SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 54^ 



that routine work has made impossible during the year — for the re- 

 newal of his intellectual storage batteries for another year. More likely 

 than not, he does less reading and writing than he desires because he 

 knows that his physical and nervous batteries also need re-storing. 



The physical and nervous expenditure of the college professor's life is 

 not usually appreciated. Talk is cheap, we are told, with the implica- 

 tion that it is easy, and there is no denying that to some kinds of people 

 some kinds of talk are both cheap and easy ; but the sustained talk of a 

 fifty-minute lecture, or the almost sustained talk of a recitation period, 

 especially if the lecturer or teacher is warmed with enthusiasm, is not 

 a task to be repeated many times on the same day without a manner of 

 exhaustion far different from mere bodily fatigue, and more lasting. 

 It should surprise no one that men and women who spend five days of 

 the week in work of such intensity, and two more in work that differs 

 only in degree, feel at the year's end the need of a prolonged period 

 for recuperation. 



The college professor does not measure his time — which means that 

 he also does not begrudge it. And the reason why he does not is that 

 in the main his pleasure coincides with his duty. He gives his time 

 ungrudgingly because he likes to. I do not forget the fine bits of humor 

 about the professor — " a man with not enough brains to be a clerk, and 

 too little muscle to dig ditches." As a matter of fact, he is a college 

 professor because he is fitted for and enjoys the intellectual life, and 

 because he has followed his bent. Almost, if not quite as much as the 

 clergyman, he has been "called." He has not selected his vocation; 

 his vocation has selected him. And almost, if not quite as much, with 

 him as with the clergyman, salary is but an accident of vocation. 



The college professor's liking for his work, together with his com- 

 parative liberty, is no doubt responsible for the impression that he has 

 an easy time. In one way, the impression is well grounded. He does 

 enjoy a degree of liberty, for his vacations are long and his work elastic. 

 Time does pass rapidly and easily, because he is for a great part of it 

 absorbed in congenial tasks. Of the necessary drudgery of the pro- 

 fession, let us say nothing here. If it is criminal to accept pay for 

 what one likes to do, he is indeed an offender. 



But it should not be forgotten by the efficiency zealots that the college 

 professor and his work represent an all-important principle in scientific 

 management. Congeniality of task is a great factor of industrial econ- 

 omy, and the greatest promoter of both the employer's material interest 

 and his peace of mind. The liberal arts professor's critics should re- 

 member that actual enjoyment of occupation is a greater stimulus to 

 working well and working long than any office regulation or promise 

 of salary. 



The college professor is working hours enough. Not infrequently, 

 he is working too many hours for either his own or the general good. 

 The clear head and the buoyant heart are as indispensable to teaching 



