JUNB 10, 1920. 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



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SHARING IN PROFIT AND WORK 



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HE MOST personal sort of 

 / 1 T business, not only in the 

 k I relations between proprie- 

 r ^ tor and customers, but be- 

 ^^ tween employer and em- 

 ployees, is the florists' 

 business, especially as long 

 as the business is small. 

 -^ When things are right a 

 small business is just like 

 a little family — one happy, everybody 

 happy. If one of the family feels 

 wrong, no matter whether it is em- 

 ployer or employee, the whole family is 

 affected. If one feels blue, all feel 

 blue. They work together, they live to- 

 gether and they feel together. 



These conditions and this feeling 

 change with the growth of the busi- 

 ness. At length the employees may 

 become so numerous that the employer 

 can no longer keep on living and feel- 

 ing with each individual member of 

 his staff. When the busi- 

 ness was small and a new 

 employee came in, it was 

 the smallness of the busi- 

 ness, the concentrated 

 space, which brought the 

 employee close to the em- 

 ployer. The new man had 

 a chance to get acquainted 

 with his employer more 

 quickly, had a chance to 

 look at him as one human 

 being at another, had a 

 chance to live his life and 

 acquire similar thoughts ; 

 their work brought them 

 nearer to each other. 



Half-liearted Help. 



In a larger business a 

 new man does not get a 

 chance to speak to his em- 

 ployer for days. They do 

 not get a chance to know 

 each other as men should 

 who have to work together. 

 New elements enter into the 

 relationship between em- 

 ployees and emploVer; they , 

 know each other "^nly by \ 

 name. Many of the n^w employees, add- 

 ♦"d as the business grows, do not appre- 

 ciate the work done by their prede- 

 f-essors or by the old crew; they are 

 not deeply interested in the business. 

 Ihe concentrated effort of all the em- 

 ployees of the institution loses its force, 

 inese helpers, not coworkers, are the 

 reason why the earnings of a large 

 retail business are relatively smaller 

 f f»,*^°^® of a small business. Others 

 or the new employees, who are intelli- 

 gent and able in their profession, are 

 anxious to work themselves in and up 

 m their new positions, but are often ex- 

 posed to more or less petty jealousies of 

 T\ ^l ^"^*^er of the older employees 

 an(i therefore become uncertain of their 

 positions for the future. Becoming 

 fiisaatisfied, they begin to ask them- 



^T'^^'- ^^ ^ S^* enough for what 1 

 am doing, in comparison with what the 

 OSS gets for my workf" And when 

 Vim \ ^^^ enough to do, to fill out 

 f»,«f 1.x , employer has the reverse 

 thought, "Do I get enough for what I 



By MAX SCHLING. 



give?" Such employer and employee 

 will never be able to get a fair return 

 for their work. 



We shall not condemn all employees 

 and we shall not condemn all employ- 

 ers. There are employers who not only 

 work with their men, but live with 

 them and are willing to take care of 

 them, both at the present time and in 

 the future, provided the men justify it. 



Mutual Appreclatioii. 



When slack times come, the controll- 

 ing thought of these employers is, 

 ' ' Now we shall all take it a little easier, 

 after all have worked so hard." And 

 there are employees who are anxious 

 that slack times may pass, so that they 

 all may be kept busy. They do not 

 analyze each order to determine what 



Back to the 

 Pay Envelope 



place of business. Business hours in 

 New York city a few years ago were 

 from 7 or 7:30 a. m. to 9 or 9:30 p. m., 

 in different shops. On Sunday some 

 shops were open all day and there are 

 still some which are open all day on 

 Sundays. Some houses, like ours, 

 opened Sunday forenoon only. I was 

 the first to adjust these hours. Before 

 our present schedule, our business hours 

 were from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. Half of 

 the employees left at 7; the others, 

 having had a chance to get refreshment 

 before, remained until 8. We cut these 

 hours down to from 8 a. m. to 7 p. m. 

 When we cut our time to these com- 

 paratively short hours, and our Sunday 

 work to filling a few orders early in 

 the morning behind closed doors, wo 

 did not have a thought of having part 

 of the employees leave at 6 and part 

 at 7. The employees among themselves 

 arranged an early and late shift. It 

 happens in our place once 

 in a blue moon, at Christ- 

 mas or Easter — or, precisely 

 speaking, the day before 

 Christmas or the day before 

 Easter — that we ask our 

 men to cut their lunch hour 

 shorter and we ask this only 

 from those of our men who 

 are in important positions. 



Here is one retail florist's appraisement 

 of the profit-sharing system, resulting from 

 a trial of it in his own establishment, a 

 large metroF>olitan store. He holds the 

 opinion that no mathematical calculation 

 can fix the reward which the employer 

 should give to those employees who de- 

 serve (^ share in his prosjjerity. Hence 

 his rehnr^ to the simple p)ay envelope. 



X 



Paying for Oyertime. 



comparison thei? earnings bear to the 

 earnings of the employer; or, if they do 

 indulge in such comparisons, they do 

 not forget how many orders are filled 

 which allow no earnings for the em- 

 ployer, while their earnings are always 

 assured. Such employees are the ideal 

 coworkers of the business man — his si- 

 lent partners and deserving of reward. 



Under these conditions, the question 

 of profit-sharing is a difficult problem. 

 If our business were not so changeable 

 and not a "season" business; if prices 

 were stable and work continuous year 

 in and year out, it would be an easy 

 matter to change our business to a 

 profit-sharing basis. As long as this is 

 not the case; as long as we cannot main- 

 tain the stability of prices, at least for 

 certain periods of the year; as long as 

 we cannot adjust our work so that our 

 working hours shall not be affected by 

 any chamges of season or fluctuation of 

 the market, we cannot apply a feasible 

 plan for profit-sharing. 



As an example, I am taking our own 



On rare occasions some 

 of the men work fifteen or 

 twenty minutes overtime. 

 We do not take notice of 

 this, because one or another 

 is late every morning and 

 this lateness also is unno- 

 ticed, unless it becomes a 

 habit of some man who 

 measures his work and his 

 time by salary only. But 

 when overtime becomes real 

 overtime, when work is to 

 be done until 8:30 or 9 in 

 the evening, we pay for it, 

 except to a few of the old- 

 est employees, who take 

 with us good and bad. When 

 we are pushed with work, these old re- 

 liables among the employees are first to 

 pitch in. When a delayed order is placed, 

 to be prepared in the evening for early 

 delivery the next day, they never have 

 engagements for that evening or for 

 any evening. These are the employees 

 who never grumble, who have the wel- 

 fare of the business just as much at 

 heart as the employer himself, and who 

 always volunteer first to do things. 



These silent partners in work and 

 worry form a group all by themselves, 

 and the reward to these workers can- 

 not be based on the profit of the busi- 

 ness or on what they are able to do. 

 At times we have an order which re- 

 quires intelligence, special effort and 

 time after business hours, and the out- 

 lay is out of proportion with the price 

 that the order brings. The man who 

 measures his services by the salary only, 

 and who always gets overtime per reg- 

 ular time schedule, is paid absolutely 

 out of proportion with the profit such 

 an order brings. The man who consid- 



