The Retirement Thread

[ColinJ]

I've seen that, its piece work, you're paid on the number of cabbages you pick, and you have to pick an awful lot of cabbages to get paid that much.

I'm sure that is true, but it is amazing what you can do if you are fit and motivated.

When I started work at the factory that used to be near you in Holbrooks, it had a very unproductive workforce. They didn't get paid much and loafed around all day. I soon got really bored so I started working hard just to keep myself busy. I was producing double solo what 2-man teams were so my productivity was 400% of other workers. (They really didn't like it and 'sent me to Coventry', which was funny since we were already there! ) In the end the management picked up on what I was doing and decided to put the whole factory on piece work. A decent rate was negotiated and suddenly everybody else miraculously tripled their productivity and more than doubled their wages!

 

[Exlaser2]

I'm sure that is true, but it is amazing what you can do if you are fit and motivated.

When I started work at the factory that used to be near you in Holbrooks, it had a very unproductive workforce. They didn't get paid much and loafed around all day. I soon got really bored so I started working hard just to keep myself busy. I was producing double solo what 2-man teams were so my productivity was 400% of other workers. (They really didn't like it and 'sent me to Coventry', which was funny since we were already there! ) In the end the management picked up on what I was doing and decided to put the whole factory on piece work. A decent rate was negotiated and suddenly everybody else miraculously tripled their productivity and more than doubled their wages!

You must be older than you look lol. I started work in 1979 in the Coventry area in the engineering industry, piece work had nearly died out completely by then. Everyone I knew was on measured day rate.😀

 

[Deleted member 1258]

You must be older than you look lol. I started work in 1979 in the Coventry area in the engineering industry, piece work had nearly died out completely by then. Everyone I knew was on measured day rate.😀

I was at the GEC stoke between 1979 and 1992 and a lot of the production was on piece work, for a few years i was on stock checking, and one of the things we would do was check the tins and bins of piece work and make sure the quantities were right, outside of the GEC piecework was common.

 

[ColinJ]

You must be older than you look lol. I started work in 1979 in the Coventry area in the engineering industry, piece work had nearly died out completely by then. Everyone I knew was on measured day rate.😀

Ha ha - I worked for them from 1978 to 1983. I'm 66 at the start of 2022!

We stayed on piece work for a year or two but people got greedy. They rushed out incredible volumes of work, earned loads of money, but quality plummeted. In the end we went back to fixed hourly rates** with realistic targets that could be achieved without quality suffering.


** About double what they had been before the piece work was brought in. With overtime on a night shift in 1982 I managed to save £3,500 to help me through my first year at university.

 

[numbnuts]

Piece work was still going on at the railways work shops in the mid 70s

 

[Dave7]

Lots of kids on here.....1st job in the 70s.
I had just one job on piece work but only for 12 months. It was 12 hour nights 7-7. I hated it.

 

[gavroche]

I did my first paid job in the summer of 1964, as a telegram delivery boy. I was riding my bike all day, delivering telegrams from the post office.
With my first wage packet, I bought a record player and some records. I was only 14 then and worked during the summer school holidays in July and August.
I suppose most of today's generation wouldn't know what a telegram or record player is.

 

[Exlaser2]

Lots of kids on here.....1st job in the 70s.

Spot on . I still have one more birthday with a 5 at the beginning , in early November .

Everyone please remember the date as I want plenty of presents as commiseration 😂😂😂😂

 

[PaulSB]

Used to do piece work of a sort when I was a student planting cabbage, not for £62k though. Also used to get paid 10p per pot for planting up rhubarb after work hours.

Glamorous or what?

 

[numbnuts]

Lots of kids on here.....1st job in the 70s.
I had just one job on piece work but only for 12 months. It was 12 hour nights 7-7. I hated it.

I use to like nights, we only worked 4 nights 10 hour shifs.
If fact I like them so much after just two week I asked if I could do it permanently did that for at least 18 months
My first job was in 1966 at 15, I was in charge of Marley Tiles warehouse........well I was the only one there, that was before I started my Blacksmithing

 

[PaulSB]

Spot on . I still have one more birthday with a 5 at the beginning , in early November .

Everyone please remember the date as I want plenty of presents as commiseration 😂😂😂😂

With a 5????? Who let him in here? 😄😄

 

[PaulSB]

Now kids have got to be brung up proper like.

STP has bopped around the lounge to some Bruce. "Workin' on Highway" is a particular favourite.............

..............I feel like I've just done three hours at a live gig

 

[numbnuts]

I hear silence..........first time since 9am this morning, the guy in the next flat is having a new kitchen fitted, it normally takes 4 days so have this for another 3 days

 

[Dave7]

With a 5????? Who let him in here? 😄😄

Indeed.
I am sure there is a law against that.
Dirk's fault......he should have made the rules clearer.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I’ve got two more ‘5’ birthdays to go. Is piece work what you used to train for as part of a sandwich course ?