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Boater wrote:
Eisboch wrote:
"Boater" wrote in message
...
Eisboch wrote:
"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:17:37 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

There is no way in the world the American worker of present day works
harder than the guy in my dad's day. I have been victim to being told
to slow down by a union. In all fairness (which we won't expect from
the other side) I was also told to slow down while on piece work at
Standadyne, a non union shop...

Piece work is sort of a special deal. When I pushed pieces I was
aware that I was in my 20's and strong as a horse.
The guy on the next shift might be 50 and not so healthy or strong.
If I was being timed I had to go slower. Still worked hard, but
shortened my break times. Didn't want to screw up the older guys.
They did plenty of work.

--Vic

Many of us have never had the type of work experience where you had
to be conscious of how productive you are compared to your fellow
worker. The closest I ever came to that I guess is 9 years in the
military, but nobody pressured you to hold back in doing a good job,
or even a better job than others. The benefit of doing a good job
was learning your job code, advancing in rank and earning more
money. Everyone had the same opportunity. Some did, some didn't.
In the military if someone was noticed to be purposely holding back,
he/she would be in a world of hurt.

In my civilian experiences of almost 30 years now, the companies
I've worked for were too small to have a cast of thousands all doing
the same kind of work. The motivation to do a good job was the fact
that your performance contributed to the overall efforts and if you
slacked off, it would be very noticeable. Often, I was the only one
doing a particular function, so screwing up, performing well or
being lazy had an immediate impact on the company and was usually
noticed by the management.

So, you people with other experiences have to realize that the
concept of "backing off" in performance is totally foreign to some
of us.

Eisboch

Doing a "good job," and doing a job quickly are not always
compatible, as I am sure you know. When I worked cleaning and
rebuilding the innards of boilers, I was told to work at a slow,
careful pace to make sure I took enough time to do the job properly.
All of the guys I worked with, guys with many years of experience,
worked faster than I did, but they all worked a different speeds.
Slacking off was not a problem. Bad work that caused the boilers to
fail when they were tested was. Rushed work usually resulted in bad
work.

That's fine Harry, but it's not what this discussion was about.

Eisboch

Sure it is. We worked as teams inside boilers, and everyone was
conscious of how productive they were compared to the other workers.

By the end of the first month, my pace had picked up to the point where
I no longer slowing anyone down.

Tough work, working outside on a loading platform in the summer, inside
an old boiler, but the pay was terrific for a summer job.

Were you getting paid $12.50 an hour in 1970 for this job too?

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