Analyzing Character Part 26

Joe Lathrop knew that Robinson's quiet efficiency and attention to business had not escaped the superintendent's eye. He felt that the day might come almost any time when, on account of his "just one li'l' drink,"

or its consequences, he might have to yield his scepter to the younger man.

DISCHARGED WITHOUT CAUSE

Along about nine o'clock of this particular morning, Lathrop was brow-beating one of the men for some fancied fault near the place where Robinson was working. Seeing Robinson quietly doing his work, paying no attention to the wrangle so near him, only further irritated the suffering foreman.

"Robinson," he yelled. "You have been here long enough to know better than this. What do you mean by standing there like a wooden post right beside this man and letting him make such a botch of these frames?"

Robinson, of course, being a wise man, kept his own counsel, and went on with his work. He could not acknowledge himself at fault when he was not at fault. His manhood revolted. His business was to concentrate upon his own work. Since he could not acknowledge the fault, he therefore said nothing. This, of course, was just what Lathrop did not want.

"Speak up," he bawled, "explain yourself."

"I have my own work to attend to, Mr. Lathrop, as you know," he said quietly.

"I'll have no back talk from you, you sulky dough-face," roared Lathrop.

"Get to h.e.l.l out of here. Go to the office and get your time."

Robinson knew better than to protest. He even hesitated to go to the superintendent, but finally decided to do so.

"It's a shame, Robinson," admitted the superintendent, "but Joe is an awfully good man when he is right, as you know, and as long as we keep him in our service we have to stand behind him in order to maintain discipline." And so Robinson walked out with half a week's pay in his pocket.

THE BEGINNING OF LOSSES

Let us estimate roughly what Joe Lathrop's "one li'l' drink" and his suspicious jealousy cost the piano company.

Of course, his first cost was the loss of time in the finishing room while Robinson's place stood empty. It is fair to suppose that the company was making some profit on Robinson. It, therefore, lost the profit of those two days. Besides this, the machinery and the equipment Robinson operated stood still for two days eating up, in the meantime, interest on investment, rental of floor s.p.a.ce, depreciation, light, heat, and all other overhead charges that it ought to have been making products to pay.

In addition to all the overhead charges, the machinery ought also to have been making a profit for the piano company.

But there were other losses. Robinson's absence disorganized the shop routine. There were delays, conflicts, piano parts piled up in one end of the room while other departments clamored for finished frames at the other end of the room. Then, at least one-half a day of Joe Lathrop's valuable time went to waste while he was out trying to find some one to fill Robinson's place. His first attempt was made at the gate of the factory, where the sea of the unemployed threw up its flotsam and jetsam. But finishing piano frames is rather a fine job and none of the willing and eager applicants there could fill the bill. Joe then made the round of two or three employment agencies who had helped him out in previous similar emergencies. This time, however, they seemed to be without resource, so far as he was concerned. Being in considerable perspiration and desperation by this time, he was probably gladder than he ought to have been to receive a summons to appear at the court of Terrence Mulvaney.

Terrence, who sat in judgment in the back room of his own beverage emporium, the place where Lathrop secured his "li'l' drinks," had heard, in the usual wireless way, that there was a finisher needed at the big factory Lathrop still owed Terrence for a good many of his "li'l' drinks."

Furthermore, Terrence, by virtue of some mysterious underground connection, pulled mysterious wires, so that an invitation from him was a command. For these reasons, also, Joe Lathrop found it discreet in his own eyes to engage on the spot Tim Murphy, a very dear friend of Mulvaney and, according to Mulvaney's own impartial testimony, a very worthy and deserving man.

BREAKING IN AN INCOMPETENT

Valuable hours and moments of the company's time were consumed in initiating Tim Murphy into the employ of the company. There were certain necessary processes in the paymaster's department, the accounting department, the liability department, the tool room, and the medical department.

Now, while Murphy had had some experience in finishing piano frames, he was utterly unfamiliar with the make of piano produced in this factory.

Likewise, he was ignorant of the customs, rules, and individual methods which obtained in the factory. This meant that his employers paid him good wages for five or six weeks while he was finding his way around. It was good money spent without adequate return in the way of service. In fact, during these weeks, the company would probably have been better off without Tim Murphy than with him, for he spoiled a good deal of his work, took up a great deal of his foreman's time which ought to have been applied in other directions, broke and ruined a number of valuable tools and otherwise manifested those symptoms which so often mark the entrance into an organization of a man propelled by pull rather than push.

The trouble in Tim Murphy's corner continued to halt and disorganize the work in the department so that there were still further delays and losses up and down the line. All this was bad enough, but by the end of five weeks of Murphy's attachment to the payroll he had demonstrated that he was not only incapable, indolent, careless, and unreliable, but that he was a disorganizer, a gossip, and a trouble maker.

BAD EFFECT UPON OTHER EMPLOYEES

Finally the superintendent, who in some mysterious way had managed to escape the entanglement of underground wires running from Terrence Mulvaney's saloon, issued a direct, positive order to Foreman Lathrop, and Murphy's place in that factory knew him no more. Nor was Murphy astonished or disappointed. He had been expecting this very thing to happen, and was prepared for it. So when he walked out, two skilful, but easily influenced companions, walked out with him. Thus Joe Lathrop had, added to one of his frequent early morning headaches, the serious trouble of trying to find three men to fill yawning vacancies. The company was faced with a new series of losses even greater than those which had followed the discharge of Robinson. Furthermore, there was trouble and disorganization among the men still remaining in the department. Every man there had liked and respected the competent young worker, Robinson. They all knew that he had been discharged largely because Joe Lathrop was jealous and somewhat afraid of him, and because Joe had had a bad headache and grouch. They resented the injustice. Their respect for their foreman dropped several degrees. Their interest in their work slackened. "What is the use," they thought, "to do our best when superior workmanship might get us thrown out of here instead of promoted?"

And so Joe Lathrop's series of "li'l' drinks" finally resulted in decreasing the efficiency of his department to such an extent that the superintendent was obliged to discharge him. Then the superintendent was in for it. He had to find a new man. He had to take the time and the trouble to break the new man in, and the company had to share the losses resulting from disorganization until the new foreman was installed.

This is not a fanciful story, but was told to us by a man who knew the superintendent, Joe Lathrop, Robinson, Terrence Mulvaney, and Tim Murphy.

Nor is it an unusual story. Just such headaches, discharges, troubles, and losses are occurring every day in the industrial and commercial inst.i.tutions of this country.

This story ill.u.s.trates not only the high cost of constant change in personnel, but also the high cost of leaving the important matter of hiring and firing to foremen. Where this is done, discharges without cause, the selection of incompetents, grafting on the payroll, inside and outside politics, the indolent retention on the payroll of those who are unfit, and many other abuses too numerous to mention, are bound to follow.

ONLY ONE LEGITIMATE REASON FOR HIRING

There is only one legitimate reason for putting any man or woman on the payroll, namely, that he or she is well fitted to perform the tasks a.s.signed, will perform them contentedly and happily and, therefore, be a valuable a.s.set to the concern. But with foremen, superintendents, and other minor executives selecting employees, for any reason and every reason except the legitimate reason, it is small wonder that employees grow discontented and leave, are demoralized and incompetent so that they are discharged. For these reasons it is an unusual organization which does not turn over its entire working force every year. The average of the concerns we have investigated shows much more frequent turnover than this.

Under these circ.u.mstances, it should be easy to understand why our efficiency engineers and scientific management experts find the average organization only 25 per cent efficient. And this is not the only trouble we make for ourselves as the result of unscientific selection in the rank and file. In many cases we use no better judgment in the selection of even our highest and most responsible executives. If it is true, as has been so often stated, that a good general creates a good army and leads it to victory, and a poor general demoralizes and leads to defeat the finest and bravest army, then it is more disastrous for you to select one misfit executive than a thousand misfits for your rank and file.

In our next chapter we shall attempt to show some of the troubles which overtake a man who selects the wrong kind of executives.

CHAPTER II

THE SELECTION OF EXECUTIVES

The President and General Manager of a large manufacturing and sales company, who, for the purpose of the present narrative, shall be called Jessup, was making a trip from Chicago to New York on the Twentieth Century Limited. In the smoking room of his car he met a gentleman whose appearance and manner attracted him greatly. Acquaintanceship was a matter of course, mutual admiration followed swift upon its heels, and friendship soon began to crystallize in the a.s.sociation. As the train sped on through the night, the Big Executive became more and more delighted with his new-found acquaintance. The man agreed with him in many of his sentiments; belonged to the same political party; was a member of the same fraternal order; wore the same Greek letter society pin as his oldest son; and, what was, perhaps, more important, entertained what seemed to him intelligent, clean-cut, forceful, progressive ideas in regard to business.

As their talk proceeded, President Jessup found that the gentleman was a Mr. Lynch, advertising manager of a firm manufacturing jewelry, located in Providence, Rhode Island. He had been in this position for five years and during that time had planned, a.s.sisted in designing, and sold to a national market several profitable jewelry specialties. Lynch's graphic story of how these advertising campaigns had been planned, executed, and carried through to success fascinated the President of the western concern. To his mind, his own enterprise, the manufacture and sale of steam and hot-water heating plants, had long been in the doldrums. He himself had spent many sleepless nights trying to plan some way of extending its business; of opening up new markets; of creating a wide new patronage; of manufacturing something which would bring in more profits than their regular line, and finding a successful sale for it. It now seemed to him that he had found just the man to a.s.sist him in carrying out these vaguely formed plans, which as yet were little more than dreams. He told Lynch something of his ideas and ideals, and, as the two men parted for the night, he said:

"I have just a glimmering of an idea, Mr. Lynch, that we might be able to make an arrangement whereby you would be greatly profited in increased opportunities and bigger income, and perhaps we also would reap an advantage in increased business. Think it over."

SELECTION BY PERSONAL PLEASURE

Long after he had retired, President Jessup pondered over the situation, and the more he pondered, the more he became convinced that he had found just the man he wanted. True, he had not had in mind, during any of his midnight vigils, the taking on of any new help--his payroll was already heavy enough. He had a good advertising manager and a good sales manager, men who were competent to take care of the business of the concern. In response to their efforts, patronage was growing, not rapidly and spectacularly, yet steadily and substantially. Now, however, he saw an opportunity to produce something which would be different enough from the product of any of his compet.i.tors to warrant him in undertaking a national advertising campaign. Up to the present he had had only a local business.

A few hundred miles from his factory in all directions could be found all the heating plants which he had manufactured and sold. His dream was to produce some special form of apparatus which would sell wherever there were homes, stores, offices, churches, theaters, and schools to be warmed.

Mr. Lynch was just the man to study their business carefully, decide upon some such product, help to design it, and plan and execute the national advertising campaign which would develop a local into a national business.

Jessup dropped to sleep with his mind made up.

Next morning, as the train sped along between the Catskills and the Hudson, the two men, over the breakfast table, began negotiations. Jessup was surprised, and somewhat disappointed to find what a large salary his new friend was drawing in Providence. He was still more surprised and disappointed to find that Lynch's future prospects in the jewelry business were so bright that it would take a considerably larger salary to entice him away. The Westerner's mind, however, was made up and the future profits he saw arising from a national business were so attractive that he finally threw aside caution and offered Lynch twelve thousand five hundred dollars a year and moving expenses to the western city where his factory was located. This offer was finally accepted, the two men shook hands, and arrangements were made for Lynch to report for duty in the West within thirty days.

THE NEW MAN IN A QUANDARY

Now, President Jessup had no intention of dismissing his advertising manager and his sales manager. Each knew the business from beginning to end; each was thoroughly familiar with the trade already built up and personally acquainted with many dealers who handled the products, and could be depended upon not only to hold the present trade, but to increase it. Therefore it seemed good judgment to retain these two men on the local trade while turning Lynch loose upon the campaign for the securing of a national market. So it was decided to retain both of the old men and to give the newcomer the t.i.tle of sales promotion manager. There were some heart-burnings on the part of those already in the office when the new man came in and took charge. It was not pleasant for men who had been with the business for years and served it faithfully and helped to build it up, to have a man placed over them who knew nothing about it and whose salary was more than their two salaries combined. However, Lynch's personality was so pleasant and he was so tactful and agreeable that this little feeling of inharmony seemed soon to disappear. Presently all were working together in the happiest possible way toward the inauguration of the new policy of the concern.

As time went on, however, Lynch began to show signs of restlessness and uneasiness. Being a man of keen, alert mind and quick intelligence, he had quickly grasped the fundamentals of the heating business. He was soon able to talk with the firm's designers and engineers in their own language. But the more he studied boilers and radiators, the less interest he took in them. He had sense enough to know that the only thing that would win in the plan he had in mind was a radical change in design which would increase the amount of heat delivered in proportion to the amount of fuel burned, or the amount of heat delivered in proportion to the cost of fuel burned, or would reduce the amount of supervision required, or would do away with some of the long-standing sources of trouble and annoyance in heating apparatus. Long and hard he thought and conjectured, and studied statistics, and followed reports of experiments, but for the life of him he could not take any interest in any such line of research. He hated the gases, ashes, soot, smoke, and dirt generally. Huge rough castings of steel and iron seemed gross and ugly to him, and the completed product seemed coa.r.s.e and unfinished. The only improvements he could think of were improvements in beauty of line, in refinement of the design, in added ornamentation, and other enhancements of the physical appearance of the product. In these he took some interest, but he had the good sense to know that no change of this kind would accomplish what they wished in the matter of going after a national market.

THE HIGH-SALARIED ONE FAILS

For a while President Jessup waited patiently; then, as the big salary checks came to him to be signed month after month, he began to grow restless. No result had yet been announced and in his conferences with Lynch, he could not determine that any hopeful progress was being made.

Finally, in desperation, he called his engineers and designers together.

For three weeks he worked with them night and day, studying, a.n.a.lyzing, making records, and computing results. They took cat-naps on benches in the laboratory while waiting for fires to burn a standard number of hours; ate out of lunch-boxes; and finally, unshaven and covered with soot and ashes, they triumphantly produced a fire-box and boiler which would burn the cheapest kind of coal screenings satisfactorily, with but little supervision and a high degree of efficiency. This was the best thing they had ever done in the laboratory. This was the attainment which he had so long desired. This, properly advertised and handled, certainly ought to revolutionize the steam and hot-water heating business. But it was not one of Lynch's brain-children. However, Lynch would now have an opportunity to prove his value and return to the concern large profits for the amount they had spent and would spend upon him. At any rate, he knew how to plan and conduct an advertising and selling campaign.

Lynch, intensely relieved by the solving of this problem, the utility of which he very readily saw, threw himself, heart and soul, into the construction of the advertising campaign. As this work progressed, Jessup began to have some misgivings. While the advertis.e.m.e.nts, circulars, catalogues, and other literature were beautiful; while the English in them was elegant, and the form of expression refined, somehow or other, they seemed to lack the necessary punch or kick which Jessup knew they ought to have. The two big things about the new product were, first, economy of fuel; second, ease of operation and small demand for supervision. These points were not brought out clearly enough. They did not grip. They did not get home as they should. There was a good deal of talk in all the advertising about the beauty of the new apparatus; about the refinement of its finish; about its workmanship, and many other things which, to Jessup's mind, detracted from the main issue. The one thing he wanted to hammer into the minds of the readers of his advertising was the fact that here was a heating apparatus for which fuel could be purchased in the usual quant.i.ties and at half the regular price. What he wanted to do was to make them actually see the dollars and cents saved, not only in fuel, but also in the cost of operation. He wanted suburbanites to see the fact that they could attend to their furnaces each morning before going to town, and that the fires would not need any further attention until the following morning; but, somehow or other, the advertising did not seem to picture this clearly enough. The statements were made, yes; there was plenty of evidence produced to show this; but it was done in a way which, somehow or other, did not produce an intense conviction.