The Factory Floor

It was during the three-day week, under the Heath government. I was able to work beyond the three days since I worked in Dispatch, which meant you weren't tied to a machine and so could get on with shifting stuff around the factory and doing all sorts of bits and bobs. The only problem was that most of the factory was cold because the machines weren't running and, I suppose, the heating was turned down, if not off. There was one machine which, for some reason I never figured out, was allowed to run all the time, I think because shutting it down would have had ramifications that couldn't be dealt with. But it was a long time ago, so I could be wrong. What I know for sure is that we used to gather around the area during breaks because it was warm there, and there were some problems with the machine that meant some management types gathered around it for quite a few days.

The bloke operating it was very patient with it all, and just got on with taking instructions and doing the needful. Then one day he told me that he knew perfectly well what was wrong with the machine, but none of the experts had seen fit to ask him anything about it. This all struck me as bleakly funny and a bit of a parable for British industry at that time; possibly a parable for management at any given time. Not sure if there's much of that industry left today. Rotunda Ltd shut down years ago.