Once again, we may ask: Who is timing whom? Scientific management was a matter not just of measuring work and increasing productivity but of discipline and control. As Taylor’s years-long battled showed, workers would have some control over the pace of work as long as they held knowledge about the work process. As much as it was about intensification, Taylorism was also about breaking apart and codifying this process in a way that concentrated knowledge in the hands of employers rather than employees. “Under our system the workman is told minutely just what he is to do and how he is to do it,”
