PRODUCTION AND MORALE
By CONSTANCE REAVELEY
SONIE women were working on bomb-containers. Their work had been skilfully broken down into small easy operations, and the welfare officer suggested that it would interest them to see how one job fined into the next, and how the containers were assembled. The works manager said this was not necessary. "What they have to do is so simple," he said, "they've only got, to do what they're told, put that blank peg into that blank hole. It's not important that they should be interested in the work, all they're interested in is money."
This principle that all the workers are interested in is money has been widely acted on ; bonuses have been arranged on the assump- tion that as long as a man could get a bigger pay-packet by working harder he would work harder. It has not always been a successful -policy. Many workers have a certain standard of living in their minds, and when that has been attained they lose interest in money ; most of them worked "excessively long hours during the Dunkirk period, and for many months afterwards ; they carry still a legacy of long fatigue. When they have earned' enough for their modest standard of living they tend to want a respite, and to value leisure more than cash.
At this point righteous indignation arises in the public mind. Men and women, it is argued, ought to be more patriotic than that. This anger is increased when it is realised that many people have no interest in earning money for income tax ; if all they earn in the last. day or half-day in the week will be talten from them in tax, they do not earn that money ; the women take a day off sometimes' to clean their houses . and do their laundry, the men to get the allotment into order or have a long sleep. Solt appears they have Interests outside money, and if yOu want them- to work when their money-interest is satisfied you must treat them- as persons to whom appeal can be made on other grounds. A natural interest in .the job for the job's sake is often killed. Workers are given no idea what , place their task has in the national 'effort, nor any explanation of the machines and Processes they work. - If a man thinks he can improve his job, saving time by an alteration of the process or the con- trivance of a tool, nobody has time.to listen tb-hirri. One man said to me: "If you put an idea in the suggestion-box you ought at least to get an interview, and be given a chance to explain what you have in mind." I think there is a lot in this';' it is hard not to lose interest when 'one's suggestions are ignored. People are constantly trotted as though they had no minds—oral)? 'hands.
' The Government has tried to supply the higher motive for hard Work in war production by pep talks, films and-slogans' and by the establishment of Joint „Production: Conamittees. But Government credit has suffered incalculably from the belief that in the last- war atrocity-stories were invented to excite 'morale. Joint Production Committees have 'sometimes been :useful. Bat where the attitude of the management is that expressed by- a.labqur- manager of. my acquaintance, who said, "My idea is that-the joint Production- Corn- - mince is waste of time, and my hope is to get the workers to take the same view," they arc ineffective. The werke.rs have often nu had enough initial confidence in the scheme to see that sensibl. people were elected as their representatives, and the chairman ha made it his business to rule out of order as mach d the agenda • possible. The workers had a natural tendency to think the commin.. was their opportunity to get changes made for their comfort and ci venience, in ventilation, organisation of tea-breaks and so- on—and these proposals, it turned out, could be rejected as having nothing to do with production. Everybfidy loses interest.
When the money appeal has failed and the patriotic appeal ha: failed, men say in desperation, "They ought all to be pt into khaki: the Army knows how to make men obey." i think it would ht well worth while for industry to study the Army's methods of build. ing morale. It is well known that the Army has a severe system of punishments, and that it relies greatly on drill as the basis of discipline and of the habit of obedience. But there is more' to it than that I remember a regular 'officer bursting out in annoyance at "civilians in uniform." "These young men from civil life," he said, "don't know what it means, to be an officer. At the end of a day's march what do they do? Collect in the pub. I was taught that an officer's first duty at the end of the day is to see that the horses are properly looked after, then to' his men. to sec that they are comfortable, and then, if he has time, to look after himself. These young men haven's got the tradition." 'Lord Moran in his book, The Anatomy of Courage, speaks of Wellington's Army. The Duke himself said his men were "'the greatest scamps tmhung." Sir John Moore organised the -training that-made them into the army that won the Peninsular War. "He left a creed in Which the British Army still believes, a creed supported by a faith in human nature. He insisted that the men should be. treated as human beings. The officers must know their men, be their friend, and look after their wants ; even Orders must be given in the language of moderation." He goes on: "This discipline of kindness has won converts in strange places. Von der Goltz, speaking for the Germans, asks whether the martinet has ever made a good soldier on active service. . .. He tells us that the secret of the strength of the German army is to be found in the interest the officers take in their men."
The Army sets great store by tidiness and otder. In the factories where I have worked one of the most depressing influences on one's morale was mess, in the yard, the workshop, the canteen, even the wash-places. But Army life and industry are very different. The Army appears to' alternate between periods of the utmost exertion in battle or intensive training for battle, and times of rest or routine life in which officers and men can have some.relaxation. 'In industry there is unremitting relentless drive, .and.-the margin. for relaxation is inadequate.. Men and. women working at machines or assembly- benches, and the management who are responsible for maintaining the flow of work, often cannot relax for a minute of the day, and this strain may continue for weeks and months. For years now many factories have' worked a six-and:a-half day week ; their holidays amount to about ten days in the year. This pressure makes it harder for those in command 'to find time to get the welfare, condi 'ons right, and produces irritability and boredom in the workers. Nature's cure is rest and exercise, but industrial life is not planned to allow for enough of these.
. A deeper difficulty may be expressed by saying that the Army Is not a concern run for profit. Even in war-time industrial 'workers firmly believe .that shareholders, directors, works managers, '-foremen are all working for their own pocket. It is hard to base- a demand for sacrificiatdevotion to duty on the system of cost-plus-profit It IS believed that the Excess Profit Tax is often evaded. In time peace this fundamental discontent could be in part allayed by the publication of a firm's accounts. In war the facts which constitute the compelling.restion for production drives cannot be 'disclosed. The spiritual unity of this nation has been gravely damaged by the inequalities that have arisen from excessive concentration on profits. This is not disputed, and it is a matter that must greatly concern usin.therebuilding of our life when peace returns.- In the meantime industry might learn a great deal from the Services. They use exactly the same human material as -industry, and enable it to stand tremendous strains.
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