The Tests of General Health.
We will now assume that the reader has attacked the fatigue problem in his particular plant, and has applied either preliminary or more permanent fatigue elimination. There are various general measurement tests which he may apply to the results, in order to see how much better the working condition of his organization actually is than it was when he started in upon his fatigue-eliminating work.
The first of these is the test of general health. It is, of course, perfectly possible that an individual worker’s general health may go down under far better working conditions; this, because of some home influence, or something in his general condition or his life away from work, which pulls down his health. It would not be fair to blame the work for any illness easily traceable to home conditions, to an epidemic prevalent, or to some certain outside source; but, if conditions away from work have remained fixed, there is every reason to expect that general health should improve with fatigue elimination. This we find in actual practice is the case. Even where fatigue is not materially cut down during working hours, because measurement shows that the worker is not getting over-fatigued, the general health is apt to improve because of greater regularity in habits of work, and because of better physical and mental habits, while doing the work. The path along this line is a continuous, never-ending, upward spiral. Fatigue is eliminated by establishing proper habits. Proper habits improve health. The improved health allows of more work with less fatigue, etc.