The Industrial Workplace

LIFE AND LABOR IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD HIST 1301 | History The Industrial Workplace The workplace saw some of the biggest shifts as a result of industrialization, which changed the nature of employment and introduced new difficulties. The Second Industrial Revolution saw the exploitation of new energy sources, faster communication and transportation, and the mass production of consumer goods like apparel, furniture, shoes, and packaged foods by industrialised nations in addition to the steel and machinery that had been the main focus of earlier industrial endeavours. Possibly the biggest shift was the creation of electricity, a new energy source. Animal power had already been supplanted by water power, and the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries' machinery was powered by coal-burning steam engines. By the end of the nineteenth century, electricity had also replaced steam in this manner. On the factory floors, internal combustion engines powered by petroleum as well as electricity powered machines. Night became day also because to electricity. Winter workdays were frequently shortened once the workplace was first lit by oil lamps and then by gas lights. Workers were often permitted to leave for home after dark since they relied on daylight to see what they were doing. However, the manufacturing floor could be kept lighted twentyfour hours a day using electric lights, allowing people to operate through the night in any season. Moving assembly lines in industries were also powered by electricity. Working-class workers added components or made other tweaks until the product was completed while conveyor belts moved interchangeable parts from station to station. The use of moving assembly lines necessitated the tight monitoring of employees. The entire manufacturing process may be affected if someone slowed down or disappeared. Therefore, it was essential that everyone show there at the scheduled time and work at the same rate throughout the whole day. In late nineteenth-century factories, male heads of families were replaced by paid foremen who were occasionally promoted from among the ranks of the labourers. In older factories, a labourer would have been in charge of a work gang made up of family members. Because assembly lines and every stage of the production process were mechanised, most factory labour was performed by unskilled workers. Workers always knew that they may be removed at any time if they gave their rich boss any reason to be unhappy with their performance. Certain jobs required skill, such as fixing machinery, and those with that knowledge were paid more. The majority, however, carried out monotonous jobs that anybody could learn to do with enough guidance. The assembly line made labour monotonous and repetitive, practically turning humans into machines, and it decreased their sense of ownership over the final product. Not only did industrial workers feel cut off from the fruits of their labour, but they also put in long hours and took home little pay. Business owners, motivated by their thirst for profit, responded to greater rivalry as industrialization extended throughout North America, Europe, and Japan by making their staff produce more and care to more equipment for less money. Workers in the nineteenth century often put in ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week. Reform regulations in Russia in 1897 cut the workday from fourteen hours (and occasionally up to eighteen) to just eleven and a half. Workers may cease working after ten hours on Saturdays, the days before feast days, and during night shifts. Fortunately for the tsar's subjects, most Russian manufacturing workers could count on about a hundred holidays a year. The adolescent women who spun cotton in Japan, frequently working seventeen-hour shifts with just brief breaks, would have been envious of them. Male adults had the highest wages among workers. Children often made less than adults, generally just a quarter of what an adult male made. Adult women made around half as much. Work was not always consistent; occasionally, establishments would abruptly close due to a shortage of supplies or work orders. This implied that there was no safety net for workers in the event of recurrent unemployment, which frequently accompanied low pay. Government-subsidized housing for the impoverished was nonexistent, and the majority of governments did not offer unemployment insurance. After losing their employment, people were compelled to seek financial assistance for housing and food from private charities or religious organisations. International economic crises have occasionally put workers' livelihoods in danger worldwide in addition to sporadic shutdowns. For instance, a decline in the price of silver in 1873 sparked a global financial panic and the start of what is now known as the Long Depression. In the first year alone, almost a hundred railroads in the US went out of business and banks collapsed. Additionally hurt were the labour markets and economy of Austria-Hungary, Britain, Russia, Germany, and France. The Vienna Stock Exchange crashed in May of 1873. In Germany, railroads were a failure. Britain's shipbuilding, iron, steel, and coal industries had extremely high unemployment rates. Periodic boom times were interspersed by recessions and depressions between 1873 and the end of the century, upending economies all around the world. Industrial production rose overall despite these economic ups and downs, and factory owners had to contend with an increasing number of rivals. In response, they accelerated their efforts. Workers were typically on their feet all the time since they had to cater to many equipment at once. To expedite operations even more, new techniques were used in the late 1800s. The goals of Frederick Winslow Taylor's 1911 introduction of scientific management, sometimes known as "Taylorism," were to increase output by cutting down on inefficient motions. According to Harrington Emerson, a proponent of scientific management, U.S. railroads could save $1 million a day, or around $13 million, if they used these concepts. Finding ways to improve worker efficiency frequently involved using stopwatches to time actions to ensure that parts were attached correctly and levers were not moved inefficiently. The emphasis was on tight attention to labour and accelerating the manufacturing process, even in non-Taylorized organisations. Even in industries where it was possible, employees were forbidden from talking to one other or from sitting at their equipment. Employees hated these kinds of restrictions. Workers' health and safety suffered as a result of the fast-paced, lengthy hours of mechanised labour. There were many of injuries. Hands and fingers were frequently lost to rotating machinery pieces. Standing all the time caused miscarriages, swollen feet, and back issues. Inhaled fibres in textile plants produced respiratory issues that rendered workers permanently incapacitated. Hearing damage resulted from the machinery's continuous loudness. The combination of summertime temperatures and the heat produced by moving people and machines put workers at risk of heat exhaustion. When boiling silkworm cocoons, labourers in Japan's silk industry frequently burned themselves. The health and safety of workers were severely compromised by the use of toxic chemicals in industrial operations that were mainly uncontrolled. Certain managers beat their employees, particularly the women; young girls whose parents could not afford to send them to work in the Japanese cotton industry were frequently whipped or caned. The harsh conditions, long hours, and poor pay of factory work notwithstanding, many members of the working class chose it over other forms of employment. Although they required labouring outside in all types of weather, low-paying vocations like driving waggons and unloading ships were still necessary. Workers on railroads were susceptible to catastrophic injuries by falling beneath railcars or being stuck between them. Miners worked in small, dim spaces where the occasional high temperature forced them to labour in their pants to avoid fainting. There was always a risk of cave-ins. All forms of industrial labour paid more than farm labour did as well. For instance, a male common labourer in London in the 1860s with no special abilities could make around twenty shillings a week. Men who worked as skilled craftspeople in non-mechanized sectors were paid thirty shillings per week. At that period, a male English farmhand would have made around fourteen shillings a week. Unmarried women, for whom domestic service was the most prevalent alternative, were particularly drawn to factory employment. Domestic servants made extremely little money, lived in their employers' houses, and were required to be accessible at all hours of the day and night. They were also closely observed. Workers in factories worked shorter hours and had free time after work. Sometimes, though, their independence was purchased at great cost. Young women without children who work in factories may face sexual harassment from male coworkers, managers, or employers. Unmarried women did not make enough money to support themselves on their own since they were paid less than males. They were usually required to live at home, giving their parents their money in exchange for a meagre allowance. "Treating" refers to the practice of women providing sexual favours to young men in exchange for food or clothing, even if they were living in shared quarters and paying their own rent. Despite this, a lot of young women employed in the manufacturing sector benefited from cheap entertainment in industrial areas, free nights and Sundays when the plants were closed, and a certain amount of freedom prior to marriage.