The Workman\'s Compensation
How can someone, hour after hour, day after day, year in and year out, tighten approximately the same nut to the same bolt and not go mad? That most working people do not, in fact, go mad is due in large measure to a phenomenon so common that it is found wherever people labor in industry: taking it easy.It would take some kind of real mental case to do all the work one could all day long.No one expects it.Taking it easy on the job while someone else covers your work, or \"working on and off,\" as it is usually called in America, is an established part of the working life.
Working on and off, however, has its limits.The rules are infinitely varied, subtle, and flexible, and, of course, they are always changing.Management, up to a certain level at least, is aware of the practice, and in some industries employs entire cadres of people to curtail or put an end to it.Simultaneously, the workers are subtly doing their best to keep it going and to extend it wherever poible.
Every worker has a highly developed sense of how much work is expected of him.When he feels that the expectation is exceive, he tries to do something about it.This instinct has to do with the political nature of work itself, something every modern worker understands.The boes want more from the worker than they are willing to give in return.The workers give work, and the boes give money.The exchange is never quite equal, and the discrepancy is called profit.Since the boes cannot do without profit, workers have an edge.A good worker in a key spot could, so long as he kept up production, take all the coffee breaks he wanted, and the boes would very likely look the other way.He could also choose to cut down on the coffee breaks, apply himself, and increase production, and then ask for and get more money.But that would be self-defeating, and he knows it.It would also place him in competition with other workers, which would be playing into the boes\' hands.What he would rather do is create some slack for himself and enjoy his job more.
At present on the West Coast, when a gang of longshoremen working on cargo start a shift, they often divide themselves into two equal groups and to a coin.One group goes into the far reaches of the ship\'s hold and sits around.The other group starts loading cargo, usually working with a vengeance, since each one of them is doing the work of two men.An hour later, the groups change places.In other words, although my fellow longshoremen and I are getting paid for eight hours, on occasion we work only four.If someone reading this feels a sense of moral outrage because we are sitting down on the job, I am sorry.I have searched my mind in vain for a polite way to tell that reader to go to hell.
If you are that reader, I would recommend that you abandon your outrage and begin thinking about doing something similar for yourself.
You probably already have, even if you won\'t admit it.White collar office workers, too, have come under criticism recently for robbing their boes of their full-time services.Too much times is being spent around the Mr.Coffee machine, and some people (would you believe it?) have even been having personal conversations on company time.In fact, one office-system expert recently said that he had yet to encounter a busine work place that was functioning at more than about 60 percent efficiency.
Management often struggles hard to set up a situation where work is done in series: a worker receives an article of manufacture, does something to it, and paes it on to another worker, who does something else to it and then paes it on to the next guy, and so on.
The aembly line is a perfect example of this.Managers like this type of manufacture because it is more efficient\"a full day\'s work for a full day\'s pay,\" \"taking a free ride\" - has been pushed by certain employers to discredit the practice, and their succe is such that I rarely discu it except with other workers.My response is personal, and I feel no need to defend it: If I am getting a free ride, how come I am so tired when I go home at the end of a shift?
工作者的补偿
一个人怎么能时复一时，年复一年地把几乎相同的螺帽拧到相同的螺栓上而不发疯的呢？事实上，多数劳动者并不发疯多半是由于\"不紧不慢\"的现象很平常，在企业中只要有人工作的地方随处可见这种现象。一个人恐怕要有某种真正的精神病才能一整天竭尽全力地干活。没人希望这样。在别人帮你干活时，你就不紧不慢地干，也就是像美国人常说的那种\"干干停停\"是工作生涯的一个既定部分。
然而，干干停停有它的局限性。这些惯例的变化无休无止，很微妙、很有弹性。当然，它们总在变。至少在一定程度上管理部门知道这种做法。一些企业雇佣干部以减少或结束这种做法。同时，工人们巧妙地、尽全力使之继续下去并使之触及到可能的任何地方。
每个工人对自己干多少活都是高度敏感的。当他感到希望他做的事过多时，就会采取某些措施。这种天性与每个现代工人所懂得的工作本身的政治特性有关。老板希望从工人身上得到的比他们给予的要多；工人付出劳动，老板付出报酬。这个交换从来不会太平等，此差异叫做利润。由于老板不能没有利润，工人们就占了上风。一个在关键岗位的好工人，只要他保持产量不降低，可以随心所欲地利用工间休息，而老板可能装作没看见。工人也可以缩短工间休息，卖力干活，增加生产，然后要求并得到更多的钱。但他知道那是违背自己利益的，这样做也会将自己置于与他人竞争之中，这种竞争会有利于老板。那么，他宁愿为自己创造一些空闲，更好的享受工作。
目前在西海岸，从事船货装卸工作的一伙码头装卸工开始轮班时，经常分成两组，然后掷硬币决定先后顺序。一组走到船舱深处分散坐下。另一组开始装货，通常干得卖力，因为他们每人干着两人的活，一小时以后两组交位置换。换句话说，虽然我和工友们获得八小时的报酬，有时却只干四小时。如果有人读到此，为我们怠工而愤慨的话，我很抱歉。我白费心机的绞尽脑汁想找到一个礼貌的说法，但现在要告诉这位读者，让他见鬼去吧。
如果你是那个读者，我会劝你不要愤慨，开始为自己考虑一下类似的事情。即便你不承认，你可能已经想过了。近来，白领职员也由于不为老板全天服务而受到批评。在电煮咖啡机旁花了太多的时间。一些人甚至在工业时间进行私人交谈。事实上，一个办公制度专家近来说，他还没有遇到工作效率高于60%的商业网点。
管理部门经常努力创建一条龙式的工作：一个人接到产品后为之做些什么，把它传给另外一个工人，这个工人再做些什么，然后传给下一个工人，如此类推。装配线就是一个极好的例子。经理喜欢这种生产方式，因为它效率更高，也就是说能生产出更多的产品来。尽管老板不会承认，但还有另一个喜欢这种方式的原因，它使工人很难做工作以外的其他事情。
弗雷德里克·W·泰勒，是本世纪初进行时间和运动研究的效率专家，这种研究产生了装配线工序。他试图把工人变成机器人，只是为了更大的产量。他的专家组每人配有带弹簧夹子的书写板和秒表用来研究每个工人，使他们不能偷懒。很快他们发现工人们特别反对这种做法。
大多数不直接从事日常工作的人听到人们\"干干停停\"地工作时，会表示不赞同。一些雇主推行了一场预先计划的运动，和\"全天工作付全天报酬\"\"只拿钱不干活\"这些精心选择的语言来诋毁这种做法。除了同其他工人，我很少谈起他们的成功。我的回答是个人观点，我感到没必要为之辩护：拿钱不干活，我下班回家后怎么会那么累呢？ Work, Labor, and Play
So far as I know, Mi Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the eential difference between work and labor.To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important.He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance.In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave.A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the neceity of earning a living and supporting his family.
The antithesis to labor is play.When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care le whether we play it or not.
Between labor and play stands work.A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is neceary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play.Whether a job is to be claified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it.The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer.Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure.To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently.He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives\' birthdays.To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.
What percentage of the population in a modern technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers?
At a gue I would say sixteen per cent, and I do not think that figure is likely to get bigger in the future.
Technology and the division of labor have done two things: by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of neceary laboring hours.It is already poible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in ear5lier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy.When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful.Indeed, the problem of dealing with boredom may be even more difficult for such a future ma society than it was for aristocracies.The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc.The maes are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as poible.Again, the maes cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to hunt.For other aristocratic amusements like gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drug-taking, and sensele acts of violence.Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggreion into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist.The role of aggreion into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist.The role of aggreion in mental work is aptly expreed by the phrase \"getting one\'s teeth into a problem.\"
工作，劳作和娱乐
据我所知，汉纳·阿伦特小姐是第一个给予工作和劳作之间本质区别的人。一个人要高兴，首先要感到自由，其次是感到重要。如果他被社会强迫做他不愿做的事，或者他喜欢做的事被社会忽视，被认为无价值和不重要，他就不会真正高兴。在一个从严格意义上来说奴隶制已被废除的社会里，一个人所做的事情具有社会价值的樗是他的工作得到了报酬。但今天的劳动者可以恰当地称为薪金的奴隶。如果他对社会提供给他的工作不感兴趣，但出于谋生和养家而被迫接受，这个人就称为劳作者。
与劳作相对的是玩，当玩耍时我们在享受，否则是不会去玩的，不过这纯粹是私人活动，社会对你玩或不玩是极不关心的。
处于劳作和玩之间的是工作。如果一个人对社会付酬给他的工作感兴趣的话，他就是工作者；从社会的观点看，工作是必要的劳作也是个人心目中自愿的玩。例如：这个区别不同于体力劳动和脑力劳动之间的区别；一个园艺工人或一个补鞋匠可能是工作者，一个银行职员可能是劳作者。一个人属于哪一种可以从他对休闲的态度看出来。对于工作者来说，休闲只是他为了有效地工作而放松和休息的时间，所以他可能少休息而不是多休闲。工作者可能致于冠状动脉血栓症，忘记妻子的生日。反之，对于劳作者来说，休闲意味着从强迫中的摆脱，因此他们会很自然地想花在工作上的时间越少，自由自在玩的时间越多就越好。
像我这样，幸运地成为工作者的人现代技术社会里占多大比例呢？我猜测为60%并且我认为这个数字将来不可能变大。
技术和劳动分工已产生了两点影响：通过在许多领域里减少对特殊力量和技巧的需求，它们使大量曾经愉快的有偿劳动变成了使人厌烦的工作，通过提高提高生产率减少了一些必要的劳动时间。已经有可能去设想这样一个社会：大多数人，即劳作者，将拥有几乎与早期贵州所享有的一样多的休闲。当一个人回忆过去贵族的所作所为，前景就不会乐观了。的确对于这样一个未来群众社会，应付无聊的问题比起来贵族们可能更困难。例如：后者使他们的时间仪式化，有射猎松鸡的季节、有镇上度日的季节等。群众更可能用时尚取代千篇1律的程式，而尽可能经常地改变时尚也符合某些人的经济利益。同样，群众也不能都有打猎的爱好，因为很快就会没有动物可供射猎。对于其他贵族娱乐活动，像赌博、决斗和战争，可能很容易在危险驾驶、吸毒和愚蠢的暴力行为中找到等价物。工作者很少有暴力行为，因为他们能把进取心放在他们的工作上，不管是铁匠从事的体力劳动，还是科学家或艺术家从事的脑力劳动。\"把牙到某个问题中\"这条习语很贴切地表示出进取心在智力工作中的作用。
