This question <140|153> overall <143|145> Gregory: <98|273>.

Question 297: Can labor be measured in other ways than in time?

[144] Gregory: various dipsticks to determine labor.   Indeed, labor, productivity, and output can be illustrated through various measurements. For example, I have a friend who works for a medical supply company. He is responsible for replacing damaged and non functional medical equipment to thousands of physician offices, hospitals, clinics etc. throughout the United States. As a whole, the largest body of the company is made up of customer service representatives. Each customer service rep holds their own private accounts with clients that are established and continuously added through time and persistence. Subsequently, if I am service rep at this company holding an account with a physician's practice in Salt Lake City, whenever that particular office requires to be replaced I will receive the commission for that order. In this case your output and productivity in terms of producing profit for the firm and commission for yourself depends on other firms and their particular needs. Obviously, in this business, labor can not be measured by time spent.

Corey [140] states “clearly an experienced worker will produce more than an inexperienced worker but does that mean they are expending different amounts of labor? No, in fact someone who is learning may be expending more labor to produce a unit than the experienced worker, as the process is more difficult in the beginning.” This goes hand in hand with the example I am providing. While the experienced rep who holds numerous accounts may be selling more equipment, the new guy may very well be expending more labor trying to establish accounts. Consequently, although he is not accumulating equivalent commission he is expending more labor. In conclusion, there are times when measuring labor by time is an accurate depiction (i.e. a ford assembly line). However in many cases other “dipsticks” are necessary to accurately measure labor.

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