Chapter 22

IDEAL EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS

The progress of civilization and enlightment is a good deal like that in the old riddle of the man who had a fox, a goose, and a basket of corn to carry across the river and could carry only one at a time. If you remember, he carried the goose across first, leaving the fox with the corn, since the fox could not eat the corn. Then he went back, leaving the goose, and got the corn; then, when he returned for the fox, he took the goose back with him and left it alone on the bank, while he carried the fox across to keep company with the corn. Then he returned once more and brought the goose over, completing the transfer.

So Civilization carries forward, for a time, one aspect of life. Then she drops this and returns to bring up another. This, in turn, she drops again and goes back once more, and when she goes back she is likely enough to carry the first advance back with her. In the end, however, she finally brings up all of the elements and factors in human life.

For the last fifty years we have made great progress in the invention of machinery, the development of new industries, the organization of great financial and industrial institutions, and the volume of production in nearly all lines. But, in the meantime, in order to make this advance, Civilization has been required to carry back, some hundred of years, the relationship between employer and employed. Now let us hope she is ready to go back and bring this important factor up to date.

ANCIENT AND MODERN EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS

In the old feudal days, the employee was a serf, bound to the soil of his employer. He received a bare living and shared not at all in the gains of the man whose chattel he was. In the days of transition between ancient feudalism and modern industrialism, Civilization greatly improved the relationship between employer and employee. The proprietor and all his men worked side by side in the same shop, performing the same tasks. Each was proud of his skill. Each took delight in his work. Each understood the other. Oftentimes the employee lived under the same roof with his employer, enjoyed the same recreations, and ate at the same table. The skilful, competent, shrewd employer gathered around him the best men in the trade. He profited greatly and his men shared in his prosperity. The invention of machinery and the great enlargement of industrial units makes such relationship between employer and employee impossible. Yet, when employment conditions are improved to match the improvements in machinery and production, we shall go back to the ancient shop for the fundamental principles upon which the new and better relationship will be built.

MUTUAL INTERESTS OF EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE

Observe carefully what these fundamental principles are. First, men who love their work and take pride in it; second, mutuality of interests in that work; third, mutual understanding between employer and employee. By this we mean an understanding by each of the other's point of view, personality, ability, motives, intentions, ambitions, and desires. Already Civilization is groping toward the establishment of a new relation upon this basis. Scientific methods of employment are being adopted in more and more of our industrial and commercial plants. These insure the fitness of the employee for his work and, because of his fitness, his love for it and pride in it. They also insure a better understanding between employer and employee, whose relationship to each other is guided and controlled by a sympathetic and expert corps of men and women especially selected and trained for just such work. Profit sharing, the bonus system, the premium system, study clubs and classes, and many other forms of giving an adequate day's pay for a day's efficient work are all evidences of the desire on the part of the employers and employees to mutualize their interests.

It is true that to-day, perhaps, we have reached the very flood-tide of organization of employees into labor unions and employers into associations, and that these organizations are frequently antagonistic. But these are only evidences of our blind groping toward the ideal. These movements show that we are awake to our needs, that we appreciate the intolerable nature of present conditions and that we have determined to better them. It is inevitable, when such an awakening comes, that we shall eventually learn by our mistakes and direct our effort toward the true solution of our problem.

IDEAL CONDITIONS DIVERSE AS TO DETAIL

Just what would constitute the details of ideal employment conditions it is impossible at this time to say. These will have to be worked out painstakingly, carefully, and with a true appreciation of the fundamental principles involved, by wise and competent employers and employees. It is altogether likely that different conditions will be found to be ideal in different industries and probably in different units of the same industries. One man will maintain ideal conditions by the virtue of his own magnetism and forceful personality, tying his men to himself with the strong bonds of mutual admiration, mutual respect, mutual loyalty, and mutual love. Another will create ideal conditions principally by the magnificent exploits of his organization. It is human nature for a man to like to belong to a winning team, to be proud of his connection with a championship organization. Still, another institution may maintain ideal employment conditions by the good judgment, efficiency, and sincere motives with which it conducts its welfare work. Still another may approach the ideal by means of profit sharing, bonuses, and other such emoluments. We have seen and studied organizations in this country and in Europe which very nearly approached the ideal for each of these reasons. We have also seen some which took advantage of several or all of these.

THE EMPLOYER'S IDEAL

As time goes on, more effective methods of profit sharing will, no doubt, be evolved, methods in which there is greater justice for both employer and employee. New ideas will be developed in welfare work as the result of scientific methods of employment. Employer and employee will learn to understand each other better. The success of all of these methods of organization, when they are adopted, will cause their spread throughout the industrial world, and thus gradually, but surely, we shall approach that ideal organization where every employee is looked upon as a bundle of limitless latent possibilities; where training, education, and development along lines of constructive thought and feeling are held to be of far more importance than the invention of new machinery, the discovery of new methods, or the opening of new markets. This is the reasonable mental attitude. Some obscure employee, thus trained and educated, may invent more wonder-working machinery, discover more efficient methods, and open up wider and more profitable markets than any before dreamed. Even if no such brilliant star arises, the increased efficiency, loyalty, and enthusiasm of the whole mass of employees, lifted by its improved relationships, will yield results far beyond any won by mechanical or commercial exploitation.

THE EMPLOYEE'S IDEAL

The ideal for every employee, therefore, is that he should be employed in that position which he is best fitted to fill, doing work which by natural aptitudes, training, and experience he is best qualified to do, and working under conditions of material environment--tools, rates of pay, hours of labor, and periods of rest, superintendence and management, future prospects, and education--which will develop and make useful to himself and his employer his best and finest latent abilities and capacities.

We have seen that the ideal for the organization is that each man in it shall be so selected, assigned, managed, and educated, that he will express for the organization his highest and best constructive thoughts and feelings.

THE MUTUAL IDEAL--CO-OPERATION

There is one more step. That is, the mutual ideal. It is contained in the other two--and the other two are essentially one. The mutual ideal is the ideal of co-operation. There is no antagonism between these ideals. The old fallacy that the boss must get just as much as possible out of the workman and pay just as little as possible, and that the workman must do just as little as he can and wring from the boss just as much pay as he can for what he does, and that, therefore, their interests are diametrically opposed, has been all but exploded. It was based upon ignorance, upon prejudice, and upon privately interested misrepresentation. The new scientific spirit, working side by side with the new spirit of a broader and deeper humanity, has demonstrated, and is demonstrating, the truth, that in no other union is there such great strength as in the union of those who are working together, creating wealth for themselves and serving humanity. This is the mutual, co-operative ideal in employment.