Evidently the foreman's duties
are in no way clearly circumscribed. It is left each day entirely to his
judgment what small part of the mass of duties before him it is most
important for him to attend to, and he staggers along under this
fraction of the work for which he is responsible, leaving the balance to
be done in many cases as the gang bosses and workmen see fit. The second
principle calls for such conditions that the daily task can always be
accomplished. The conditions in his case are always such that it is
impossible for him to do it all, and he never even makes pretence of
fulfilling his entire task. The third and fourth principles call for
high pay in case the task is successfully done, and low pay in case of
failure. The failure to realize the first two conditions, however,
renders the application of the last two out of the question.
The foreman usually endeavors to lighten his burdens by delegating his
duties to the various assistant foremen or gang bosses in charge of
lathes, planers, milling machines, vise work, etc. Each of these men is
then called upon to perform duties of almost as great variety as those
of the foreman himself. The difficulty in obtaining in one man the
variety of special information and the different mental and moral
qualities necessary to perform all of the duties demanded of those men
has been clearly summarized in the following list of the nine qualities
which go to make up a well rounded man:
Brains.
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