Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The trouble with efficiency

I don't know the man. He could be a decent tax-paying God-fearing regular guy, for all I know.

But Ed Burkhardt has grown rich by riding our "efficiency" craze to absurd  extremes.

There's 60 cars in a train and a crew of 5?

Let's go for a couple more cars and a couple fewer crew.

That's more efficient.

The shareholders and the business press applaud.

Hey, wouldn't it be more efficient if we sacked another worker and added another few cars to the train?

Oh ya! Now we're talking EFFICIENCY!!!

The shareholders augment their positions and the business press wet their pants.

Next thing you know, there's one tired guy at the end of a shift responsible for an 80 car train of highly volatile cargo.

That's absurd!

You know how it ends.


1 comment:

  1. Amazing way with words, that hit the nail! Unfortunately my whole career and seniority on the railway played out like this and Ed tried to get 1 man trains in Ontario.

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