16

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

particularly marked during the summer months. But with
the shorter work week, especially where hours of work had
been reduced without adjusting wage scales, there was a
natural desire to capitalize to the full all available working
hours. That decided improvements in attendance had taken
place was mainly attributed to the five-day work schedule,
as is apparent from a few quotations from letters:

“The change to a five-day week was made because of the desire to
provide more leisure for our working force, and it might also be interesting
 to you to know that our production increased since the installation
 of the five-day week without additional force; also that our rate
of illness has decreased about 309, and our rate of lateness has
Jecreased about 809.”

“Under the old schedule it was noticed that our list of absentees
was larger, especially on Saturdays, which we attributed to the shorter
ger, esp y
day.”
“There is a noticeable reduction in lateness and absence.”
“We have many married women who need more time for shopping
and housework. Under the old system our attendance was bad on
Saturday and we never received a half-day’s work. Now our attendance
 is perfect and our labor turnover is less than one per cent per
month.”
Lasor TurNoOVER

The effect upon labor turnover has for years been the test
applied to various devices for stimulating efficiency. It has
been used as a kind of infallible and conclusive indicator of
their adequacy and success. This barometer of industrial
health and good-will has become sanctioned by long usage,
yet it is difficult to accept this criterion, either as necessarily
conclusive or as possible of exact measurement. Without
entering upon an extended discussion, it may be suggested
that complete elimination of labor turnover in a plant might
be more of a calamity than a boon, and that reduction of
excessive turnover in this period of rapidly changing conditions
 within industry is probably due to the inter-play of so
many factors that it would be difficult to isolate the fair
proportion of reduction caused by any single agency.
Where, however, conditions in an industry or in a single
establishment have been such as to make the work so unde-