Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

WELFARE WORK 155 It is worthy of remark that in Miss Proud’s “ Wel- fare Work ” she enumerates certain duties of the welfare supervisor which would be already under- taken by other members of the staff in a manage- ment working on efficiency methods. For instance (p. 145), the supervisor is to enquire into the reason if a worker’s output is below normal, the fact being reported to him, or her, as a matter of routine. In a works under scientific management the foreman- instructor of the worker would be taking action or making enquiries. Again (p. 173), the supervisor is to suggest new arrangements to diminish strain, such as altering the height of a table or bench. This would be primarily the work of Gilbreth’s “ fatigue eliminator,” who is on the time-study staff. Still, a staff under the new management would probably not despise the assistance of the supervisor in these matters, and also in “ explaining the wage system to the workers and hearing their criticism ” (p. 145). And use could be made of his or her opinion in engaging or considering workers, not as to their technical skill, but as to their character and their state of health. Scientific managers, as others, will find that betterment work divides itself naturally into improvements in the condition of the worker during working hours, and improvements in his condition when away from the establishment. Under the former heading will come not only arrange- ments in the shops themselves, but such direct in- stallations as the provision of a room in which to