Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1126IR // #c1126Synthesis

"Just remember, however, that at any time in the future, when you get out of a job, you can always come right back to us." "Now, Jimmy, you and I will throw a shovel full whenever this little devil throws one, and not another shovel full."

— In our words · Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

[Use when]

A competitor is offering your people a better headline rate.

[Why it matters]

Bethlehem urged its best shovelers to take a higher per-ton offer in Pittsburgh. Most came back within six weeks to the lower rate, because the Pittsburgh gang pace had cut their real earnings.

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1113"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant…Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes. #c1114"…after a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder…You are tempted to raise a quota because someone beat it. #c1115"…since they were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the…You are setting up pay for work where you can't easily see the pace.

Same situation, different book

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