|  In
factories and offices people work side by side, doing
their jobs without disturbing others. Each has his
or her work spelled out and is not allowed to cross
over into another area of labor without being specifically
assigned to do so. It follows the old adage: “Give
me a boy, I’ve got a boy; give me two boys, I’ve
got half a boy; give me three boys, I’ve got
no boy at all.” Of course, there are some jobs
that require more than one person.
Perhaps the
epitome of effective group work is when musicians perform
together. All it takes to enthuse a disinterested student
is to team with a fine partner. Having a beat to follow
and a score to unify can produce exciting results.
Let me share
an experience I had during a recession. We had to let
all the employees go from our family music business
and do the work ourselves. When the time came that
we were in a position to rehire, I broke certain jobs
down into smaller segments. Because we were open 12
hours a day, I took the office, cashiering, and sheet
music jobs and broke them down into four-hour shifts.
Instead of
using full-time people for each department, I used
half-time employees. Customers were served better and
it put payroll dollars to better use. Employees came
to work rested, worked their four hours, and left.
There were no lunch hours to cope with and each gave
us the “cream” of his/her energy instead
of their tired, “skim milk” efforts. And,
we always had a pool of trained substitutes.
Each department
maintained an IDM (Inter-Dept-Memo) book. We used it
to post unfinished business and communicate. It was
contained in a 3-ring binder and a 3-hole punch was
kept handy to insert correspondence, meeting notes,
policies, and important data. It improved communication
so much that we set one up at the house as well.
 In
our home, we had one of the first dishwashers in existence
until I came to the conclusion that we didn’t
spend enough time working together. I then did away
with the appliance and instead of one person being
assigned to do all the dishes it was broken down into
smaller jobs like we did at the store. We all pitched
in, singing, laughing and working side-by-side
 One
did the washing, another wiped and the third put dishes
away, cleared the table, wiped the chairs, swept the
floors and emptied the trash. Try as I may, I could
only break this job down into three components that
took an even amount of time. Having five daughters,
I created two more “inchy” jobs. Going
by the slogan, “It may be hard by the yard, but
it’s a cinch by the inch,” I had one tackle
a tidy project such as magazines, and another shell
nuts until we were through. This way we followed our
family’s work slogan:
“We
all work ‘til the work is done.”
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