From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Shareholder's complaint about female staff wasting time and earning excessive overtime.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 143\3\ scan0393 | |
| Date | 21th June 1940 | |
| To D.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Lr.{Mr Ellor} G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} F.{Mr Friese} En. Roy.{Sir Henry Royce} Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Cgh.{W Clough} Sft.{Mr Swift} From Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} re Staff. I give below copy of a letter which I have received from a Shareholder :- "An employee of yours, in a letter to a friend, written in the ordinary course of correspondence, has quite innocently disclosed the following information as to certain happenings in your Belper offices. I will quote from her letter :- 'You'd be astonished at the way girls waste time. They smoke, gossip, powder their noses, go and have a wash, talk to (or about) the men, go out to the shop along the road for a walk and do any other darned thing except work. They even walked right down to Belper for ices in the hot weather. To make up for the waste of time they work over-time and draw fat pay packets. The girls of 20 think nothing of getting £3 a week on overtime'. As a British Citizen and a shareholder in your Company, I cannot think that this constitutes a maximum contribution to our war effort and such procedure is an unwarrantable waste of public and private funds". You will notice that the information comes from one of our own people. One can hardly believe that it is really as bad as this person has said. Nevertheless, it certainly sounds as if there were something which showed very great lack of supervision. Will you please investigate the matter and take immediate steps to see that there is no such waste of time as that indicated. Are you quite satisfied that there is a close enough control on the question of overtime being worked ? One knows that it is very tempting if people know that they can easily earn overtime. Will G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} please tell me whether the statement about girls getting £3 a week on overtime is anything like right; if so, in what Departments is this happening ? Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} | ||