The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-20
'WORKiNEN SHOULD
 LOVE THEIR JOBS
Forbes Says All Honest Work Contributes 10 Happiness
By E. Q. FORBES

lts Have. you the right slant on your daily eAdeavorsy S&
 At great gathering of automobile dealers ehst week. one executive vle- clared. he was So thoroughly con yinced of the. tisefuiness of the auto mobile and of the exceptional value of tlies car turned out by his own com pany that he found insplration and joy in the thought that his work was con trfbuting something really worth while to. the life, of 2 very large number of people. ke
 T T feel that 1 nm helping others. Maybe that's why l never feel tired, no matter how hard I plunge.r
 The Msersoll Watch compans. many yeafssako held a huge convention of it's shiesmen. They were asked at the close to tell what was the chief bene- fit they had derived from the proceed. ii.gs. One man struck "a keynote which brought an ehthusiastit response from the others. He said he wSuld return to his work with .redoubled energy aud enthusiasm tieciirse he realized fsa he never realized before that every time he sold q watch he. d;d soGlething to
 
 earner In other words. he was help ling to fill pay envelopes. Thereafter he would not look upon his efforts as purely selfish, but as benefittins others. as, well tfs himself. A
 President Roosevelt was able to. get through an enormous amount of work without Intriguing him. He revealed the secret of his ability to do this one day. It Was T l.::e my Job. y %sNot one of us cnn t,o our best work unless we like our job. And if we are filade of the right stuff we cannot fall fully in love with our job unless we have the feeling that what we do con tributes in some w..y to. the benefit of others. / ..... {.
 In the olden days, prisoners used to be given tasks which were utterly use less. The very fact that what they were doing WAS of no earthly use dis heartened them. Nowadays, prisoners are given useful work And the ef- feet upon their minds is helpful, not harmful. . = <
 After all. there isn't any kind of honest. decent, honorable work which tlDes not contribute something to the comfort and the benefit of others. . Why are so. many employees discon- l tented? Why do 50 many of them fail to find genuine interest in their duties Why do they lookN upon their daily round as intensely monotOnous?.
 hIhinly because they have not been able to. grasp, have not been taught to i<r.,l lsrN A a1 IL fiificance of what they are doing.
 Take the clerk who turns the handle of an. adding machine day after day. One such clerk may see nothing but the most uhipterestingly monotony of his operations. But the clerk at hi, elbow may think beyond his me hun- -iraf operations. He may realize that what he .is doing is an absolute es- sebtial part of the enterprise. the or ganizntion he is connected with. He is just as riecessary as what the presi- I-dent himself does. And so realizing, the clerk feels that he is helping not only the wheels of his own orgahiza- tlon to go round, but the wheels of the world to go 'round.
 The street cleaner can feel that he is contributing invaluably to insare the health of his community.
 The clerk in the store can, feel that h cor she is. playing an indispensable part in supplying the people with the necessities or the comforts or the lux uries of life.
 : The iron workers in the foundry or factory can feel that the progress of the world has been made possible by n axx-a of se s,, plying mankind with steel. <
 The needle worker, the cotton weav- CT, the silk factory worker, the woolen mill worker, each and all can and
 Id feel that the world could not spin around very comfortably with out their labors in clothing mankind.
 And, of course, all salesmen en- gagged ill honorable work can and should get the vision which the IIger- tSOl salesman got iit that convention. where he saw hundreds of wage -earners at work, filling the orders he and his fellow salestnen had drummed up.
 Unfortunately, too many employers never take the slightest trouble to give their workers a large view of their duties. In. huge plants most of the workers have to handle only one small part of the finished product Unless pains are taken such workers are liable to take little or no pride in the complied product.
 ,e One automobile conipauy found that this output was substantially increased and the quality of the work decidedly improved after An the workers had been shown moving pictures taken in diff ferent parts of the, world of their car full of rassengersT@in China. in Aus. trala. in South Africa. in Japan. in New Zealand-ih all $ corners of the