Absent Without Leave

On Christmas Day Boeing Flying Fortresses made their first 1,120-mile round-trip flight from Guadalcanal to the Jap base at Rabaul. They hit one large ship, damaged three smaller ones. On the day after Christmas 26% of Boeing Airplane Co.'s employes--who had had Christmas Day off--never showed up.

That startling statistic is not startling to the operators of most U.S. war plants --it is too typical. In Detroit on the day after Christmas one large auto plant engaged in vital war production had 3,000 welders A.W.O.L., which cut production 70%; in California 11,000 Douglas Aircraft workers (12% of the total payroll) stayed home. In one recent month Douglas lost 760,164 man-hours--enough to build 41 attack bombers. In Seattle all last year, one worker in every twelve stayed away from Associated Shipbuilders' yards. From coast to coast the sickening story was repeated.

In factory parlance the ugly word for it is absenteeism. In many a factory, girls now take time off for shopping, for tea, for almost anything that seems important to a woman at the moment--though women with close relatives in the services are apt to be among the most regular workers there are. Boys take time off for hang overs, have lately taken to writing blatant cracks like "drunk too much" or "date with a blonde" on their why-were-you-absent slips. U.S. factory morale and discipline seems to be at a very low pitch.

Causes and Cures. The causes of this condition are diverse, its cures baffling. Manpower-pinched employers have resorted to all kinds of dodges to get their workers to report regularly. Douglas Aircraft--which has 40 people working on the problem--sends registered letters to A.W.O.L. employes with cartoons of U.S. doughboys with their hands tied and Japs saying "so joyful," etc.; other factories give prizes for steady attendance.

But employers and unions alike know that ballyhoo alone is not the cure. Unions emphasize the impact of bad scheduling and materials shortages upon worker morale : why beat your brains out today when outside causes will lay you off tomorrow? Such layoffs have indeed occurred all too often. The deer-hunting season, for example, coincided with material shortages so severe that General Motors instructed its plant superintendents to let any worker go who wanted to shoot deer. Result: G.M.'s "absent for personal reasons" figures soared. Poor transportation, bad housing, lack of household help also discourage workers from regular attendance.

Too Much Money. Equally important, however, are certain other basic causes which union leaders do not like to face. Most important is that employers are now dealing with a seller's market in which labor commands wages far above peacetime levels. Thus some men can earn in four days what they used to make in six. Absenteeism is notoriously high right after payday, and the absenteeism-line (see chart, p. 75) has risen with weekly earnings. The cause of rising earnings is not rate increases alone but also overtime pay gained through the action of the 40-hour-week law.

Serious in 1942, the effect of too much money on absenteeism may be even more serious this year. For in 1942 through using up accumulated inventories there was still plenty of goods for the U.S. worker to work to obtain. But in 1943 there will be increasing shortages. This means that no matter how high money wages soar, real wages (i.e., what dollars can buy) are going to fall. And the great problem is how to make the cut.

Some believe in a continuing policy of universal price controls, reinforced by an ever widening system of rationing. But if drastic rationing is pursued, absenteeism will almost certainly increase. For under indiscriminate rationing of luxury, as well as essential, goods, all workers share alike, no matter what they earn. The more likely alternative is that universal price ceilings will give, and a controlled inflation will take place. This would penalize many a loyal worker, but it would at least maintain incentives for every man to work hard in the knowledge that he could use his money to bid for such luxury goods as are available on the market.

Too Little Discipline. Quite aside from the problem of too much money, absenteeism goes back to another root cause--namely, lax discipline and too little contact between employer and employe in the factory. During recent years the employer has felt more & more uneasy over appealing to his employes directly for fear that he may be haled into court. It is also extremely difficult to fire a man for absenteeism, or to discipline him. In one recent case, when an employer announced that either men must work on New Year's Day to fulfill pre-arranged schedules or else take four days off, the union at once objected. Moreover, the very strength of some unions has created a well-recognized twilight zone of authority within plants: the foreman seldom dares discharge a man; the union's "shop steward" is himself powerless to discipline a worker because his own job is dependent on his popularity.

The Way Out. The causes of absenteeism thus seem to call in question many a pet theory of liberal and labor leader. Big wages, big overtime, rigid price control to protect the workers' living standards, big unions--simply have not resulted in labor's buckling down to its job. What will do so? There is no easy answer. It is not going to be easy for labor to accept the fact that in one way or another real wages are going to be cut, yet that greater production must go on. Nor is it going to be easy to re-establish discipline in the shops.

In Germany the penalty for absenteeism is death. In England and Australia it has been necessary to impose stiff fines. In the U.S. both labor leaders and management are still loath to follow British example. Both hope that the U.S. worker will wake up to his responsibilities.

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