MISFITS IN EMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 254, 24 July 1944, Page 4

MISFITS IN EMPLOYMENT

It is becoming apparent that there are serious defects in the system of manpower adjustment in operation in this country. Early in the war, when the enlistment of men for the Armed Forces was in full swing, the frequent failure of the military authorities to take cognizance of the civilian qualifications of recruits became a matter for comment and censure. In the bustle of military expansion, numerous misfits were created. A trained civilian cook, driving an Army lorry, was fed with meals prepared by an ex-lorry-driver. There were many cases of this kind, which handicapped efficiency and caused a feeling of discontent and frustration among the men concerned. As time went -on the position was substantially rectified, but it was not until public opinion had been roused to protest that more careful attention was given to the records and aptitude of men from the moment'of their entry into one or other of the services. Unhappily the last has not been seen of this sort of muddlement. The movement of manpower is largely reversed, and one of the most important national tasks of the day is that of drafting men back to civilian industry and service, but history is repeating itself—needlessly and wastefully. While there may have been some exciise in a time of acute war emergency for the placing of square pegs in round holes, there, is now small justification for such a state of things. The process of withdrawing men from overseas, and that of services retrenchment generally, was pondered lengthily by the Government. The preliminaries of national manpower adjustment have been elaborate —and indeed leisurely—in spite of the pressing need in many quarters for relief of the labour shortage. Tn these circumstances the people have expected an encouraging demonstration fori a comparatively small and simple scale) of the manner in which the main and complicated task of rehabilitation ivill be handled when the war ends. Instead, fiom various directions complaints have been made of a lack of care and thoroughness in this vital matter—one which is directly concerned with the industrial and national welfare of the country, not merely during a limited period of emergency, but for an indefinite time to come. In a highly disquieting number of cases occupational misfits are stated to have been created out of ex-servicemen. If this were being caused simply by a drift of men, temporarily unsettled by service lite, into work for which they are untrained and unsuited, it would be bad enough. But a substantial proportion of the men in question are said to have been officially “directed” away from familiar avenues of employment and into jobs for which, at'best, they are only indifferently qualified. Examples of this short-sighted, purely' expedient policy are being constantly quoted in the community. Typical cases were recited atlhe Hutt Valley Electric Power Board meeting on Thursday last, when it was reported that two of the board's clerks had been directed to the building industry, and an ex-serviceman storekeeper, whose services the board badly needs, sent to railway const ruction work. ... T These cases represent only one sort of compulsory misfitting. In all cases of misfit employment the disadvantage is twofold. _ On one hand the community is being denied the trained services of citizens in their chosen occupations; on the. other hand it is receiving, in many cases, indifferent, amateur services from “directed” and often dissatisfied men. There is being created in certain fields of employment a jumbled condition which is the worst possible basis for complete rehabilitation and post-war reconstruction—a basis which promises. in itself, to become gravely disrupted when strong competition foi employment sets in, thus causing widespread hardship.