Increasing Efficiency In Business - Walter Dill Scott (ebook reader browser .txt) 📗

CHAPTER IX

RELAXATION

 

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY

 

Be not therefore anxious for the Morrow

 

A STUDY of the lives of great men is

both interesting and profitable. In

such a study we are amazed at the

records of the deeds of the men whom the

world calls great. The results of the labors

of Hercules seem to be approximated according

to many of these truthful accounts.

 

In studying the lives of contemporary business

men two facts stand out prominently.

The first is that their labors have brought about

results that to most of us would have seemed

impossible. Such men appear as giants, in

comparison with whom ordinary men sink to

the size of pygmies.

 

The second fact which a study of successful

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business men (or any class of successful men)

reveals is that they never seem rushed for

time.

 

_Men noted for efficiency almost never appear to

be hurried. They have plenty of time to accomplish

their tasks, and therefore can afford to take

their work leisurely_.

 

Such men have time to devote to objects in

no way connected with their business. It cannot

be regarded as accidental that this characteristic

of mind is found so commonly among

successful men during the years of their most

fruitful labor.

 

According to the American Ideal, the man

who is sure to succeed is one who is continuously

“keyed up to concert pitch,” who is ever

alert and is always giving attention to his business

or profession. As far as the captains of

industry are concerned, such is not the case.

They devote relatively few hours a day to their

strenuous toil, but they keep a cool head and a

steady hand. They are always composed,

never confused, but ever ready to attack a new

problem with their maximum ability. They

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follow the injunction of Christ expressed in

His Sermon on the Mount: “Be not therefore

anxious for the morrow.”

 

Of all the nations of the world, Americans

are supposed to be the hardest working. We

have attributed our industrial success to the

fact that there is a bustle and snap to our work

which are not equaled in any other country.

But recent students of the industrial world are

now telling us that even in the case of day

and piece labor this characteristic is frequently

a weakness rather than an advantage. They

say that the American product “suffers from

hurry, want of finish, and want of solidity.”—

“Industrial Efficiency,” Arthur Shadwell,

Vol. 1, p. 26.

 

_In the great middle class of American society,

there is a lack of repose and an absence of relaxation

which astonishes foreign observers_.

 

They tell us that we are wild-eyed and too

intense. Dr. Clauston of Scotland is quoted

as saying:—

 

“You Americans wear too much expression

in your faces. You are living like an army

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with all its reserves engaged in action. The

duller countenance of the British population

betokens a better scheme of life. They suggest

stores of reserved nervous force to fall

back upon, if any occasion should arise that

requires it. The inexcitability, this presence

at all times of power not used, I regard as the

great safeguard of our British people. The

other thing in you gives me a sense of insecurity,

and you ought somehow to tone yourselves

down. You do really carry too much expression,

you take too intensely the trivial moments

of life.”

 

The late Professor William James of Harvard

makes the following pertinent remark

concerning the overtension of Americans:—

 

“Your intense, convulsive worker breaks

down and has bad moods so often that you

never know where he may be when you most

need his help,—he may be having one of his

`bad days.’ We say that so many of our

fellow-countrymen collapse, and have to be

sent abroad to rest their nerves, because they

work so hard. I suspect that this is an im-

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mense mistake. I suspect that neither the nature

nor the amount of our work is accountable

for the frequency and severity of our breakdowns,

but that their cause lies rather in those

absurd feelings of hurry and having no time,

in that breathlessness and tension, that anxiety

of feature and that solicitude of results,

that lack of inner harmony and ease, in short,

by which with us the work is apt to be accompanied,

and from which a European who should

do the same work would nine times out of ten

be free… . It is your relaxed and easy

worker, who is in no hurry, and quite thoughtless

most of the while of consequences, who

is your efficient worker; and tension and anxiety,

and present and future, all mixed up together

in one mind at once, are the surest

drags upon steady progress and hindrances to

our success.”—“Talks to Teachers,” pp. 214-218.

 

Mr. Joseph Lyons, who is recognized as one

of the particularly active and efficient men of

England, has taken great interest in the way

things are done in America. And after ob-

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serving us at work here he expressed himself

as dissatisfied with the tension under which we

work. His words areas follows:—

 

“I do not believe in what Americans call

hustling. The American hustler in my opinion

does not represent the highest type of

human efficiency. He wastes a lot of nervous

power and energy instead of accomplishing

the greatest possible amount of work for the

force expended. Judging the American hustler

from my observation of him in his own country,

I should say that the American hustler

shows a lack of adaptation of means to ends

because he puts more mental, physical, and

nervous energy into his work at all times than

it demands. Regarded as a machine he is not

an economical one. He breaks down too often

and has to be laid off for repairs too often.

He tries to do everything too fast.”

 

When Mr. Lyons was asked to explain how

he had been able to accomplish so much without

hustling, he replied: “By organizing myself

to run smoothly as well as my business;

by schooling myself to keep cool, and to do

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what I have to do without expending more

nervous energy on the task than is necessary;

by avoiding all needless friction. In consequence,

when I finish my day’s work, I feel

nearly as fresh as when I started.”— Quoted

from New York Herald, Aug. 30, 1910.

 

RELAXATION A PHYSIOLOGICAL NECESSITY

 

_The necessity for relaxation is adherent in the

human organism. Even those life processes

which seem to be constant in their activity require

frequent periods of complete rest_.

 

The heart beats regularly and at short intervals,

but after each beat its muscles come

into a state of complete relaxation and enjoy

a refreshing rest, even though it be but for

a moment. Likewise the lungs seem to be

unceasing in their activity, but a careful study

of their action discloses the fact that every

contraction is followed by a perfect relaxation,

and that the rest secured between successive

respirations is adequate for recuperations.

 

In all bodily processes the same alternation is

discovered. No bodily activity is at all con-

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tinuous. Mental processes, too, can be continued

for but a very short time. By attempting

to eliminate these periods of rest for bodily

and mental acts, we merely exhaust without a

corresponding increase in efficiency. The laws

of nature are firm and countenance no infringement.

 

The periods between activity and rest,

as well as the durations of the two processes,

may be changed. Thus, up to a certain limit,

the periods devoted to activity may follow

more rapidly and endure longer. There is,

however, a danger point which may not be

passed with impunity. The danger signal

may manifest itself in several ways: The overtrained athlete becomes “stale”; the overworked brain worker becomes nervous; the

overworked laborer becomes indifferent and

generally inefficient.

 

In all these and in similar instances, the

amount of energy expended is out of proportion

to the results of the labor. The athletic

trainer has learned to guard against overtraining

and is severely condemned for making

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such a mistake. The brain worker often

regards overwork as a commendable thing.

However, sentiment is changing. The employer

of labor is finding that rest and relaxation

are essential to the greatest efficiency.

Employees accomplish as much in a week of

six days as they do in one of seven. The reduction

in the hours of daily toil has not decreased

the total efficiency.

 

The periods devoted to rest are not as

profitable as they should be unless they are

actually devoted to recuperation. It may be

that some of the time supposed to be devoted

to rest should be devoted to thoughts of toil.

Again during the hours of work there should

be a freedom from jerkiness, breathlessness,

nervousness, and anxiety. It is not necessarily

true that the greatest and most constant display

of energy accompanies the greatest presence

of energy. The tugboat in the river is

constantly blowing off steam and making a

tremendous display of energy, while the ocean

liner proceeds on its way without noise and

without commotion. The still current runs

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deep, and the man who is actually accomplishing

the most is frequently—perhaps always the

man who is making the least display of his

strength. He can afford to be calm and collected,

for he is equal to his task. The man

who frets and fumes, who is nervous and excited,

who is strung up to such a pitch that

energy is being dissipated in all directions—

such a man proclaims his weakness from the

housetop.

 

_Many business men know they are going at a

pace that kills, and at the same time they feel

that they are accomplishing too little. For such,

the pertinent question is, How may I reduce the

expenditure of energy without reducing the

efficiency of my labor_?

 

The ability to relax at will and to remain in

an efficient condition, but free from nervousness,

is a thing which may be acquired more

or less completely by all persons. It is accomplished

by a