Rlchard Pettlnger

80 STRESS MANAGEMENT
‘‘ ‘Anyway, what in the world is a time clock? It has nothing to do with the existence of this plant. Our plant is one which produces transistors. To put it in a nutshell, we are being used by the time clock. ’ ’’

‘‘So I gathered all the employees together and appealed to them. ‘Obviously,’ I said, ‘we are here to make transistors. Let ’s decide that beginning tomorrow, we will work according to the time schedule without any clocks. Your own reporting of your absences will be sufficient. The company will trust you. ’ ’’¹

Trust

‘‘When I came to work at the plant I set out to eliminate the complete sense of distrust. This I saw as the root of all our problems. These people had never experienced the joy of living in a climate of universal trust. When management did demonstrate trust, they responded beautifully. You can imagine how exuberant that made us. It was pure joy that we felt, exceeded only by our pride as human beings. ’’

‘‘The establishment of cafeteria service counters without atten- dants, the improvements made in recreational facilities, the aboli- tion of time clocks and the ensuing changes in organizational patterns were all implemented in parallel. Together, they gathered pace and eliminated the problems almost immediately. As the nega- tive elements in the environment were eliminated, their removal naturally speeded up the progress we were able to make in encour- aging people to develop into positive, determined, creative human beings, untroubled by even the slightest feeling of insigni ficance.’’

‘‘Once we had managed to create an atmosphere of trust, all signs of discontent disappeared. ’’

‘‘In our plants, we provide orientation for everybody as a matter of course. Like every other aspect of plant management, cleaning is a contributory factor to the production of high quality transistors. Cleaners therefore determine how they can achieve a high degree of cleanliness with fewer people, and what kind of equipment or detergents may be desirable. Every cleaner has their own territory, and territories are rotated. Under this kind of system everybody, not just cleaners, becomes the master of their job and begins to feel

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that they are their own presidents. The only difference between cleaners and the real company president is that the cleaner sweeps the floors and the president steers the company. Both functions are equally important. ’’