In 1931, Antioch student Stanley Mathewson
illustrates what strategies even unorganized workers used.
The worker upon entering industry is, of
course, first aware of the direct pressure exerted by his fellow-workmen. In
fact, a new worker will often practice restriction for a long time for no other
reason than that the working group insists upon it. Later, he usually becomes
familiar with the underlying causes, the indirect factors which make
"regulation," in the eyes of his fellows, necessary.
The
cases which follow indicate how potent a factor for restriction the pressure of
the group may be. . . .
"Red," a beginner in industry, was working on an assembly
line in a phonograph factory, producing small motors, on hourly rate. The line
was turning out an average <:If only 30 motors a day. "Red" found
it so easy to keep up his part of the
. work that he would pile up parts ahead of the
next worker in the line. He would then move over and help perform the next
operation until the other worker caught up. This went on until "Red"
was shifted by the foreman to the final operation in the assembly line. Here he
was in a position to work as fast as he liked so far as passing on his
completed work was concerned, but he was constantly waiting for the man behind.
In order not to appear slow this man had to put through a few more parts, which
had its effect all along the assembly line. The process of speeding up
developed slowly until the gang, which formerly put through about 30 motors a
day, was turning out an average of 120 a day. To "Red's" surprise,
the men objected strenuously to this increase, argued with him and even
threatened to "meet him in the alley" unless he slowed down his
production. "Red" said that when production got up above 100 motors a
day the threats became so insistent he began to fear "they might really
mean something." However, "Red's" problem was "solved"
by his transfer to another department. . . .
Tex,
a southern boy, started to work for a mining company. He wanted to go into the
mines, but he was too young to be put underground; so he was given a job in the
electrical department running a coil-winding machine. He had never run such a
machine, but found it quite easy to operate after he had been "shown
how." The average output of the coils he was running had been 72 a day.
When he began working, Tex knew no better than to make all the coils he could.
The first day everything was new, but at the end of the second day he found
that he had turned out 90 coils, 18 over the previous average output. If a new
boy could produce as many as that on his second day, a much larger number might
have been possible as he became better acquainted with his machine. Tex never
found out what he might have done, however. He was frightened out of such an
effort by two of the older workmen who approached him at the end of that second
day and demanded, in a threatening manner, that he cut down his production.
On other jobs with this company, where Tex
worked for several years, he encountered similar pressure. When he was given
employment underground he was put to work with Tom, an eğRerienced
mine-electrician. One of their tasks was to get the material ready, haul it
ilJto the mine and put up about 600 feet of mine trolley-wire. The preparations
for such ajob usually took about a half day. Tex suggested a way in which this
time could be cut in half. He was delighted when Tom fell in readily with his
suggestion. The material was prepared, hauled into the mine and under the new
plan they were ready to put it in place before the morning was half gone. Then
Tex got a shock! Tom, instead of going right ahead and putting up the wire,
quit work and ordered Tex to do the same. They spent the time "just fooling
around" until the hours which had been saved were used up unproductively.
. . .
A messenger boy received a lesson in the principle of
"cooperation" on his first job. The duties of the messengers took
them to offices and shops where interesting people were at work and where
interesting things went on. When he joined the group, the other messengers had
a habit of stopping here and there on their rounds. This custom had
established a sort of standard time for each round. The new boy found that he
could make his rounds a lot faster than was usual if he did not stop to chat
with the stenographers and watch the mechanics. The other boys soon explained
to him that if he hurried from place to place they would have to do the same.
This would necessitate giving up the interesting visits to which they were
accustomed.
During the first six weeks of Ellen's employment in a large department
store, she was at the bargain tables. Sometimes the merchandise sold itself so
fast she could hardly handle the customers; at other times, her table would
contain such unattractive goods that, try as she would, she could not interest
anyone. To keep either the extremely slow or the extremely fast pace was very
hard for Ellen, and at times her tallies showed alarmingly small totals. She
would probably have been dropped if her fellow-workers had not helped her out
by sharing their sales with her.
Some time later Ellen was transferred to
another department. Here, freed from the excessive peaks and lags, she made a
sales record for the department. As a result,
the other girls were censured by the buyer for not being able to keep up with
her. She was later put at the head of a
section and needed the cooperation of the
girls. Accordingly, she split her sales with
them so that they would not be criticized
when their tallies were compared with hers.
This plan worked all right until Ellen
decided that she was foolish to work on that
basis. She began to restrict her efforts, rather than give away the result of
her extra work.