"What the hell is touchy about electronics?"
"This deals with the human personality," Quay said, as though that were
explanation enough.
Cutter understood. He snorted. "Christ, anything that deals with the
human personality scares them over there, doesn't it?"
Quay spread his hands.
"All right," Cutter said. "What's this device supposed to do?"
"The theory behind it is to produce energy units which reach a plane of
intensity great enough to affect the function of the human ego."
"Will it?" Cutter never wasted time on surprise or curiosity or theory.
His mind acted directly. Would it or wouldn't it? Performance versus
non-performance. Efficiency versus inefficiency. Would it improve
production of Cutter Products, Inc., or would it not?
"Sid swears they're convinced it will. The factors, on paper, check out.
But there's been no experimentation, because it involves the human
personality. This thing, when used, is supposed to perform a definite
personality change on the individual subjected."
"How?"
"You know the theory of psychiatric therapy--the theory of shock
treatment. The effect is some what similar, but a thousand times more
effective."
"What _is_ the effect?"
"A gradual dissolving of inferiority influences, or inhibitions, from
the personality. A clear mind resulting. A healthy ego."
"And?"
"Confidence."
Cutter stared at Quay's eyes, assimilating the information. "That's all
very damned nice. Now where does it fit in with Cutter Products?"
Quay drew a notebook from his coat pocket swiftly. "You remember that
efficiency check we had made two months ago--the rating of individual
departments on comparable work produced?"
Cutter nodded.
Quay looked at his notebook. "All administrative personnel departments
showed an average of--"
"Thirty-six point eight less efficiency than the skilled and unskilled
labor departments," Cutter finished.
Quay smiled slightly. He snapped the notebook shut. "Right. So that's
our personnel efficiency bug."
"Christ, I've known that for twenty years," Cutter snapped.
"Okay," Quay said quickly, alerting himself back to the serious effort.
"Now then, you'll remember we submitted this efficiency report to
Babcock and Steele for analysis, and their report offered no answer,
because their experience showed that you _always_ get that kind of
ratio, because of personality differences. The administrative personnel
show more inferiority influences per man, thus less confidence, thus
less efficiency."
"I remember all that," Cutter said.
"Their report also pointed out that this inevitable loss of efficiency
is leveled out, by proportionately smaller wage compensation. The
administrative personnel gets approximately twenty-five percent less
compensation than the skilled labor personnel, and the remaining eleven
point eight percent loss of efficiency is made up by the more highly
efficient unskilled labor receiving approximately the same compensation
as the administrative personnel."
"I remember all that nonsense, too," Cutter reddened faintly with a
sudden anger. He did not believe the statistics were nonsense, only that
you should expect to write off a thirty-six point eight efficiency loss
on the basis of adjusted compensation. A thirty-six point eight
efficiency loss was a comparable loss in profits. You never compensated
a loss in profits, except by erasing that loss. "And so this is supposed
to fix it?"
Quay's head bobbed. "It's worth a try, it seems to me. I've talked to
Sid about it extensively, and he tells me that Bolen, who's developed
this thing, would be willing to install enough units to cover the entire
administrative force, from the department-head level down."
"How?"
Quay motioned a hand. "It's no larger than a slightly thick saucer. It
could be put inside the chairs." Quay smiled faintly. "They sit on it,
you see, and--"