| A "bad" receptionist learns from her "good" receptionist roommate how improving her attitude can make her job more enjoyable. In a dream sequence the "bad" receptionist is stuck in a hellish office with an equally bad receptionist behind the desk -- herself!!! The bad girl reforms and becomes lovely and happy. Offices have the reputation of being clean, placid environments, and for most of us office work seems preferable to labor in factories, kitchens, or parking lots. At the same time, there's a downside: offices are also a perfect breeding ground for abnormal psychology. White-collar work has always been associated with a strong emphasis on manners, conduct, etiquette, and propriety. Perhaps this relates to its mystique as a more genteel alternative to the factory, or maybe the perceived need to regulate the behavior of large numbers of lower-paid women. But the focus on "doing the right thing" that permeates almost all office training films renders them key artifacts of social control. Historically, the office has been the place where young workers (primarily women) have been socialized and taught appropriate behavior, which in America equals training in "middle-classness." Films like Office Courtesy, Office Etiquette, Duties of a Secretary, Take a Letter From A to Z and I Want to Be a Secretary position the office as a place where young workers (mostly women) are socialized and taught appropriate behavior, and where social hierarchies learned elsewhere are reinforced ... |
