In my search for a new vocation, I often am confronted with the issue of compensation. Somewhere in the core of the American dream is the "time is money" concept. I was shocked today when I Googled those words and found websites with equations that prove it mathematically. I also found that it originated with Antiphon, an ancient Greek lawyer. So it must be true.
But I take exception. It is true that time is in limited supply and can be viewed economically. But as I walk through offices and see workers pretending to work looking at computer screens, I have to ask if there's a better way. Originally workers in those pre-union sweatshops were paid a wage based on the number of units completed. But there are flaws in this system also. Look at all of the faulty and dangerous commodities coming out of China today.
What we need is a new quality management that pays people for quality units of work performed (and pays very well for it, I might add). It goes beyond SPC, TQM, ISO and Six Sigma black belt. Too many employees turn off their brains at work and become zombies. Some even sleep and I'm as guilty as anyone. Just as we're trying to find a technological answer to the energy crisis, we can use a similar approach to our current economic crisis. I don't yet have the answer but this is what's churning in my head.
