Document 91022e9dQDRXjq8Vj89GNBeNp

IP) II] iW SWAIN. ID TOR MltUUY 1941 % ESTABLISHED IN 118 2 ,4V IT TAKES ONLY TWO WHEN plants were small and life was sim ple, `'employe relations" didn't stand for o national problem; it merely described the way the boss got on with his men. Out industry grew, the chain of command lengthened and there was on inevitable need for standardizing the relations between the many bosses and the mohy employes. The art of personnel monogement came into being and, to a great extent, parts of the old(oshioned relationship between boss and men became the work of specialists--recruiting, hir ing, setting up wage and salary schedules, determining general personnel policy. Much good resulted. The business of finding the right people for jobs and the right jobs for people goes more smoothly now than it once did. Most large companies ofTcr group .insur ance, medical service, recreation programs, pen sions and other "employe benefits." The requirements of today's jobs arc carefully evaluated ond the merits of employes measured against them with equal core. But with it oil has come a tendency for most of us to sit hack ond let the "experts" tokc core of personnel matters. What's more, we've come to think of the people who work with us as a group, not os the individuals they ore. Nothing could be more unfortunate. A General Electric executive summed it up in a phrase recently--'. . it takes only two, to. make a job--the boss and the individual employo." To the employe nothing is more important than his personal affairs. He ean't help seeing the situation in direct terms. On one side there is the man he works for--on the other side he stands, working to better himself end his family, to satisfy, in countless ways, his personal drives and ambitions. To refuse to see the job relationship the way the employe does is to miss the biggest chance any boss has for suc cess in his own assignment. To no one is tins more important than to the power engineer. Even in a large plant he works with a relatively small group of employes. They have a variety of assignments that appear routine on the surface but call for initiative and often foe the quick exercise of sound judg ment. In such a setup, the individual approach pays maximum dividends; the lack of it is fatal. What to do about it? Start by cultivating the habit of thinking of Joe Doakes as father of two boys, high-score bowler, raiser of prise roses, not merely as fireman, second class. You'll dis cover what nnyone 'knows who knows Doakes personally--he is ambitious, a sound thinker hut feels he's handicapped by lack of a technical education. You'll help him get the training he needs, put him to work where good judgment nod technical understanding are required, let his ambition build his future. And os you build his job, and those of the other men in the plant, you'll build yourself as a boss. It takes only two lo make a job. ' 1^ Ifck " Fabrvsry 1948 M