In Roderick Nash’s essay, “Henry Ford: Symbol of an Age,”  the author discussed how Ford checked on his workers’ sobriety – his workers drank at the risk of their jobs.  Ford also implored his workers not to smoke tobacco either.  He was pleased that the children of new immigrants who poured into his factories were growing up “who have never seen a saloon and who will never know the handicap of liquor”  (Nash 158). 

After he paid $5 a day beginning in 1914, his workers’ turnover rate plummeted from 370% to 16% by 1915.   His workers worked 8-hour days as stated in this 1914 press release:

“Not only would the plant switch from two nine-hour shifts to three eight-hour ones, allowing it to run around the clock, but each man over 22 would receive the minimum wage of $5 a day, and ones under 22 would qualify if they had dependents.”

Initially, women didn’t qualify for the $5 / day wage.  “I consider women only a temporary factor in industry,” Ford explained. “I pay our women well so they can dress attractively and get married.”  But, eventually women were included by 1916 (emphasis is mine).

And with the increased wage came higher expectations from Ford: he didn’t want his workers spending their expanded income on cheap thrills, so he created a “Sociology Department” that checked up on his workers during their private time.  A team of 150 investigators checked up on all of Ford’s workers to make sure that they were saving money, getting married, buying a house, and living a healthy lifestyle.  If a worker wasn’t doing these things, he was put on six-months probation, and if by the end of that time he didn’t clean up his act, he was fired.   Critics thought that this intrusion into workers’ private lives was excessive, but over 75% of Ford’s work force willingly accepted the intrusion and the additional pay.   The Sociology Dept. was disbanded by Ford in 1920 (Gibson).

By the time the U.S. entered the Great War in 1917, $5 / day was the common wage.  Whether this was b/c of Ford or inflation caused by the boom in war production is unclear, but Ford’s effect on his workers was amazingly profound. 

 Under today’s laws, as taken from a website by the government’s Small Business Administration, employers like Ford might not be able to do what they were able to do back in the 1910s.   Today, employers can:

1. Ask for an employee’s credit report but only w/ that person’s consent;

2. Conduct a background criminal check, including finger printing (depends upon the state’s laws);

3. Inquire about an employee’s health and past health, but accessing medical records are off llimits;

4. Ask for military and educational records with the consent of the employee;

5. Examine things that are public records including divorce papers, bankruptcies,

They cannot ask for a polygraph test either before hiring or during your employment with the company.

See what is permissible today for employees’ background checks, according to the Small Business Administration. 

 This article (pdf) deals with how to deal with what they call your “digital dirt” or online stuff that a person may have posted (which never really goes away) that could be embarassing or even incriminating.  Google is being used as a way to weed out candidates for executive positions and even lower level positions b/c the job competition is so fierce.  According to the article, a survey they took in 2005 found that job recruiters used the internet  75% of the time to find out more information about job candidates, but only about 26% of the time did that info disqualify them from the job. 

Some of the things that can disqualify a job applicant, according to the survey’s respondents, were weird personal habits, suspended licenses, pending court cases, falsifying job titles or info, and mistated (lying) about your academic qualifications (just think Gatsby – did he really graduate from Oxford or just spend time there?).   Bulletin board posts can also expose your thinking, or lack thereof, and political biases.   For instance,

“Perry recalls a rabidly anti-George Bush candidate who posted some messages on a website that was later found by the potential employer. “Those postings cost him a $108,000 a year job, but of course, you can’t tell the candidate these things.”

Also, sometimes blogging about your job after you’ve been hired can get you fired, depending upon what you’ve revealed (classified company info) or how you’ve portrayed the company and its employees.  Getting fired for this is called being “dooced.”

While you work for a company, anything you do on their computers, phones, etc., can be examined and used against you if you say or do something stupid with it.  Other companies have software that blocks sites to increase their employees’ productivity (just think about the NCAA brackets and how much time has probably been lost by employers while their workers research the internet for the latest info).   This is all true for our school district and as employees, we sign a form that acknowledges that we understand this policy (so if fired, we can’t use “I didn’t know” as our defense). 

 

Henry Ford didn’t have to deal with the internet, but he did want workers who reflected his ideals.  My questions for you are:

1.  Do you see anything wrong with what Ford did in the use of his Sociology Dept., in exchange for the $5 / day wage?  Why or why not? 

2. With the internet and its lasting legacy, how does this change or reinforce your thoughts about what you put online or make available to the public?  Explain. 

3. Do you think it’s an invasion of privacy for companies to use your online profile against you in the hiring process?  Or do you think it’s possibly illegal or unfair?  Explain. 

 

Please answer all three questions for a minimum total of 300 words.   Since this was posted late, you have the option to turn this in by Tuesday, March 29 before your class begins. 

Sources:

1. The Ford Five Dollar Day –  http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~ppennock/L-FiveDollarDay.htm

2. American Heritage – Christine Gibson, “Henry Ford’s Revolution for the Worker.” http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20060105-henry-ford-five-dollar-day-model-t-ford-motor-company-assembly-line-james-couzens-highland-park-detroit-automobiles.shtml

3. Dealing With Your Digital Dirt. http://www.abilitiesenhanced.com/digital-dirt.pdf