Discipline: Part 2, Reprimanding

This instructional film, likely produced in the 1940s as part of a workplace training series, examines the art of reprimanding through a cautionary tale of poor management. Shot in black-and-white, it features a white male office supervisor confronting a young white male office worker, possibly a clerk or typist, in a drab office setting—desks piled with papers, a typewriter idle. The supervisor, stern and overbearing, unleashes a sarcastic and abusive tirade, mocking the worker’s errors (perhaps a misfiled report or sloppy typing) with biting remarks like “Did you sleep through school?” or “This is why we can’t win the war!” His tone drips with condescension, arms flailing as he looms over the cowed subordinate. The film likely shifts to narration, critiquing this approach as counterproductive—alienating rather than correcting—contrasting it with a brief, imagined “right way” scene of calm, firm guidance. Aimed at supervisors in wartime or postwar offices, it’s a dated yet vivid snapshot of mid-20th-century workplace dynamics, reflecting era-specific gender and racial norms.