The Pastel Production Line

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They say it is twenty steps, more or less, that they make you walk when they have the intention of giving you a haircut with a guillotine. My notice of execution was delivered to me in the form of a wire, as I was timing operations in the forge room at Donner Industries in Sheboygan. It said:

That needs a little explanation. When the term “efficiency expert” began to smell too loud, they renamed guys like me “Industrial Engineer.” I slave for the firm of Bellows and Murch, Industrial Engineers. My name is Sam Ladder. They pay me fifty-five hundred a year plus fifteen hundred expenses, and call me an “intermediate consultant.” They sell the services of people like me to client firms at a rate of fifteen hundred bucks per month per man. My job is usually switching production lines around to give cheaper operation, better quality and more speed. Thus I am unpopular with labor, management, the firm and myself. My qualifications are a degree in mechanical engineering, eight years of experience, a knowledge of metallurgy, a face to frighten children, and grease under my fingernails.

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