J LI BRARY COLLE in September and October, 1947, General Motors Held a Contest for Its Employes
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ORI A11.ANT1C UN\V£RSI11 S0 CIA L S1T • ~~. ~ · !istY"' '-7·"'··J LI BRARY COLLE In September and October, 1947, General Motors held a contest for its employes. It was based on the state ment MY JOB AND WHY I LIKE IT, and rapidly be came known around General Motors as the My Job Contest, or MJ C. The contest was open to all hourly rate employes and some salaried employes. All they had to do was write a letter-any length-explaining why they liked their jobs. The winners were picked by independent judges on the basis of sincerity, originality and subject mat ter, without consideration of writing ability. A total of 174,854'entries were received. More than 5,000 prizes, all GM products, were offered, the 40 top prizes being automobiles. This book contains the letters of these 40 top winners, entirely unedited and unchanged. My Job and Why I Like It • t tThe reward of a thing well done is to have done it." RALPH WALDO EMERSON • GENERAL MOTORS 1948 Copyright 1948 by General Motors FOREWORD FROM THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMEN'I of the My job Contest, these ques tions have been asked repeatedly- 1. Just what is the reason for the contest? 2. What do you hope to get out of the letters? 3. May we read the winning letters? Now, concerning the first question: The inspiration behind this unusual experiment-an inquiry into the attitudes of General Mo tors men and women-was generated by the popular fiction that people employed in such large enterprises as ours were "slaves of the conveyor belt" -"were just numbers" -"were without incentives to progress"-"were plodding in a mass to their hopeless destiny" and finally were ripe for revolution against the American form of govern ment and the whole Free Enterprise system. Having spent mt:~.ny years of my life rubbing elbows with other workers, I was convinced that these prophets of doom had complete ly missed the boat. Their published articles did, however, sharpen up the challenge to get the facts-and the facts are indeed refreshing. A bit of simp!e homespun philosophy has run like a thread through all of the material issued during the contest and that is-"Let's look at the doughnut instead of the hole. ~ ' It's just as simple as that. The answer or rather the answers to the second question are reflected in the comments of the judges and are also summarized in Mr. Wilson's remarks beginning on Page 174. "Yes" is the simple answer to the third question. All 40 of the top prize-winning entries are reproduced in this booklet-unedited, unchanged in any way. And to help you get a better grasp of what each had to say we are including portraits and short biographies of all these men and women. We believe that, as you read this booklet, you will get the same thrill and inspiration that we who lived so close to the program have experienced. TABLE OF CONTENTS Comments by Contest Judges LLOYD D. HERROLD.................................. 7 Head of Advertising Department, Northwestern University-Administrator of My Job Contest DR. JOHN STUDEBAKER ....................... 10 U. S. Commissioner of Education EDGAR A. GuEsT................................... 12 The Detroit Free Press PETER F. DRUCKER ........... 15 Professor of Political Economy, Bennington College DR. GEORGE w. TAYLOR.............................. 17 Professor of Industry, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania jAMEs E. McCARTHY ..................... : . • 19 Dean, College of Commerce, University of Notre Dame Letters of the 40 Grand Award Winners ANTHONY ALUBOWICZ. 21 Plant Protection Officer, Detroit Transmission Division, Detroit, Mich. THOMAS B. ANSLOW. 24 Forging Machine Operator, Buick Motor Division, Flint, Mich. jOHN W. ARMSTRONG . 27 Process Engineer, Rochester Products Division, Rochester, N.Y. EDNA B. BAUER. 29 Tool Designer, Delco-Remy Division, Anderson, Ind. DELPHIA BAUGH .......................... 34 Cutter and Sewer, Fisher Body Division, Detroit, Mich. HENRY N. s. BIERRE.. 38 Die Maker, Buick Motor Division, Flint, Mich. SARAH A. BoYLE . 43 Shipping Department Clerk, New Departure Division, Bristol, Conn. 4 jAMES H. BRUCE.... 46 Chucking Machine Operator, New Departure Division, Bristol, Conn. FRANKL. CARLSON................................... 53 Die Maker, Buick Motor Division, Flint, Mich. JoHN P. CoAKLEY.................................... 56 Tool, Die and Machine Setter, Fisher Body-Ternstedt, Trenton, N.J. CHESTER B. DANFELSER. 60 Milling Machine Operator, Electro-Motive Division, La Grange, Ill. HUGH P. DAVIES.. 63 Senior Layout Man, GMC Truck & Coach Division, Pontiac, Mich. GILBERT C. DoNOVAN. 67 Sales Department Correspondent, Overseas Operations Division, New rork, N. r. CALVIN H. DUNLAP................................... 70 Tool Design Draftsman, Chevrolet Motor Division, Bay City, Mich. HARRY w. EASLEY.................................... 80 Supervisor's Clerk, Chevrolet Motor Division, Kansas City, Mo. WILLIAM H. FARRIER. 85 Tool Sharpener, Moraine Products Division, Dayton, Ohio C. WALES GooowiN . 87 Dynamometer Operator, Pof!tiac Motor Division, Pontiac, Mich. VERNON HALLIDAy . 92 Grinding Machine Operator, Buick Motor Division, Flint Mich. LAWRENCE E. HUNT.................................. 95 Test Engineer, Delco-Remy Division, Anderson, Ind. GEORGE G. jACKSON.................................. 99 Model Builder, Cadillac Motor Car Division, Detroit, Mich. ARTHUR R. KALDER .................................• 107 Plant Protection Patrolman, Cadillac Motor Car Division, Detroit Mich. LEVI E. KEITH. 111 Sweeper, Delco-Remy Division, Anderson, Ind. WILLIAM JosEPH KELLY ............................... 113 Junior Anarys{, Overseas Operations Division, New fork, N.r. WILLIAM H. KITTS. 116 Junior Engineer, Fisher Body Division, St. Louis, Mo. 5 BETTY F. KRAFT ..................................... 121 Secretary, General Motors Patent Section, Washington, D.C. Louis F. KusTo ...................................... 124 Baler Operator, Fisher Body "Division, Grand Rapids, Mich. ORVILLE R. LEWIS ...................•••..•........... 126 Time Study Observer, Delco Radio Division, Kokomo, Ind. THOMASENE LEWIS. 129 Stenographer, General Motors Central Office, Detroit, Mich. MARY H. LINABURY. 132 Senior Calculator, Electro-Motive Division, La Grange, Ill. jOSEPH LOSITO . • . • • . 134 Plating Buffer, Brown-Lipe-Chapin Division, Syracuse, N.Y. NEIL F. MAHANEY, jR ................................. 139 Member Comptroller's Staff, Fisher Body Division, Detroit Mich. PAULL. MARTIN ..................................... 144 Pipefitter, B.O.P. Assembly Division, Doraville, Ga. PAUL I. MASTERS ..................................... 146 Lathe Operator, Delco-Remy Division, Anderson, Ind. RICHARD 0. NEAL .................................... 152 Tool Maker, Electro-Motive Division, La Grange, Ill. TAYLOR c. PHILLIPS .................................. 157 Spray Painter, GMC Truck & Coach Division, Pontiac, Mich. ' KENNETH A. QUIGLEY .......................... ·. ...... 159 Test Driver, Chevrolet Motor Division, Detroit, Mich. AGNES SMITH ........................................ 162 Registered Nurse, Chevrolet Motor Division, Detroit, Mich. MARY ELIZABETH STRASSER. • . 165 Cable Department Clerk, Overseas Operations Division, New York, N.Y. LAWRENCE H. WHITE ................................. 169 Finisher & Polisher, Cadillac Motor Car Division, Detroit, Mich. ERVIN H. WITT. 171 Model Maker Leader, Fisher Body Division, .Detroit, Mich. Summing Up c. E. WILSON ..................... 174 P":esident, General Motors 6 "In the 15 years in which I have handled con tests, I know of no contest for which the stand ards were higher than those maintained from the beginning to the end in this contest." Lloyd D. Herrold Head of the Advertising Department Northwestern University My Job Contest Administrator IF ANY OF You WINNERS should be wondering whether you won on merit or won as a result of a lottery, let me put you straight. You won on merit. All contest mail is opened, and every letter received is evaluated very carefully by a competent staff in terms of the rules of the contest. In the 15 years in which I have handled contests, I know of no contest for which the standards were higher than those main tained from the beginning to the end in this contest. You may wonder how we got people with a background suitable for reading General Motors employes' letters. We placed want ads. We had personal interviews. 1-called every university in the Chicago territory. We finally ended up with some 60 people who were tested very carefully for three solid hours on a selected 100 letters. We had this all worked out according to our first reading chart, which said, "You are not judging. You are eliminating letters which do not have the merit sufficient to carry them further." We had to impress on every member of our staff that they were not judges. People get very exalted and high and mighty when they think they are judging. We simply say, "You are merely following this procedure to pick entries that have enough merit to go on." It was very detailed, about three or four pages, with specific examples. When these sets were made up, we knew what letters were in them, what types, what should be eliminated and what should be saved. We had our greatest difficulty over the appearance of emotional ism in the reader. You can't believe what reading your contest NoTE: These remarks were made by Professor Herrold at the Grand Awards Banquet for the top 40 MJC winners. 7 entries actually did to my staff. They never became calloused enough to read fast. Every letter was a precious