8 Too Many People Holding the Horse’s Head?

Here’s where I deviate from the general focus of my blog, just for a moment or two. This is prompted by a comment I overheard recently which triggered something in my memory!

Some years ago when I worked in GEC Telecommunications in Coventry I got into conversation with a Work Study Engineer, a most interesting character.
If you don’t know what they do then let me explain - they are the guys seen around production areas in factories, usually armed with a clipboard and a stopwatch; they are authorised to time operators’ actions and also in fact, to ask that most important question “what do you do?” When finally they report to management it is presumed and expected that they produce recommendations to improve production, reduce costs and so on.

Anyway, this guy proceeded to tell me about their training when he started, and recounted an example given to them by the instructor.

Visualise a mechanized army field artillery unit in operation.
There are 5 men around the unit. When asked, “what do you do?” in turn, each had what seemed a satisfactory answer e.g. one said, “ I operate the rangefinder”, while another explained “I load the breech”.
One man was observed standing stiffly to attention, slightly to one side who, when asked that most pertinent question “what is your job?” answered smartly “ I hold the horse’s head sir”.