1. Persons employed in the service of the Asylum will learn that character, proper deportment, and faithfulness to duty, will alone keep them in the situations in which they are placed; and they should consider well, before entering upon service, whether they are prepared to devote all their time, talents, and efforts, in the discharge of the duties assigned to them. The Institution will deal in strict good faith with its employees, and it will expect, in return, prompt, faithful, and self-denying service.

2. No one can justly take offense when respectfully informed by the Superintendent, that his or her temperament is better adapted to some other employment; and those receiving such information should regard it as kindly given, that they may have opportunity to avoid the unpleasantness of being discharged.

Rules and Regulations of the Insane Asylum of California — Part 2

3. Those employed at the Asylum be expected to hold themselves in readiness for duty when directed by its officers; and the neglect of any labor, or duty, on the ground that laboring hours are over, or to hesitate, after proper direction, on such pretexts, will be regarded as evidence against the fitness of the employee for the place he or she may hold.

Rules and Regulations of the Insane Asylum of California — Part 2

4. It must be remembered by all the employees, that their duties are peculiar and confidential, and that there is an obvious impropriety in disclosing the names, peculiarities, or acts of the inmates. It should never be forgotten that the most cruel wounds may, by imprudent disclosures, be inflicted on those whose conduct and language, during their misfortune, should be covered with the veil of deepest secrecy. Conversations, in relation to the Asylum and its inmates, sought by the idle and mischievous, should be studiously avoided.

Rules and Regulations of the Insane Asylum of California — Part 2

5. All persons employed in the Asylum are required to cultivate a calm and deliberate method of performing their daily duties—carelessness and precipitation being never more out of place than in an insane asylum. Loud talking, hurrying up and down stairs, rude forms of address to one another, and unsightly styles of dress, are wholly misplaced where everything should be strictly decorous and orderly.

6. In the management of patients, unvarying kindness must be strictly observed by all. When spoken to, mild, pleasant and persuasive language must never give place to authoritative expressions of any kind. All threats, taunts, or other kinds of abuse in language, are expressly forbidden. A blow, kick, or any other kind of physical abuse, inflicted on a patient, will be immediately followed by the dismissal of the person so offending.