ABSTRACT
Working in a factory usually required wearing something like overalls or a boiler suit. Office work was remarked on as being 'light and clean'. It must be remembered that entry level office jobs were taken up by boys of fourteen or fifteen. To such youthful eyes, being able to dress 'like a gentleman' could be appealing in and of itself. The hiring of office boys and young clerks was becoming different in large concerns like the civil service, railways, the post office, local government and some large businesses, who began to organise and rationalise the business of employing large numbers of clerical workers. The great increase in office workers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century occurred primarily at the 'base' of the occupational group, that is in the routine secretarial jobs. Handing out jobs based on favourable recommendations from personal acquaintances was the essence of tradition in employment.
