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Ellen was a clerk working for a large insurance company. One day Cheap Mikkel Boedker Hat , she spotted a glaring discrepancy in a form she was typing.


Through a simple error, two figures had been transposed in a store owner's policy. In consequence, his store was insured for $165,000 against vandalism but only for $5 000 against fire.


Her first instinct was to reach for the phone to inform her supervisor of the error, for the sake of the unfortunate store owner.


"But wait a minute," she then thought to herself. "I'm not supposed to read these forms. I'm just supposed to check one column against they're gonna give me a robot's job to do Cheap Tim Heed Hat , I'm gonna do it like a robot."


Author Barbara Garson describes this incident in a book called All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work. The kind of phenomenon illustrated by this story is also vividly depicted by Chicago folklorist Studs Terkel in his book about work life in contemporary America Working. After interviewing 133 people about their jobs and their feelings about work, Terkel reported:


"The blue-collar blues is no more bitterly sung than the white-collar moan. 'I'm a machine,' says the spot-welder. 'I'm caged,' says the bank teller, and echoes the hotel clerk. 'I'm a mule, says the steelworker. 'A monkey can do what I do Cheap Melker Karlsson Hat ,' says the receptionist. 'I'm less than a farm implement,' says the migrant worker. "I'm an object,' says the high-fashion model. Blue-collar and white call upon the identical phrase: 'I'm a robot.' "


Labor reporter Robert Levering cites these two authors in his A Great Place To Work.

Brains left at the factory door

The president of a large industrial corporation summed up the problem well when he confessed in a radio interview: "Most companies assume you should check your brains every morning at the factory door."


Incidentally, when people feel stifled by this "robot" syndrome, their health often suffers.


The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in the US has cited lack of control over one's work as a major factor in work-related stress, which contributes to hypertension Cheap Kevin Labanc Hat , heart disease and ulcers. And one researcher has put a price tag to American industry of $150 billion in annual losses because of stress-related absenteeism, reduced productivity, and medical fees.


But we have not finished Ellen's story.


When author Garson checked later with Ellen, she discovered that the young clerk had told her supervisor about the error after all. This highlights one undeniable fact, says the author. "For most people, it is hard and uncomfortable to do a bad job. "


For Garson Cheap Justin Braun Hat , work itself is a human need, "following right after the need for food and the need for love." Similarly,Henri de Man, who interviewed countless industrial workers in pre-Nazi Germany, concluded that despite the monotony of their working lives,"every worker aims at joy in work Cheap Chris Tierney Hat , just as every human being aims at happiness."


Whether all this is true or not, people have a sense of dignity that often refuses to let them play the roles they are given.


Leaving brains at the factory door is hardly a physically feasible operation in any case. Since a worker has to bring them inside anyhow, he'll put them to use in one way or another. De Man cites a woman who wrapped an average of thirteen thousand filament lamps in paper every day. Yet even she could find meaning in her work by frequently changing the way in which she wrapped them.


Other workers are not so fortunate. Try as they may, they just cannot find constructive outlets for their creative and intellectual energies. They may feel compelled to channel their talents along destructive paths.


At worst, they are perpetually on the lookout for "creative" ways to cheat the boss - or the system. At best, they daydream on the job or indulge in all sorts of pastimes to take their minds off their frustration. They'll do anything to maintain some semblance of self-worth.


But if you are an employer of labor Cheap Tomas Hertl Hat , what do you do to give such workers the self-respect and job satisfaction they need so badly?


Let's say you are an entrepreneur, or a manager, with hundreds of factory workers or office clerks under your control. You would like to think of yourself as a benevolent boss. What can you do to make your employees' association with you a happier experience, to ensure that their days will be more fulfilling?


The truth is this is an area dotted with more minefields than you would ever imagine.


In his book, Robert Levering talks about a Chicago-based insurance company, considered an enlightened employer Cheap Martin Jones Hat , which in the 1970s embarked upon what was called in those days a "job-enrichment program."


This technique was popularized by Frederick Herzberg, a management consultant who believed that things that make a job satisfying are the biggest "motivators". Herzberg urged managers to concentrate on "enriching" workers' jobs, rather than on factors - like pay and working conditions - that don't have much impact on motivating people.


The insurance company's job-enrichment program was aimed at making people's jobs more "interesting and challenging". It was based on three principles: that workers "want to do a complete job and not an isolated task," that they need "regular feedback on their performan