The clash between reducing costs to improve investor return and providing a work environment that employees expect Read the article by Robert Frank in The Wall Street Journal.' This article describes the clash between an organi¬ zation that has developed standard operating rules to promote efficiency and quality and the workers who have to follow the rules.

With a battalion of more than 3,000 industrial engineers, the company dic¬ tates every task for the employees. Drivers must step from their trucks with their right foot, fold their money face up, and carry packages under their left arm ... It tells drivers how fast to walk (three feet per second), how many packages to pick up and deliver a day (400, on average), even how to hold their keys (teeth up, third finger) . . . Those (drivers) considered slow are accompanied by supervisors, who cajole and prod them with stopwatches and clipboards.

The article goes on to identify the pressures put on employees by way of demands for increased productivity and the ability to handle a widening prod¬ uct line. The article mentions that the Teamsters Union, which represents the drivers at UPS, commissioned a study that claimed that the drivers at UPS scored in the 91st percentile of U.S. workers for job stress. One employee ob¬ served, "But you just wonder how much more they can squeeze out of us be¬ fore something breaks." What do you think of this? How can an organization decide when it has gone too far in its cost-cutting efforts?

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