Once, at one of Henry Ford’s factories, a work crew was paid for resting instead of working. This was a service crew which was responsible for the smooth, uninterrupted working of the factory’s assembly line. That is to say, they were maintenance staff. They got paid only for the time they spent in a room used for recreation. As soon as the red light in the room — which signalled a breakdown in the assembly line — lit up, the device that counted the money they earned stopped.

This had the effect, first of all, of ensuring that these workers always resolved problems with the assembly line quickly and efficiently in order to get back to the recreation room as fast as possible. Secondly, it also meant that they always did laboured to perform their repair work with care, in order to avoid having to leave the room due to a repeat of the same problems any time soon.

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