The enduring tension: Flexible work arrangements as efficiency tools or autonomy rights

“ Most workers want it, but not enough of them have it. What’s more, it not only makes workers happier – studies show that flexibility can make workers more productive and reduce worker turnover and absenteeism. That’s good for business.
At a time when women make up about half of America’s workforce, outdated workplace policies that make it harder for mothers to work hold our entire economy back. But these aren’t just problems for women. Men also care about who’s watching their kids. ”

“ We also know that flexible workplaces is very important for helping workers to balance work/life — you know, the work responsibilities and job responsibilities. Claudia Goldin at Harvard, for example, has found that the wage gap is smaller in occupations such as pharmacists where there’s just more flexibility baked into the occupation. ”

“ Barack Obama and Joe Biden will address this concern by creating a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules for productivity and establishing positive workplaces; helping businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increasing federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama and Biden will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to petition to request flexible arrangements. ”

“ The point in scientific management is that efficiency depends, wholly depends they believe, on centralizing the responsibility for setting and maintaining workmanship standards, on transferring the responsibility for standards of work from workers who do it, to the management who directs it done. I have learned of only one manager who realizes that although the factory workers are not to be trusted to maintain standards, a management nevertheless will fail to get the workers' full coöperation until it arouses their interest in maintaining them. ”

“ The only condition which contains the elements of stability and permanent satisfaction is that in which both employer and employees are doing as well or better than their competitors are likely to do, and this in nine cases out of ten means high wages and low labor cost, and both parties should be equally anxious for these conditions to prevail. With them the employer can hold his own with his competitors at all times and secure sufficient work to keep his men busy even in dull times. ”

“ It will be shown later in this paper that doing away with slow working and "soldiering" in all its forms and so arranging the relations between employer and employs that each workman will work to his very best advantage and at his best speed, accompanied by the intimate cooperation with the management and the help (which the workman should receive) from the management, would result on the average in nearly doubling the output of each man and each machine. ”

“ Shorter hours of work, by allowing higher standards of comfort and purer family life, promise to enhance the industrial efficiency of the wage-working class — improved health, longer life, more content and greater intelligence and inventiveness. ”

“ What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so you all had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business? ”

“ Labor-management forums, as complements to the existing collective bargaining process, will allow managers and employees to collaborate in continuing to deliver the highest quality services to the American people. Management should discuss workplace challenges and problems with labor and endeavor to develop solutions jointly, rather than advise union representatives of predetermined solutions to problems and then engage in bargaining over the impact and implementation of the predetermined solutions. ”

“ For securing improvement in the relations between employers and employed, it is essential that any proposals put forward should offer to workpeople the means of attaining improved conditions of employment and a higher standard of comfort generally, and involve the enlistment of their active and continuous co-operation in the promotion of industry." Previously, the view was that the workman had nothing whatever to do with this phase of the management of business, and that is a phrase still very much used. ”

“ Restricted, however, to the dwarfish forms into which individual wages slaves can elaborate it by their efforts, the co-operative system will never transform capitalistic society. To convert social production into one large and harmonious system of free co-operative labour, general social changes are wanted, changes of the general conditions of society, never to be realised save by the transfer of the organised forces of society, viz.: the State power, from capitalists and landlords to the producers themselves. ”

“ That indicates the attitude of mind that good employers are fighting against. It is not considered by unprogressive employers any part of the recognized duty of a manager to apply sympathy, understanding, and tact to the treatment of Labour. There is no doubt it requires very great time and patience and prolonged study and investigation of numerous circumstances which are on the surface trivial. A manager is often loath to devote to work of that kind time and energy which he thinks, and which many employers certainly think, can more profitably be spent in technical and commercial activity. ”

“ But we have as yet failed to adjust our human relations to the facts of an economic interdependence. The process toward adjustment, though slow, nevertheless goes on. Right relations between employer and employee, in large industries, can be promoted only by deliberate organization of that relationship. Not only must the theory that labor is a commodity be abandoned, but the concept of leadership must be substituted for that of mastership." The attitude of the community has been to take no step in advance of what resulted from the trial of argument and force by the directly interested parties. ”

“ It is safe to say that no system or scheme of management should be considered which does not in the long run give satisfaction to both employer and employee, which does not make it apparent that their best interests are mutual, and which does not bring about such thorough and hearty cooperation that they can pull together instead of apart. ”

“ The introduction of clinics, rest rooms, restaurants, sanitary provisions, and all arrangements relating directly to the workers' health have a bearing on efficiency and productivity which is well recognized and probably universally endorsed by efficiency managers, even if they are not invariably adopted.
Scientific management wants two things; more men in the labor market to fill the positions of functionalized foremen, more men than modern industrial society has produced ”

“ What is the attitude of the laboring man to these efficiency schemes? It must be admitted that so far as organized labor, at least, is concerned its opposition is almost universal, and that this opposition has been the source of much criticism. Two questions naturally present themselves at this juncture: why does unionism oppose the efforts of the efficiency engineer, and second, what will be the ultimate outcome of such opposition? ”

“ Nothing is better established than that arbitrary, dictatorial methods on the part of the employer are fatal to the real interest and cooperation that an efficiency system demands. Such an attitude can result in nothing else than suspicion and antagonism. Whatever plan be adopted, therefore, it is essential that a channel be provided through which the workmen can express themselves. ”

“ A few weeks of experience makes a machine operator of the common laborer; and furthermore, SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND THE SPEEDING UP PROCESSES DESTROY INDIVIDUALITY. The loss of individuality destroys all notions of property—cuts the last thread that binds the interests of the worker to the present system.
Craft unionism cannot survive. The development of industry—the perfection of the machine processes—has doomed it. ”

“ Why is the service supplied by the industry ineffective? Partly because the workers do not give their full energies to the performance of their part in production. {107} Why do they not give their best energies? Because of "the fear of unemployment, the disinclination of the operatives to make unlimited profit for private employers, the lack of interest evinced by operatives owing to their non-participation in control, inefficiency both managerial and operative." How are these psychological obstacles to efficiency to be counteracted? ”

“ I cannot but think, however, that it will be found more beneficial in manufacturing, than even in rural, districts. Let us enumerate some of the probable advantages. It would form an additional means of support—it would tend to endear home to the working man—it would provide a pleasing change of employment for him in good times—it would render him not so listless when out of work—and it would give him knowledge, an additional topic of conversation, and an interest in various things which he might never, otherwise, have felt the least concern for. ”

“ Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that an employer who intends to organize work according to a certain pattern takes account of the general principle of adapting work to the worker, with a view, in particular, to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate, depending on the type of activity, and of safety and health requirements, especially as regards breaks during working time. ”

“ But I will say, broadly, as you know and you alluded to in your question, we know it’s very difficult for workers to make the choice to form a union. That’s why the President’s American Jobs Plan includes the right — protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would give more workers the ability to organize and bargain collectively for — with their employees. ”

“ It is right and proper for laborers to organize such associations when they can do so under wise and economical management, for the purpose of securing greater intelligence, better education, higher culture, higher wages, a shorter work-day, and a general ameliorating of their condition, all of which will tend to make them more efficient workmen and also better enable them to resist the aggression of centralized wealth; for, in the absence of organization, the single-handed employe of the great modern employer is comparatively helpless. ”

“ Consolidation has increased the power of corporate employers, making it harder for workers to bargain for higher wages and better work conditions. Powerful companies require workers to sign non-compete agreements that restrict their ability to change jobs. ”

“ The basic principle of the Trade Union, the right and usefulness of collective bargaining, inheres in the conditions of machine-dominated and capitalized industry. In this form of labor organization the individual worker cannot bargain individually; his place in the factory is too infinitesimal and his power measured by that of his employer too invisible for such personal alignment. This fact is now not questioned by any but those so enamoured of old methods of control of the worker by those who hire him that they cannot see what has really happened both to the employer and the employed. ”

“ An employer who can easily resist any number of individual claims for higher wages by his power to replace each worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the united pressure of a large body of his workmen, because the inconvenience of replacing them all at once by a body of outsiders, is far greater than the added difficulty of replacing each of them at separate intervals of time. This is the basis of the power of concerted action among workers. ”

“ Only thus could workers ensure themselves economic standards consonant with national well-being. Protection of the workers' right to self-organization does not curtail the appropriate sphere of managerial freedom; it furthers the wholesome conduct of business enterprise. 'The act', this Court has said, 'does not interfere with the normal exercise of the right of the employer to select its employees or to discharge them'. ”

“ We make no claim in this report that workmen should have the right to interfere in the higher realms of business management, in, say, finance, in the general higher details of organisation, in the extension of works, in all those more important and urgent matters which must come before the board of managers or the manager himself. ”

“ Yet there is much improvement needed. While the hours of labor have been reduced in general to eight per day, the irregularity of employment leads to unrest and frequently to great distress. There is a growing tendency to make laborers partners in the process of production. This does not mean that they shall take over the direction of industry, but co-operate with the managers regarding output, quality of goods, income, and wages, so as to give a solidarity to productive processes and eliminate waste of time, material, and loss by strikes. ”

“ We acknowledge the co-operative movement as one of the transforming forces of the present society based upon class antagonism. Its great merit is to practically show, that the present pauperising, and despotic system of the subordination of labour to capital can be superseded by the republican and beneficent system of the association of free and equal producers. ”

“ That the workers desire to establish the conditions for co-operative production on a social scale, and first of all on a national scale, in their own country, only means that they are working to revolutionize the present conditions of production, and it has nothing in common with the foundation of co-operative societies with state aid. But as far as the present co-operative societies are concerned, they are of value only insofar as they are the independent creations of the workers and not protégés either of the governments or of the bourgeois. ”

“ In return for an increased voice and a greater stake in the success of their enterprises, workers should be prepared to join in cooperative efforts to increase productivity, flexibility and quality. Government's neutrality between labor and management cannot mean neutrality about the collective bargaining process, which has been purposely crippled by Republican administrations. Our economic growth depends on processes, including collective bargaining, that permit labor and management to work together on their common interests, even as they work out their conflicts. ”

“ It is recognized that each business concern has its own problem to solve in accordance with its own peculiar conditions. The questions of welfare, labor turnover, supervision of personnel, self-expression, sharing of profits or savings, etc., have been analyzed and discussed in fullest detail. It is beyond our scope to add anything in these fields. But even where management has adopted the broadest policy looking to the loyal co-operation of its employees, its successful operation will still depend on how the men are handled by those directly in contact with them. ”

“ Thus, to give only one illustration, if men were discharged who were leading efforts at organization in a plant having a low wage scale, they would not unnaturally be compelled by their economic circumstances to seek and obtain employment elsewhere at equivalent wages. In such a situation, to deny the Board power to wipe out the prior discrimination by ordering the employment of such workers would sanction a most effective way of defeating the right of self-organization. ”

“ Before enactment of the National Labor Relations Act this Court had recognized that the maintenance of a 'company union,' dominated by the employer, may be a ready and effective means of obstructing self-organization of employees and their choice of their own representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining. ”

“ Over 60 per cent of the respondent's employees, after passing the gate, enter automobiles or busses parked in the space between the gate and the highway, and presumably speed homeward, without ever setting foot on the highway. Distribution of literature to employees is rendered virtually impossible under these circumstances, and it is an inescapable conclusion that self-organization is consequently seriously impeded. It is no answer to suggest that other means of disseminating union literature are not foreclosed. Moreover, the employees' homes are scattered over a wide area. ”

“ The employer who refuses to recognize the right of his men to have anything to say about wages or hours of labor does not always have an easy and quiet time of it. Troubles of a pretty serious nature do arise, even under such management. Are not the frictions and collisions and losses of the autocratic regime quite as injurious as any that would be likely to arise under a more friendly arrangement?
The man who thinks it would be difficult to lead his employees in the peaceful paths of productive industry may well consider whether it is any easier to drive them. ”

“ Here, the very increased rates of pay which the respondents received for exceptional right and weekend work was the result of the contract which they now seek to disavow.
Collective bargaining between powerful combinations of employers and employees in an entire industry, each group conscious of what it seeks and having not merely responsibility for its membership but resourceful experience in discharging it, is a form of industrial government whereby self-imposed law supplants force. ”

“ With human nature as it is, the temptation to cut piece-rates, to speed up machinery, and the utilization of similar methods must be, so far as possible, removed. In time the employers will undoubtedly come to see that the lack of hearty cooperation that must be expected from men who are driven instead of led will wreak its own evil consequences, but in the meantime something else must be substituted. The details must needs vary with the individual shop and trade. It is necessary, however, that in some manner the employees in their collective capacity be recognized. ”

“ It will demand the largest efficiency from both employers and employees. It will no longer tolerate the type of employer who has his eye on dividends alone, who refuses to do his full share of the work and who merely cracks his whip over the heads of his workmen and attempts to drive them into harder work for low pay. No more will it tolerate tyranny on the part of labor which demands one increase after another in pay and shorter hours while at the same time it becomes less instead of more efficient. ”