288
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
once, Consequently, the employment office must choose
from among the first applicants who present themselves,
even if these are not quite as good as they should be.
Moreover, instead of being able to select applicants for
the work which fits them best, it becomes necessary to
say, in effect: “Here is a job. It is the only thing we have
at the moment. Take it or leave it.” This is not conducive
to successful hiring. Moreover, there are frequently
highly desirable applicants when no jobs are
available. It is a pity to have to turn them away, because
quite likely they will have found work elsewhere before
new jobs become available.
The function of the vestibule school in overcoming this
opportunistic and hand-to-mouth method is obvious. The
vestibule school can hire applicants with an eye to the
future. If exceptionally desirable applicants present
themselves while there is no urgent demand for their
services, it can hire them nevertheless, and begin training
them for the future. It can also keep enough pupils in
training to make it unnecessary to hire applicants for
jobs which they are not fitted to do and which they take
only as a jumping-off place to something else. In fact,
the vestibule school provides that favorable balance of
supplies which is necessary for the proper management of
any establishment, whether it be a household or a large
industrial organization. It is strange how principles which
are so obvious in the management of the small affairs of
life are so often neglected in large establishments where
management has acquired the dignity of a profession.
We may now briefly enumerate the services which the
systematic training of a vestibule school renders the
process of employment.
I. Makes it possible to discover more fully than was