17. Attention and Fatigue
In an industrial factory, great attention is given to the machines: even a minor malfunction in a mechanical apparatus can have detrimental effects to productivity, and mechanics are employed to maintain the equipment and respond promptly to any interruption to the works that is detrimental to performance. However, "nobody takes any interest in the most destructive disturbances ... the attention apparatus of the laborers."
The physical movements of people can be likened to those of the equipment, and executing these movements with regularity and precision depends on the attentiveness and energy with which they are performed. Tired muscles and dulled minds are very much like rusted or misaligned machine parts in their effect on productivity.
A mention is made of multi-tasking: where a worker busied with one function is made to carry out secondary tasks, it may appear that these tasks do not interfere with the main one - and the worker himself may feel himself capable of doing so, but experimentation and practical observation have clearly demonstrated that his efficiency and effectiveness at the primary task suffers from any distraction - any "side activity" interrupts the chief function. He does not perform the tasks simultaneously, but is constantly switching his attention from one thing to the other, and ends up doing both more poorly than if he performs them in sequence. There is invariably a decrease in the quality of work, though some subjects perform less badly than others. In sum "psychological laboratory experiments have shown in many different directions that simultaneous independent activities always disturb and inhibit one another."
Even such things as social conversations diminish the quality of work. Munsterberg admits that the brief distraction of a conversation can bring "a certain relief and relaxation" that refreshes the mind, but it remains a distraction of attention from work. The individual laborer is not conscious of this effect and feels he can perform his task quickly and precisely while chatting with a colleague - but again, observation and experimentation proves that this is not so. Munsterberg asserts this is also true of knowledge workers: "The most brilliant [students] achieve in their own room at home more than in the classroom."
Some productivity improvements must be sacrificed in order to ensure psychological satisfaction with the work environment. "A tyrannical demand for silence would, of course, be felt as cruelty, and no suggestion of a jail-like discipline would be wise in the case of industrial labor." Particularly for workers whose tasks are menial and require only a modicum of thought and effort, the social environment of work makes tedious jobs tolerable, though he suggests that some experiments have suggested it is merely being in the presence of other people, without conversation, provides a source of "psychophysical reinforcement."
There is a great hubbub of activity in any workplace, and this itself can be a distraction. For example, he mentions a printing operation in which a woman was moved from an aisle to a quiet corner, and there was a 25% increase in the output of her work. And while the workers may claim not to notice the clatter of machinery, even in chops where the noise of the factory makes it impossible to communicate except by shouting, it is found that the efficiency of their work is improved by a reduction in the noise level.
There is some argument over whether distraction is greater with infrequent or patterned noises, and the notion that a steady rhythmic noise is more easily ignored than a sudden and unusual one - but this is found not to be so. In one instance, the strong rhythmical sound of an industrial hammer was found to impair the efficiency of workers - who unconsciously attempt to synchronize their own motions to that of the rhythm of their environment. Thus, the rhythm of the equipment may result in workers to be less productive where they might otherwise work faster that the environmental rhythm, and less attentive where they might otherwise work slower. And in either case, the unconscious effort to keep time with the noise increases physical and mental fatigue.
Munsterberg declines to plumb the depths of physical fatigue - it is a field that "has been thoroughly ploughed over by science and by practical life in the course of the last decades" and he has "no new suggestions." He will consider it in brief but there is a great deal of research and he expects the reader to accept the notion that productivity is significantly impacted, and that greater productivity is not the result of more intense effort over longer hours, but less taxing effort for shorter periods of time.
Fatigue diminishes the quantity of production, decreases the quality of output, increases absenteeism, and increases workplace injuries. Work beyond a reasonable measure is in all ways thoroughly destructive of the very objectives for which work is undertaken. The goal of scientific management is to identify a "hygienic" balance that results in the best outcome, and has found that it does not come from working the labor force to their fullest capacity, but to a level that is somewhat less.
The notion that the working class has been mistreated by long hours of work was once the plea of wet-cheeked social reformers and the laborers themselves as well as their unions have long expressed this same concern - but statistical inquiries have clearly demonstrated it is detrimental not only to quality of life but to the concerns of production. Abbe demonstrated that reducing working hours by 10% did not result in a corresponding decrease in production, but an increase in quantity as well as quality and "millions of experiments over the whole globe" had replicated his results. (EN: A few additional case-studies are presented, but it's overkill, the point having been well-made.)
In effect, fatigue is not merely unpleasant for the workers, but unproductive for their employer - as a result management must ensure its demands on labor are reasonable, and be vigilant to the early symptoms of fatigue and discontent Research may provide general guidelines, but in practice observation and attention are necessary given the idiosyncrasies of a given environment, process, and worker.