Dear James,
I am writing to tell you the company hired its first clock last week? On your recommendation I got in touch with that Factory owner you said had an older model clock he considered defective. He turned up on Monday answering to the name of Gerald. I decided to employ him in bookeeping rather than manual labour as clocks seem to have something of a natural affinity for numbers, although that may be a gross generalisation, and I have no shortage of burly young men to do the loading and unloading for me.
I was a little surprised when he came to me at the end of the first day as we were closing up the office and asked if he might depart for the day, I hadn’t expected him to remain working all night but at the same time I hadn’t really considered where he might go at the end of the day. Of course I said he could do as he wished provided he turned up regularly and punctually.
The following day at the end of the work day he came to see me again and asked if he might be paid a wage, he said he didn’t expect to be paid as much as a flesh worker but that he did have certain expenses to take care of and in return he would see to his own maintenance. He is able to concentrate harder for longer than any of my human workers, he calculates at a speed I find astonishing and he is always well polished and polite. I told him I would not pay him any less than any other junior clerk at the business and have had contract written up for him to sign.
I suspect I will get some stick about this in business circles but I say as long as he continues to turn up in the morning and put in a days work I shall be happy. He has already exposed an error in our accounting and saved us a run in with The Board of Custom’s Commissioner’s.
My thanks for the tip off.
Elizabeth