The Pittsburgh Press (February 14, 1946)
I DARE SAY —
You can count on them
By Florence Fisher Parry
Just for fun, an employer I know made a list late Monday night before the Walkout: a list of the names of his employees who would, and would not, report for work next morning.
Without regard to where they lived, be it city or suburb or outlining town, he checked with a star each one who, he felt confident, would show up. Past performances in emergency was the sole guide, plus that indefinable quality which employers are quick to recognize in those who work for them: the right spirit toward their job.
He missed in only two cases. One whom he relied upon to be there regardless took the day off for granted and made no report. One who he thought wouldn’t show up, glad for an excuse to stay home, made an early appearance.
Two misses in a pretty big list.
He’s just an average employer. But employers can size up their people. It is said that no boss can flatter himself that he is really “liked.” A more accurate way of putting it would be to say that no boss can flatter himself that his weaknesses are not known to his employees.
But the unsparing appraisal works both ways. The most important attribute in any employer is the ability to size up the attitude of his employees toward their job. Frankly, it would put attitude above ability; for if a man has the right attitude toward his work, it almost invariably follows that he does his work well and shows a steady improvement in it.
Good troupers
Moreover, he is more likely to be given the opportunity to advance. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child” applies to a degree, to the relationship between employer and employee. Nothing so disheartens a man as to find an ingrate among those to whom he has given a signal opportunity. And nothing is so rewarding to him as a loyal spirit in his men.
On Tuesday I dare say countless small business men went through the same experience as the employer I mention. When they rose in the morning, they had no idea how they were going to get to town or what they would find there; but they GOT THERE. This was a natural performance for which they deserve no credit, for it was Their businesses they were protecting.
But shortly after their arrival there, be the plant or office in an almost inaccessible spot their time-tried help began to arrive – if they were not already there waiting at the door. And their employers KNEW they’d be there. Knew they’d be there just IN CASE. IN CASE the lights would last; IN CASE there was something they could do ANYWAY.
Now I dare say it often seems to these Faithfuls that they are not getting any recognition for their loyalty; they may think that they are just being taken for granted.
OF COURSE they are being taken for granted! That is the TEST of their indispensability! When your employer TAKES YOU FOR GRANTED that is the biggest compliment you can get! Those who mean anything to you always take you for granted! Your family, your time-tried friends and associates, those who can be counted on to Be THERE come hell or high water. THERE.
They don’t need to be brilliant or exceptional; indeed a great many of them are plodders of a sort, the least spectacular of persons in their performance. But their usefulness, their indispensability, ADD UP!
The real service
ADD UP to the greatest reward a man can have: Security. For you don’t see employes getting rid of their TIME-TRIED FAITHFULS! Sometimes, of course, there are contemptible short-sighted bosses who use their men and throw them away after they’re squeezed dry of their immediate performance. But these number very few compared with the employers who have the wisdom to evaluate faithful service and, knowing it to outweigh all else, take care of their Faithfuls.
What price loyalty? What price the virtue of being ON THE JOB when the real need to BE there arises?
Why, it has a price above rubies! It is the greatest single asset an employer can boast! The help who comes to work, not just in normal times, but through emergency and peril; who puts his job first – not just because of the time or time-and-a-half it earns him, but because it is his own personal RESPONSIBILITY which he is obligated to SEE THROUGH, is the one who is likely to know the reward of security in his job.
This is what is meant by Service. A boy enlists in the SERVICE of his country. For its good and its defense he will risk, yes, Give, his life. That is a glorious form of Service.
But in a homelier sense, a man’s work must be a form of Service. He is in the Service of the men or company that employs him and pays him for that Service. And unless he feels that sense of Service, his job is little more than time-clock servitude for an artificially computed period of the day.
Moreover, his employer senses this robot spirit. And between them there arises a hostility born of mutual indifference and distrust.
They cannot COUNT ON EACH OTHER.
This is the blight that is spreading like an evil moss over the mighty edifice of America.