Office Etiquette (1950) User Reviews

Watchable Educational Film

[boblipton · 5/10 · 6 June 2023]

Here's another of the educational film produced b the Encyclopedia Britannica for getting along in the real world. It covers, as is clear from the title, some basic attitudes towards getting along in an office environment.

Although the workplace has changed in many details in the last three-quarters of a century -- certainly, with the modern, decentralized, telecommuting model that has grown in the last quarter of a century, there is still a need for instruction in office etiquette. Yet etiquette is based on good manners, and good manners, when properly applied, is about getting on with people. So this movie is about maintaining the proper business attitude: know your work, and get along with the people you work with. This is timeless.

Not bad

[Thor-Delta · 7/10 · 29 March 2012]

A lot of those 1940s/1950s training/educational films about being a secretary or something like that haven't aged well. Many come across as condescending. This one is above-average and much of the film still holds true today. The film starts off with a teacher telling her students the "golden rule" needed to work in the office-place. We then see an example student (also the narrator) going through and learning about working as a secretary. The film includes a memorable sequence showing "bad etiquette" (eating while typing, using office hours for typing personal letters, reading a newspaper while one is supposed to be doing their job). By the end of the film, the main character has been promoted to a higher position and a new secretary from the same teacher is shown entering the same job.

Most viewers today will find it interesting to merely see the 1950 clothes, old telephone and typewriters, which are a large reason that many of these films are preserved, as they are very useful as stock footage.