dayout, without ever having any knowledge or input into any ofthe other tasks related to completion of the project. Thismonotony in the workplace spills over into the daily life ofmany factory workers and affects how they live their lifeoutside of the factory after the whistle blows as much as itdoes while theyre on the assembly line. This spillover wasobserved by Hamper of his Grandfather. Straight home fromwork, dinner, the evening news and immediately into bed at7:00 p.m. He arose each weekday at 3:30 a.m., fixed himselfsome black coffee, turned on the kitchen radio, smoked ahandful of Lucky Strikes and waited to leave for work at aquarter to five. This regimen never varied one iota in theforty years he worked for GM (Hamper pg.6). It is fairlyclear that the monotony of the assembly line has a way ofsetting personal routines for its workers that eventuallywork their way out of the factory and into the home. Oneinteresting question that is raised, is whether people wholike their life to be routinized eventually find their wayto an assembly line or if the assembly line monotony bringsthe propensity to routinize out in people who previously didnot live by many routines.The relationships Hamper discusses between the workerson the assembly line are unique to say the least andsometimes comical or dangerous. After reading this book Iwould surmise that most factory workers build friendshipswith other factory workers almost exclusively. This could be due to their similarity of interests, similarity of jobs,the fact that they are in contact daily, or just by virtueof the timing of their shifts (as was Hampers case). I thinkone thing that helped to bind the workers together was thefact that they saw it as workers against management and bytheir solidarity they could turn the balance of power intheir favor. This solidarity was visible when a newsupervisor was hired who wasnt cutting the workers anyslack, so the workers resorted to sabotage. We si...
