THE MEASURE OF COMPARATIVE PRODUCTIVENESS 3I3 
breakdown or hold-up in production processes. Among 
the latter is all time lost through tardiness, all time lost 
through illness or any other involuntary cause and all 
absences due to voluntary causes. To the second part 
of this provision many objections are sure to be raised. 
What if the cars are snowed in or a train wrecked? 
What if a relative dies or a friend is married? How can 
a worker be held responsible for time lost through illness ? 
As a matter of fact, a certain allowance ought to be made 
to every worker for absences due to reasons similar to 
the above. Nevertheless, all absences, whether voluntary 
or involuntary, detract from a worker’s productiveness 
and must therefore be charged to his account. Of two 
workers, one of whom lives near by and is always regular 
in attendance, and another who lives far away and is 
therefore frequently delayed by transportation tie-ups or 
is frequently out because of illness, the former should 
unquestionably have preference. Another advantage of 
charging all absences in class two to the worker is that it 
relieves the foreman or superior of the unpleasant and 
undesirable task of deciding which absences should be 
excused and which not. 
The formula for computing attendance percentage on 
the basis outlined above is: Hours actually worked plus 
the number of hours lost through the company’s fault, 
divided by the number of hours scheduled. For in 
stance, if the working schedule is forty-eight hours a 
week and the worker is out a half day or four hours on 
account of illness or personal business, and loses in addi 
tion a half day or four hours through lack of materials, 
his attendance percentage for the week is: forty-four (that 
is, forty hours plus only the four hours lost by the indi 
vidual on the company’s responsibility) divided by forty-