Advantage: Management

Ha! Got you now, slimy laborers. See this clipboard and this pen? See this haircut? See this dry-cleaned shirt? See this smile? All made possible by our new Big Brother Time Clock that I was forced to get because all ya’ll been “buddy-punching” and cheating me. Now when you see me in the warehouse or on the factory floor, I hope you realize who you're playin' with. And please, no eye contact.

People aren’t honest. Never have been. The execs are skimming and so are the grunts in their own inventive ways. But the grunts get watched much more closely. In the endless battle of Management vs. Labor, the suits score a big advantage with devices like this hand scanning time clock. Much as I’d like to side with the unions in their support of the practice of buddy punching, I have to agree with Mr. Charles Wasp here: You cheat me and I’m gonna make you pay.

Now, if we only had more effective ways to control the inventive ways that management keeps ripping off the company.

Scanned from today's NYT.