Frank B. Gilbreth

“ Fatigue is the after-effect of work. It is the condition of the worker’s organism after he has expended energy in doing something. It is a necessary by-product of activity. If, as is presumable, every member of our crowd of workers has been putting in a day full of activity, we might expect to see the same marks of fatigue on every face and figure,—but we do not. ”

“ It is through the measuring of motions that one comes to realize most strongly the necessity of fatigue study.
There has come, in the past twenty-five years, a strong general realization that the important factor in doing work is the human factor, or the human element. Improvement in working apparatus of any type is important in its effect upon the human being who is to use the apparatus. The moment one begins to make man, the worker, the centre of activity, he appreciates that he has two elements to measure. One is the activity itself. ”

“ Time, a lifetime, is our principal inheritance. To waste any of it is to lose part of our principal asset. To waste time and to suffer from unnecessary fatigue simultaneously can be excused [Pg 4] only by ignorance. Unnecessary fatigue is caused by some one’s ignorance. This book aims to call the attention of the world to the relationship between fatigue and waste, with the hope that the knowledge of our methods of fatigue elimination may be useful to others. ”

“ The worker has two chief ways in which he can help in fatigue elimination. The first is to co-operate with the management in installing fatigue elimination methods and devices in the particular plant in which they are both interested. The second is to help to make fatigue [Pg 157] elimination fashionable. This latter duty lies with no one but the worker himself. No new methods spread more quickly than the “fashion of work.” There is nothing of which a well run plant is more proud than the “way” it works, the work spirit. ”

“ The question of motivation is one demanding understanding and serious consideration in every field of activity to-day. This is true in education. It is also true in the industries. The motive of getting all that one can for one’s work must always exist, and is a perfectly justifiable motive, but the fatigue-eliminating work cannot be considered successfully, unless this motive of self interest has also with it the motive of interest in the welfare of others, and in cutting out all fatigue that can effect any member of the group in any way. ”

“ In this day no one can feel satisfied with his solution of the air problem who has not submitted it to an expert, and installed the results of his measured investigation. In the meantime, safety lies on the side of providing more fresh air than is necessary. If there is plenty of fresh air, unless the work itself demands peculiar temperature or humidity conditions, the worker is fairly safe. The rest periods that are being installed will do much to solve the air problem, as they furnish an admirable opportunity for giving the work places a thorough ventilation, if not a complete “airing out.” ”

“ If each member of the organization is at once placed under such working conditions that he can enjoy the rest periods along with the high pay that comes from a large product, he will co-operate most fully in the progressive work of fatigue elimination. It is a fundamental rule of scientific management that the rate once set must never be cut. It should also be a fundamental principle of our management that rest periods once established should not be abolished or shortened. Let the error, if error there is, always result to the advantage of the worker, never to that of the employer. ”

“ Work is not less fatiguing because it demands less skill. It is less fatiguing when it is done with ease and when there is a joy of achievement requiring skill; that is, when it is satisfying. Because of lack of opportunity, one may only perform with ease the work which does not demand much skill. As soon as he learns to perform the skilled work with ease, it causes even less fatigue, other things [Pg 149] being equal, than does unskilled work, because it holds the interest, hence the attention, more easily. ”

“ We have aroused more interest in fatigue elimination, and have made it general. With the establishment of properly distributed rest periods, chairs, seats, etc., the recovery process becomes interesting. As he knows how resting improves his working conditions, the worker becomes more warmly interested in the fatigue itself. It is a very different thing to talk about the evils of fatigue, or even to see the advantages of proper rest exhibited in object lessons, than it is to get proper rest in a specially designed chair for the first time in one’s working life. ”

“ If this is provided, the fatigue eliminating campaign will not be regarded as a new scheme for driving the worker. Better for the good of the management and the men to limit the output to its usual amount during this period, until the workers see that too much fatigue to-day interferes with the standard quantity of output to-morrow, than to attempt to allow increased output without increased pay. The world can better afford to lose the extra product, than the management to appear even for a moment to be trying to overwork the men. ”

“ The whole idea must be that it is a disgrace to have causes of unnecessary fatigue existing. Overfatigue is a positive proof of inefficiency. There is no fear but that the workers will recognize these duties, and will perform them heartily and with good will, when they know that they are getting a square deal. It is right that they should make very sure that they are going to receive such treatment, and that fatigue study is not a new scheme for taking advantage of them, but they must be ready to listen to the proof and to accept it when they are convinced that it is true. ”

“ Under the scientific form of management there is no incentive to pretend anything. The incentive is, rather, to show exactly what one is doing and how one feels, in [Pg 115] order that accurate records may be made, and that the offered rewards may be received. We have, then, at this stage, where every member of the organization realizes that co-operation is necessary for the good of all, the opportunity to measure fatigue with considerable accuracy. ”

“ There is often the same desire for reading in this home, though it has not had such a chance to become trained. The whole family has the same desire to see the pictures, and the children the same joy in colouring the drawings or cutting them out. The neighbours will like to borrow anything that is interesting, and the reader will increase his stock of information and his vocabulary, and form the habit of reading besides. There are exactly the same possibilities of developing habits and tastes. All that is lacking is the opportunity. ”

“ Whether we improve in the doing because we take pleasure in doing it, or simply because the pleasure makes us do more, and we improve with the practice, is not of great importance. Psychologists are divided in their opinions as to the effect of pleasure upon work, but all agree that, directly or indirectly, pleasure in the work does affect the work favourably. Through the transference of skill this pleasure is given to the work, or increased in the work, and, therefore, the amount of skill transferred is a test of fatigue elimination. ”

“ It is a fact that most men, especially those who do not have many magazines, feel a little peculiar when seen reading an old magazine of current events in public. They have the consciousness of conspicuousness that at least distracts the attention. ”

“ The office worker, whose finished and unfinished papers are heaped in confusion before him, expends not only useless motions in getting at and disposing of what he wishes to handle, but also mental energy, in constantly adjusting and readjusting himself to the work. There has been a popular idea that it “looked busy” to have plenty of work around, that to see work to be done would impress both managers and workers with the need for applying themselves to the work more constantly and with considerably more speed. ”

“ Good appearances have always been a large element in making sales, and it is natural and right that the manufacturer should like his product to be attractive in appearance, and that the manager should take pride in the looks of his factory or office. But our entire standard of what is desirable in “good looks” in a work place has changed. We look now for efficiency and fatigue elimination rather than for ornament and glaring polish. We reduced fatigue, annoyance, and distraction on several pieces of work by having our clients paint nickel and other bright parts with a coat of dull black paint. ”

“ We know how many accidents happen to the inexperienced worker, that would never happen to the experienced worker. We all know how many children are hurt, where an older person would see and avoid danger; and we note every day, more and more clearly, that the exhausted worker is to an enormous extent more susceptible to accidents than is the rested worker. It is usually the tired motorman who has the collision. The tired locomotive engineer passes the stop signal. The exhausted motorist is in the accident. The tired operator gets his fingers caught in the machine. ”

“ In the first place the survey maker is not sure what should be photographed. In the second place the worker is not always eager that he or his work place should be photographed. This is even more true of the management than of the men. Some managers are not willing to allow their work places to be photographed, when they realize that such photographs will live as “before and after” records. Where photographs can be taken, they are the ideal records, in that they are accurate, detailed, unprejudiced, easily understood, easily preserved, and constantly available. ”