Ten Demandments!

Back in the early days of the Industrial Revolution an English factory owner compiled a list of suggestions for his employees. The language is blunt, but each of his “Ten Demandments” contains sound advice, just as applicable today as it was then. The 10 are …

1) Don’t lie. It wastes my time and yours. I am sure to catch you in the end, and that is the wrong end.

2) Watch your work, not the clock. A long day’s work makes a long day short; and a short day’s work makes my face long.

3) Give me more than I expect, and I will give you more you expect. I can afford to increase your pay if you increase my profits.

4) You owe so much to yourself that you cannot afford to owe anybody else. Keep out of debt, or keep out of my factory.

5) Dishonesty is never an accident. Good men, like good women, never see temptation when they meet it.

6) Mind your own business and in time you’ll have a business of your own to mind.

7) Don’t do anything here that hurts your self-respect. An employee who is willing to steal for me is willing to steal from me.

8) It is none of my business what you do at night. But if dissipation affects what you do the next day, and you do half as much as I demand, you’ll last half as long as you hoped.

9) Don’t tell me what I’d like to hear, but what I ought to hear. I don’t want a valet to my vanity, but one for my money.

10) Don’t kick if I kick. If you’re worth correcting, you’re worth keeping. I don’t waste time cutting specks out of rotten apples.