Analysis Of Ben Hampers's ' Tales From The Assembly '

In Rivethead, Ben Hamper recalls life as an assembly worker for General Motors. As he exposes the faults of the American industrial system, he also gives the reader a glimpse into the constraining reality of blue collar life. After resisting his familial ties to GM, Hamper gives into the enticing prospects of a stable job. As Hamper explains the ins and outs of the assembly line, Rensis Likert 's organizational theory is ever-present. I argue that when Likert 's prescriptive theory is actually applied, these "systems" fit less into boxes and more into a spectrum. Although an argument for human resources organizations, Likert 's ideas can be used to examine how GM fits not only into the exploitive, authoritative System I but also the benevolent, authoritative System II. First, I will give an overview of Likert 's System IV, and then apply those systems to Ben Hamper 's Rivethead to support my argument.

Braaksma starts with his argument by his negative view of the assembly line. The author gained this view from his first-hand experiences. As we take a look at what happened we will see the cons of this world, and what kind of life this can lead to. With this stance, he will discourage the reader from life on the assembly line.

However, the sources differed immensely through the use of language. In fact, one of the themes most evident amongst the language that set the sources apart rhetorically was the tone. Throughout the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” Mike Rose set a very serious tone discussing the matter of economic inequality. For example, Rose conveys “As a foreman, Joe constantly faced new problems and became a constant multi-tasker, evaluation a flurry of demands quickly, parceling out physical and mental resources, keeping a number of ongoing events in his mind, returning to whatever task had been interrupted, and maintain a cool head under the pressure of grueling production schedules” (1037). As Rose portrays the life of a Foreman, he keeps a very serious tone to convey to the audience how real these struggles are. Although Joe may have not received a formal education passed middle school, he still has to work efficiently and intelligently in his own manner. At the same

Throwing to the wind the artistry of craftsmanship. . The mind frame of American capitalism was forever altered - from one that cherished the creativity and or dexterity of labor, to one, which manipulated and oversimplified the division of labor in order to maximize profit. In expanding cities, Big business’, the corporate world, began to dominate the market. The trade a craftsman once took pride in became dismembered – each man allowed assembly of only a fraction of the product. The prosperity of the corporation undermined that of the individual. Such reforms of the work process created an abundance of profitable businesses. Despite the fact that workers risked their lives in the industrial environment they received lower wages, as the available jobs required little skill. The average factory worker had to work “15 to 18” hours a day in order to earn a “living wage” in 1860. All the while the government disregarded the bleak circumstances of the factory worker, allowing big business’ owners to control the market. As these once pioneering minds began to apply their tact to the economy, they came to realize their cumbersome power and the bourgeois began to dwindle. The affluent prospered, and the lower class fought destitution with no viable prospect of government

The factory is a deafening cacophony of machinery. The air around you is smothering and dusty. Diligent workers handle the looms—1, 2, even 3 machines, beads of sweat dripping down their concentrated faces. The work is exhausting; however, you manage to survive a 13 hour shift, as the benefits are a decent bundle of cash, far more than you could ever earn anywhere else. On the other hand, some workers are dissatisfied with the conditions they must work in—going as far to sign a petition. In “Lyddie” by Katherine Patterson, Lyddie, a hardworking13 year-old factory worker, contemplates on whether or not she should sign said petition. She is confronted with the challenge of determining which means more to her--her job or the safety of her and

In the article, "Some Lessons From The Assembly Line" Andrew Braaksma compares his summer job experience to that of his college life. He gives a first-hand account of the difficulties associated with working in a factory and how receiving an education can be the better alternative. As the article begins, it becomes clear that Braaksma is aware of what his life could be if he doesn't take his education seriously. He, unlike his peers, decided to work somewhere others would consider unacceptable and with that choice gave him more determination. The first complaint he has is from work conditions and schedule.

The monotony of General Motors factory work was a major issue for Hamper. Even as a young

A product would be sent to a worker who would perform a certain task and then moved on to another worker who would perform a different task. The idea was that all of the employees would have their own individual tasks to perform on one product to increase production speed and efficiency. The assembly line was first used and perfected in the automobile industry by Henry Ford. This sparked a rise in automobile sales which ultimately changed how people lived their day

He is very convincing that blue collar work is hard and tolling, rather than applying one’s self to essays and school work. The author states factories move or downsize causing jobs to be unreliable. Machines breakdown also causing downtime in your work. While being away at school is far less stress and sleeping in rather than being at the factory bright and early in the mornings.

Rose tells us about his mother’s brother, Joe, he left school in the 9th grade to work on the railroad, then went to then Navy and eventually ended up back on the railroad. Joe talked about the conditions as a foreman on the line, recalling the inhumane pace of work, where he was constantly learning. Joe voiced that, for him, the shop floor provided what school did not, he was constantly learning. Joe accomplished the most efficient way to use his body by fabricating quick routines that preserved energy. “Coming off the line as he did, he had a perspective of workers’ needs and management’s demands, and this led him to think of way to improve the efficiency on line while relieving some of the stress on the assemblers” (277). Rose then says that after hearing of Joes experiences as a blue-collar employee, he decided to conduct some experiments of his own. He catalogued the cognitive demands serval blue-collar and service jobs, ranging from waitressing and hair styling to plumbing and welding. So he could gain a sense of how knowledge and skill evolve, he monitored experts as well as novices. His conclusion was, in short, this: much of physical work is social and interactive, to work is to solve problems, the perfection of everyday tasks comes from trial and error. Rose uses a hair stylist as his guinea pig. A hairstylist will stand on her feet all day, while continuing to engage in conversation with a client. A

Ronald Bailey explains that technological progress has been affecting the employment level since mid-1950s and he defines it as a battle between human kind and the machine. This is more notably considering that unskilled workers are limited in the labor market either because those individuals do not possess the required set of skills or due to their education level. Moreover, Bailey also suggests different alternatives in order to overcome this problem. Methods such as taxation and the creation of new economic sectors can boost the economy and at the same time, provide aid to the unskilled laborer. Nevertheless, machines and technology are part of human’s life, so “instead of racing the machines, we should race with

Some Lessons from the Assembly Line is an informative story of a student, Andrew Braaksma, who works hard in his summer job. In his essay, Braaksma provides his readers with insights as well as an outstanding lessons learned from working as a factory worker. At the introductory part, Braaksma gives a clear depiction of his life on the production line, and it is transparent that his job is extremely hard and labor intensive (Braaksma, 2005). Besides, he explains that the disadvantage of his blue color job is that he can be laid off any time. He realizes that he is a fortunate person to enjoy the opportunity to attend college unlike some of his colleagues who have been working in the factory for over 30 years. The hard work demonstrated by several

This spillover was observed by Hamper of his Grandfather. “Straight home from work, dinner, the evening news and immediately into bed at 7:00 p.m. He arose each weekday at 3:30 a.m., fixed himself some black coffee, turned on the kitchen radio, smoked a handful of Lucky Strikes and waited to leave for work at a quarter to five. This regimen never varied one iota in the forty years he worked for GM” (Hamper pg.6). It is fairly clear that the monotony of the assembly line has a way of setting personal routines for it’s workers that eventually work their way out of the factory and into the home.

The author's theme of "Some Lessons from the Assembly Line"(Braaksma 17) is to give us a view of the different lessons he learned while working summers in factories because those lessons taught him to appreciate his opportunity to

This synthesised, scientifically managed workflow was meant to improve labour productivity and economic efficiency. And thirdly, rather than having machinery at the centre of the factory and workers moving to and from the product, assembly lines were used. This meant that the workers remained stationary and the product simply flowed past them (Murray, 1989). They were essentially treated as robots and dictated by machines; operating to the duplicated, repetitive tasks daily and not given the opportunity to express potential for advancement or improvement.