🚀 go-pugleaf

In dc.driving Gary Forbis <forbis@accessone.com> wrote:

: In the late sixties I worked with an ex UAW member.  He complained about
: how the union would tell him to slow down.  I don't think he was a piece
: worker
: so he earned no more money by being twice as productive.

Yes, this sort of thing does happen, but it doesn't necessarily have
anything to do with union membership.  It isn't really all that hard to
understand why, either.  Let's say you've got one super hero making 100
parts in the time it takes everyone else to make 30.  Now it could be that
everybody else is just lazy or pissed off, but I sort of doubt that.  More
likely it's got something to do with how fast a man can work over the long
haul.  So here comes the boss.  Is he absolutely delighted that one guy is
making 100 parts?    He is not.  He is livid that the rest are such a
bunch of lazy bums.  

There is another sitation that sometimes happens.  It shouldn't happen,
but it does.  For some reason there just isn't enough work to keep
everyone busy.  I suppose that you think everybody should just finish up
everything in sight and take leave without pay until more work shows up?
Won't happen.  

: This is an area in which my union support waivers.  I prefer piece work to
: fixed wages.  Some days I want to work slow and some days I want to work
: fast.  Heck, some days I'd like to work fast and long and then skip a few
: days.

There's a bunch of history connected with piece work.  The basic idea is
sort of like the little mechanical rabbit at the dog track...the dogs are
never never going to catch that rabbit no matter how hard they run.  If a
pieceworker started making lots of money, that didn't prove what a great
worker he was.  It proved that management hadn't set the goals high
enough, and adjustments were made. 

I just wonder if you've ever actually worked in a shop?  Somehow that
happy-go-lucky work fast when you feel like it attitude doesn't sound like
it would play very well in any shop I ever worked in.  

-- 
Kenneth T. Cornelius  
kencorn@clark.net