Your Job: Good Work Habits (1969)

[Music] Betty field graduated from high school a year ago her boyfriend Carl holer has been out for 2 years they're thinking about getting married and to help make that possible they've taken their first full-time jobs Betty works for a large business firm she's a file Clerk Carl works at an automobile repair shop he's learning to be a Master Mechanic sometimes Betty and Carl meet for lunch and naturally they talk about their work as part of our study of good work habits we interviewed them and this conversation with Carl and Betty became the crucial one of our study we interviewed other workers beside these two and we asked many of them what are the things a worker has to do if he's to do his job really well we got some interesting answers for example this man felt that doing his job well depended on doing a reasonably large amount of work this woman agreed but she added something that a job well done meant work of good quality safety was what this fellow had in mind looking after other people's well-being and his own too and to this girl the enjoyment and satisfaction she got from her work were What mattered so from these interviews and others like them we learned what a job well done might mean to Betty and Carl doing a reasonable amount of work of good quality with safety and satisfaction Betty and Carl agreed that these things are goals and then Carl added maybe one way to achieve these goals is to pick the right jab in another way once you're on the job is to learn good work habits well if we agree on that what are some of the good work habits you apply well let me uh simplify the question by ask asking uh what kind of work you were doing this morning perhaps we can find uh what some good work habits are we'll begin with Betty this morning well the big morning job for file clerks in our company is filing new correspondents first we're supposed to code the letters that's a little complicated tell us about it we have to look the letterhead over closely find the most important animportant word and underline it then we separate the other words and number them by importance I try to keep my mind in the letterheads Oh you mean you concentrate that's right well wouldn't you say that concentrating is a good work habit I guess so concentrate it seemed like that might help Betty increase the amount and quality of her work but I'm wondering if concentration is the only way to achieve these goals what did you do next the next step was sorting we sort letters alphabetically how the girls who work fastest go right on through the job they keep the letters close to the sorder so they don't waste motion and they set up a rhythm well it seems to suggest another good work habit a person should set up his materials so steady work is possible possible and should work steadily work steadily that seemed to increase the amount and quality of Betty's work might other habits help toward these goals now once you've checked and sorted uh then what well things got a little more complicated first I had to file all the sorted letters but at the same time I had to take Letters Out of the files and then letters aren't all we file we have another file for inventory and still another one for personnel and all of them are handled differently well how do you manage we try to group similar jobs together for instance when we're through filing correspondents in the morning we don't usually plan to do that job till the next day we let letters pile up and do them all at once so you plan ahead right yes well doesn't it sound like uh planning ahead is a good work habit it sure does plan ahead it seems that by doing this as well as by concentrating and working steadily a file clerk can manage to do a reasonably large amount of work of good quality and we found these habits helpful not only to file clerks but to most other workers for example this man does radio and television repairs he feels that by concent rating on a circuit he's able to work faster and with fewer errors working steadily he's able to complete more jobs in a day and to him planning ahead means dividing his day between the shop in the morning outside calls in the afternoon he feels he gets more done that way and this girl is a supermarket checker she finds that by concentrating on items and their prices she's able to operate her register quickly and correctly working steadily she's able to please customers by checking orders faster and to her planning ahead means things like being sure there's enough change in the register before rush hours a pen handy for a customer who may want to write a check and an adequate supply of bags the good job she's doing has been noticed by the manager and since the manager appreciates a good amount and quality of work it may mean a raise in salary but can good work habits help people increase safety on the job and the satisfaction they get from working we tried to learn something about safety and satisfaction from Carl Holzer Carl I wonder if you could tell us how you spent this morning on your job J well I went out with what I've been doing for a couple days now uh rebuilding a V8 engine yesterday my boss helped me put in the valves and today he asked me to put the heads back on well how did you do that like my boss showed me first I put all the bolts in loose and then I tighten them with a torque wrench you see there's a gauge on it and it lets you know when the bolt is as tight as it should be well were you through then no my boss had me recheck with a torque wrench he says you have to double check because one bolt can loosen while you're tightening another oh so you double check you try for accuracy well U maybe a good work Habit to develop would be to work accurately work accurately it seems obvious that accuracy is related to safety and isn't it true that when you've done something well it gives you a satisfied feeling well what did you do next well we had a car with a broken Shack absorber mounting and the boss wanted me to heat it so we could remove it how did you go about that well it was mostly a matter of picking the right size welding tip and going to work how I put on my safety goggles put on my gloves and fire up the torch while I work I'm car careful not to let many chips or Sparks fall on me or anyone else so you have to be careful of yourself and others yeah and a lot of different ways for instance there's a lot of things on a car and around a garage that will burn you have to be sure that a spark doesn't start a fire then you have to work carefully yes work carefully Carl believes it leads to safety as well as to a feeling of satisfaction that he's doing the job as well as he can can since we've begun to talk about others on the job maybe you could tell me about some job you did today uh that involved someone else sure uh this morning I worked with Bill Weaver uh bleeding a brake system I pump the pedal while he bled out the brake fluid at the wheels it sounds like his job was harder than yours right I'm not as good at brake jobs as he is you know it sounds like you respect bill would you say that it helps to be friendly with him as you work yeah yeah you bet how's that well bill has been a mechanic for a long time the boss and the customers trust him if he likes me he'll let me know more about how he works and I'll learn more besides I have to work with him every day we better be friendly be pleasant and friendly a good idea if pleasantry doesn't take time away from the job a friendly attitude along with accurate and careful work may help Carl and other mechanics to do a reasonably large amount of work of good quality and our interview showed that these habits help in other lines of work beside Mechanics for example computer programming is a very exacting job to a programmer accuracy means doing the job the right way and being friendly is of great importance in an office where people share equipment and supplies this man is a construction Foreman to him working accurately brings results he can see in a completed building working cautiously means safety and being friendly means year round work from several bosses who like him and hire him regularly interviewing him and others like him we discovered the truth in what we'd learned from Betty field and Carl Holzer that good work habits can increase amount and quality of work and safety and satisfaction on the job work Habits Like These concentrate on the work work steadily plan ahead work accurately work [Music] carefully and be pleasant and friendly such work habits may lead to the kinds of benefits everyone wants to enjoy benefits like a good feeling that I get from seeing a job done right a promotion move up to a better job someday a raise more money to get the things we're going to want these are the kinds of benefits a worker can expect if he develops good work habits they're the rewards you can expect as you continue to advance in your job [Music]