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Peer Pressure On The Shop Floor
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Article Date: 2003-07-23
One of the things I discovered when working on the shop floor was that peer pressure was never to lift anyone up. It was never to increase productivity. Always, it was to level the field of effort at the lower end and reduce productivity - "don't do anything that will help the company get ahead."
As a new employee I was pressured into joining a union that required us to simply meet production quotas (which had been reduced considerably from both an equipment and a personnel standpoint), and then we were to sit down by our machine and wait for the end of the shift... two hours later.
Even when I was assigned to clean up between the production lines, I was told that I worked too hard. "Slow down. If you get all of the work done in one shift, it will make those guys on the other shift look bad, and there will be no need to hire another person to help with the work."
Years later, I discovered one of the primary reasons for this attitude was that employees forget who they are working for - all of these people thought they worked for the company. No one understood that they worked for themselves.
None of them understood that they were independent contractors who contracted to be with that company for so many hours a day, doing a certain kind of work, for their own benefit.
Subsequent work in the former Soviet Union helped me to understand that employees must do everything possible to help a company make more and more profit. The profit is what makes the jobs secure, not the slow downs.
Therefore, if I'm working for myself and my personal challenge is to help the company make more profit, I'm pretty much immune to peer pressure. First of all, there won't be many peers, and second, any improvement I'm making is for my own benefit, not for the company, the stockholders, or anyone else.
When I understand that I'm an independent contractor, I call the shots. If I don't like something about management, I can make known my complaint and then decide to stay or go somewhere else. Good workers - good contractors - are in high demand. Even in the toughest of times, a good worker will have a contract of employment.
If I've given somewhat less than my best and simply followed the "peer" pressure, I don't have much for a resume. I don't have anything to brag about when I seek a new job.
On the contrary, if I've done my best, I can explain that to everyone; I'll always be in demand, and I'll always have a contract with some company.
Remember - It's never too late to be what you should have been®
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