Reprint number one from Labor and Management News (front)
Newsprint reprint sheet of fourteen single-panel cartoons headed 'OWI Prize Absenteeism Cartoon', each aimed at workers or managers over missed days of work: a bearded man in a barber chair, a woman telephoning excuses, a stack of TNT cans with one pulled out. The technique is humor aimed at ordinary workers, with the war effort named in the captions.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information, via Labor-Management News (cartoons by OWI-commissioned artists)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information, via Labor-Management News (cartoons by OWI-commissioned artists). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1637A (NAID 515303).
Text on the object
OWI Prize Absenteeism Cartoon Reprint Number One From LABOR and MANAGEMENT NEWS "Here's a room only ten miles away which we can have until Thursday—if we get there yesterday!" "Been working much overtime lately, Mr. Schuster?" "There's such a thing as MENTAL absenteeism, Nordyke!" "Set the alarm for six-thirty . . . I don't want to be late for work!" "I knew he wouldn't come . . . He never takes a day off!" "It's either that, or time off until a day nursery is organized!" "Just tell the captain they're lost, and I'll pick them up when I'm through at the plant." "I don't suppose it occurs to you that I'm vital to the war effort?" "I don't know what to do about our shopping, dear. Junior doesn't seem to be able to get the knack of it." "There goes Paw off to the night-shift . . . Maw shore helps him keep his record perfect . . . Don't she?" "This way, darling, we shan't lose a single minute!" "Yesterday I asked them to explain the reasons for absenteeism!" "Here, YOU talk to the foreman. Explain why I didn't show up for work today." "Now, by removing just ONE, we have a forceful demonstration of what absenteeism can do to our war effort." [In-picture text: BARBER SHOP; ABSENTEEISM AIDS DOLF; KEEP ON THE JOB; BEAT THE AXIS(?); SEED; WAR PLANT; NURSERY WANTED; TRANSPORTATION WANTED; DOCTOR WANTED; LAUNDRY WANTED; VACATION WANTED; TNT] [signature:] Jaro Fabry; Ponce de León; Ted Key; others partly illegible, each marked 'for OWI' [imprint:] 44-PA-1637A (archive pencil number, lower right)
