Miss Read

Miss Read was the personnel officer at Miami Modes department store. In 1963, it fell to her to resolve a dispute between Christine Appleby, newly promoted supervisor of the "Better-dressed" department, and her older and more experienced attendant Elsie Tanner.

The row had started on the shop floor, where Christine made bitchy comments about Elsie taking personal calls during working hours, once in front of a customer. Having once counted Christine as a friend, Elsie thought she'd gone mad with power and reported her to Miss Read. The following day, Miss Read summoned each woman to her office, beginning with Christine, in an attempt to find out whether a peace could be brokered. While Christine agreed to continue working with Elsie, Elsie was less kind towards her superior, telling Miss Read that Christine wasn't cut out for the job. The women were left with the promise that changes would be made, with no indication of which of them would be staying.

Miss Read met with Christine and Elsie again the next day to inform them of her decision: to move Christine to children's wear and keep Elsie where she was. In choosing to keep Elsie, Miss Read hadn't used her bad record with previous supervisors against her, making her decision based on Elsie's greater experience and the fact that she should have known not to promote one friend over the other. Elsie, who never got on with her bosses, was so delighted by this turn of events that she made up with Christine allowing them to part on good terms.


 * The name on the door to Miss Read's office, seen in Episode 267 (3rd July 1963), gives the character's middle initial as M.