Most men served as ward attendants.  They reported to the wards at 7:00 am, quit at 7:00 pm one day and at 5:30 pm the next day.   On a rotating basis, each attendant received one and a half days off per week, unless their half day fell on Saturday.  In that case, the attendant remained off from Friday afternoon through Sunday.  The hospital carefully scheduled the attendants so that a husband and wife would have the same days off.

Those assigned to work outside the wards reported at 7:00 am and, on most days, concluded at 5:00 pm.  At 7:30 am they gathered their work crews made up of 9-20 patients from the wards.  Those crews performed “all sorts of work—farming, coal hauling, greenhouse work, vegetable peeling, gravel digging and washing, canning, snow shoveling, picking up scraps around the buildings, and many other types of work as the need arises.”  Patients were returned to the wards from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, and their work day ended at 4:00 pm.  COs working outside the wards also took patients to weekly activities in the evenings during the winter—movies one week and a dance the next, and were with patients for recreation on Saturday afternoons.  An additional duty was to “chase run-away patients any time day or night”.  (Carter, January 28, 1944)

Assistant Director John Carter noted that the work for the wives proved more difficult than the work for the men.  “First the women patients are more difficult to handle.  Second, the shortage of help is greater on the women’s side than on the men’s side.  Third, their working day is almost without exception from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.  The women are made to feel their position as attendants more than are the men, because the men are allowed to do more specialized medical work. This is logical as the women are frequently working under R.N.s. whereas the men almost never are.” (Carter)

The hospital paid women for ward duty starting at $61.50 per month.  The men, however, by Selective Service regulation, received an allowance of $15.00 per month. Both received room and board. The women, as regular employees, bought their own uniforms and shoes.  Men received their uniforms and shoes as part of maintenance provided, and sent their laundry to the hospital laundry.  Women could send only their uniforms to the hospital laundry. (Carter)

According to Floyd Greenleaf, one of the men in the unit, “The hospital has provided an excellent series of lectures and demonstrations, which, so far have been of great service to most of us in our work.  It is interesting to note that the hospital has not offered these classes to other attendants not in C.P.S.  Similar classes are planned for the wives of C.P.S. men and there is also a plan afoot for advanced studies in related subjects.” (Greenleaf, ca. 1944)

Greenleaf also noted that as soon as a patient was able to work, the superintendent considered the type of experience in which he or she could likely be successful.  “Some of the patients work on our many farms, others care for the grounds, work in the laundry, printing room, sewing room etc.”