Household Though a later discussion of 'Management of What' will have to consider the question of machines, automation, shift working, and the like, in the present context a moment must be spent on the problem of shift work as it affects the community. Industry and commerce, in these postwar years of immense development, make different demands on people's time. The routine worker can plan his or her leisure, but the shift worker with odd working hours makes claims on parents, housewives, and landladies which place managements greatly in their debt. Is this debt acknowledged? Does management trouble itself sufficiently, for example, about the effects of the comings and goings at all hours on the family life, routine, unity, and social life? And morale? It is one thing to write about the need to preserve the morale of the employee himself, but how much does management think about the disastrous effect on those outside the factory or office gates family, friends, and sweethearts of the disgruntled men or women whose regard for management is bitter and resentful? Management's responsibility here is clear. Managers must realize that the range of their management must look after the total human situation of which morale twentyfour hours a day morale that is is a prii«e\|part. Much of the foregoing has been generalization relevant generalization perhaps but generalization. It would be worth taking a specific case of where management has to think about its relationship with the community : a small example it is true but an interesting one which was highlighted some years ago by Sir Harry Pilkington, a former President of the Federation of British Industries. Take the question of playing fields and recreation in many industrial towns. Local companies with greater resources find themselves in many cases able to provide better amenities for their workpeople than the community. Often there has been a long history of financial difficulties and the independent clubs, be they of church or other foundation, relying on enthusiasts, just have not had the money to produce the amenities which the big local firm or firms supply in generous and subsidized quantities exclusively for their stafifs and families. Let Sir Harry's questions be asked as he asked them for they pinpoint problems for management which are entirely to the point. Is this a good thing for the community or not ? Does it help to develop an association outside work between those who are employed in the large firms and the rest, or does it tend to increase the mutually exclusive relationship? Is the standard of recreational facilities a deciding factor when young men are deciding on a career, or must the firm do it in a competitive spirit regardless of the effect on the community? Or is it so important that a decent firm must go far beyond the standard the ordinary clubs in the town could afford? Management, relating itself to those around it, has. got to answer that kind of problem. personal finance