Background: At age 11, Pauline Newman (a recent immigrant from Lithuania) got a job working in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a year–round position that ensured she would have work and income to help support her family. Here, Pauline discusses the working conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co.

As I said before, the job was not strenuous. It was tedious. Since our day began early we were often hungry for sleep. …There were … deductions from our meager wages if and when you were five minutes late—so often due to transportation delays; there was the constant watching you, lest you pause for a moment from your work; (rubber heels had just come into use and you rarely heard the foreman or the employer sneak up behind you, watching.)

You were watched when you went to the lavatory and if in the opinion of the forelady you stayed a minute or two longer than she thought you should have you were threatened with being fired; there was the searching of your purse or any package you happen to have lest you may have taken a bit of lace or thread …

Despite these inhuman working conditions the workers—including myself—continued to work for this firm. What good would it do to change jobs since similar conditions existed in all garment factories of that era? There were other reasons why we did not change jobs—call them psychological, if you will. One gets used to a place even if it is only a work shop. One gets to know the people you work with. You are no longer a stranger and alone. You have a feeling of belonging which helps to make life in a factory a bit easier to endure. Very often friendships are formed and a common understanding established. These, among other factors made us stay put, as it were …

tedious: Too long, slow, or dull. Boring and usually repetitive.

lavatory: bathroom

Source: Pauline Newman, Pauline Newman papers, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe. Box 1, folder 3, pp. 14–17, 20–21.