This overtime, however, was the exception, for although in former years it had been the almost invariable rule to work till half past seven in summer, most of the firms now made a practice of ceasing work at five-thirty.The revolution which had taken place in this matter was a favourite topic of conversation amongst the men, who spoke regretfully of the glorious past, when things were busy, and they used to work fifteen, sixteen and even eighteen hours a day.But nowadays there were nearly as many chaps out of work in the summer as in the winter.They used to discuss the causes of the change.One was, of course, the fact that there was not so much building going on as formerly, and another was the speeding up and slave-driving, and the manner in which the work was now done, or rather scamped.As old Philpot said, he could remember the time, when he was a nipper, when such a `job' as that at `The Cave' would have lasted at least six months, and they would have had more hands on it too! But it would have been done properly, not messed up like that was: all the woodwork would have been rubbed down with pumice stone and water: all the knots cut out and the holes properly filled up, and the work properly rubbed down with glass-paper between every coat.But nowadays the only place you'd see a bit of pumice stone was in a glass case in a museum, with a label on it.
`Pumice Stone: formerly used by house-painters.'
Most of them spoke of those bygone times with poignant regret, but there were a few - generally fellows who had been contaminated by contact with Socialists or whose characters had been warped and degraded by the perusal of Socialist literature - who said that they did not desire to work overtime at all - ten hours a day were quite enough for them - in fact they would rather do only eight.What they wanted, they said, was not more work, but more grub, more clothes, more leisure, more pleasure and better homes.They wanted to be able to go for country walks or bicycle rides, to go out fishing or to go to the seaside and bathe and lie on the beach and so forth.But these were only a very few; there were not many so selfish as this.The majority desired nothing but to be allowed to work, and as for their children, why, `what was good enough for themselves oughter be good enough for the kids'.
They often said that such things as leisure, culture, pleasure and the benefits of civilization were never intended for `the likes of us'.
They did not - all - actually say this, but that was what their conduct amounted to; for they not only refused to help to bring about a better state of things for their children, but they ridiculed and opposed and cursed and abused those who were trying to do it for them.
The foulest words that came out of their mouths were directed against the men of their own class in the House of Commons - the Labour Members - and especially the Socialists, whom they spoke of as fellows who were too bloody lazy to work for a living, and who wanted the working classes to keep them.
Some of them said that they did not believe in helping their children to become anything better than their parents had been because in such cases the children, when they grew up, `looked down' upon and were ashamed of their fathers and mothers! They seemed to think that if they loved and did their duty to their children, the probability was that the children would prove ungrateful: as if even if that were true, it would be any excuse for their indifference.
Another cause of the shortage of work was the intrusion into the trade of so many outsiders: fellows like Sawkins and the other lightweights.
Whatever other causes there were, there could be no doubt that the hurrying and scamping was a very real one.Every `job' had to be done at once! as if it were a matter of life or death! It must be finished by a certain time.If the `job' was at an empty house, Misery's yarn was that it was let! the people were coming in at the end of the week!
therefore everything must be finished by Wednesday night.All the ceilings had to be washed off, the walls stripped and repapered, and two coats of paint inside and outside the house.New drains were to be put in, and all broken windows and locks and broken plaster repaired.A number of men - usually about half as many as there should have been - would be sent to do the work, and one man was put in charge of the `job'.These sub-foremen or `coddies' knew that if they `made their jobs pay' they would be put in charge of others and be kept on in preference to other men as long as the firm had any work; so they helped Misery to scheme and scamp the work and watched and drove the men under their charge; and these latter poor wretches, knowing that their only chance of retaining their employment was to `tear into it', tore into it like so many maniacs.Instead of cleaning any parts of the woodwork that were greasy or very dirty, they brushed them over with a coat of spirit varnish before painting to make sure that the paint would dry: places where the plaster of the walls was damaged were repaired with what was humorously called `garden cement' - which was the technical term for dirt out of the garden - and the surface was skimmed over with proper material.
Ceilings that were not very dirty were not washed off, but dusted, and lightly gone over with a thin coat of whitewash.The old paper was often left upon the wails of rooms that were supposed to be stripped before being repapered, and to conceal this the joints of the old paper were rubbed down so that they should not be perceptible through the new paper.As far as possible, Misery and the sub-foreman avoided doing the work the customers paid for, and even what little they did was hurried over anyhow.