Before the invention of at least conceptually
accurate clocks (mid-13th century in Europe) and the subsequent
advent of modern timekeeping, the notion of productivity in terms of work per
unit of time was mostly unknown.
David Landes, in Revolution in Time: Clocks and
the Making of the Modern World,
points out that in the late medieval period, “the great virtue was
busyness—unremitting diligence in one’s tasks.”
In today’s
workplace, “keeping busy” is most definitely not the acceptable definition of
doing good work and being productive. As anyone who’s read “Dilbert” recently
knows, it’s possible to stay busy without actually doing anything.
 |
| Medieval clock tower |
When workers and bosses could
accurately keep track of time, they created an inescapable transformation of
workplace culture. If Hans made six shoes while Jakob made five shoes and
Gretel (with six hungry kids) made four shoes, and Hans could do this
repeatedly during measured time periods that everyone acknowledged, then it was
obvious who was doing more work and thus who was more productive.
That is to say, it was obvious if each of them had the same training, and each of them had the same access to raw materials and similar tools, and each of them had the same working conditions, and if…..
Source:
David Landes, Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of
the Modern World (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 1983), 25 and passim.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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