, but they can provide a valuable opportunity for studying working conditions and methods, types of organisation and human relationships. You can learn a good deal if you keep your eyes open, enter into the general life of the place and don't form student cliques. If you can record your impressions and experience accurately it will prove a useful exercise in "Mass Observation." |
Thanks are due to Miss Gwen Jolly for her assistance with some of the. "donkey work" involved in the analysis of the questionnaire returns.
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