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After graduation I returned home to my small town in Indiana. I didn't have a job yet. Mr. Hobbs, a friend of my father's, owned a small shirt factory in town. Within the past five years it had grown from twenty to eighty workers. Mr. Hobbs was worried that his plant was getting too big and inefficient, so he asked me to come in on a short-term basis as a consultant.
畢業后我回到家鄉——印第安納州的一個小鎮上。當時我還沒有找到工作。我父親的一位朋友霍布斯先生在鎮上有一家小型襯衫廠。在過去五年里，廠里的工人從二十名增加到了八十名。霍布斯先生擔心他的工廠規模變得太大了，效率變得太低了，便請我進廠當了個短期顧問。
I went to the plant and spent about a week looking around and making notes. I was really amazed at what I saw.
我來到廠里，花了一個星期左右的時間一邊到處查看，一邊做些筆記。說真的，我對看到的情況不勝驚訝。
Most curious of all, there was no quality control whatsoever. No one inspected the final product of the factory. As a result some of the shirts that were put in boxes for shipment were missing one or two buttons, the collar, even a sleeve sometimes!
最為奇怪的是，廠里竟然沒有任何質量控制。沒有人檢驗工廠生產的成品。結果，有些裝箱待運的襯衫不是缺了一兩粒鈕扣，就是少了衣領，有時甚至還會短只袖子。
The working conditions were poor. The tables where the workers sat were very high and uncomfortable. Except for a half hour at lunchtime, there were no breaks in the day to relieve the boring work. There was no music. The walls of the workrooms were a dull gray color. I was amazed that the workers hadn't gone on strike.
工廠的生產條件很差。工作臺很高，工人坐在旁邊很不舒服。除了吃中飯的半小時外，全天沒有別的休息時間來調劑一下令人厭倦的工作。廠里也不播放音樂。工場間的墻壁全是一片暗灰色。使我感到驚奇的是，工人們竟然沒有罷工。
Furthermore, the work flow was irregular. There was one especially absent-minded young man in the assembly line who sewed on buttons. After a while I recognized him as "Big Jim," who used to sit behind me in math class in high school. He was very slow and all the shirts were held up at his position. Workers beyond him in line on his shift had to wait with noth¬ing to do; therefore, a great deal of time and efficiency were lost as Big Jim daydreamed while he worked. All week I wondered why he wasn't fired.
此外，廠里的生產流程也時斷時續。在裝配線上有個縫鈕扣的年輕人特別心不在焉。沒有多久，我便認出了他，原來他就是在中學上數學課時坐在我后面的“大個子吉姆”。他動作很慢，所有的襯衫到了他這兒都被耽擱下來。裝配線上他后面的同班工人只好等在那兒無事可干；因此，在“大個子吉姆”一邊工作一邊胡思亂想的時候，大量時間便白白流逝了，勞動效率大受損失。整個禮拜我都在納悶，為什么他沒有被解雇。
