The Bishop of Hereford writes in.

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From the "Industrial Timestudy Institute" :

Indirect labor is defined as work or tasks performed by personnel that do not produce products. Indirect labor costs are costs that cannot be specifically linked to the physical construction of specific products, but are necessary for producing those products.

Some examples of indirect labor are janitors or housekeeping personnel, utility workers, tool crib attendants, inspectors, material handling personnel, shipping/receiving personnel, clerical workers, fork lift drivers and maintenance workers. Indirect labor can also apply to the salary workforce in the office, whether clerical or executive.

There exists a pervasive belief that you cannot measure indirect labor or jobs. The usual explanation is that these types of jobs are non-repetitive and are therefore impossible to measure. Other rationales are that indirect operations may involve groups of people, the unit of output appears difficult to define, the job may entail numerous sub operations, the work cycle is long, and the operation constantly changes geographic locations.


The term timestudy brings to mind F. W. Taylor, Scientific Management and all that goodness liberals and miscellaneous farshtopterkops so love to hate. Their political and philosophical opinions and inclinations notwithstanding, they cannot easily conclude that they can impose these opinions on others.

It may be illegal for corporations to use indirect labor outputs for their own profit. In particular, it may be illegal for them to use information gleaned from HTTP headers, IMAP Mail Headers, et cetera, for their own personal profit. All persons involved in the chain of helping such a corporation may be considered abetting criminal act.