It’s What you think, Corporations are finally being called out.
Let’s just say that the pandemic has transformed us in so many ways. We know this. Right now, we are more careful about our own health, perhaps more grateful for maintaining our own health.
As importantly, the world of work has changed so much. I hear a lot of complaining about the lack of workers to fulfill employment demands. Everyone has an opinion; I even heard a discussion between a stewardess and a passenger on a recent flight I was on. There is almost universal agreement that those who do not have a job are lazy.
I feel compelled to comment ~
Several years ago, I used my company’s EAP program to get into therapy. I needed help coping with a very nasty woman who was my supervisor. I wanted to hang onto the job because it was a great job! The drive was easy, the benefits were out of this world and the salary was good. I really wanted the job. As I talked with the therapist, she also talked with me about her experiences. She said that for a couple of years, she had an influx of fifty-somethings who were fed up with working in a nasty environment. The complaints were the same: supervisors were malicious, demeaning and demanding, often shoveling unrealistic workloads unto subordinates.
The therapist told me that it was the fifty-something group who were struggling with it because they were just fed up. After 30 years of dealing with the willfully not-so-nice, the fifty-somethings were done in. Ready to end the work relationship, they all struggled for coping mechanisms.
Why can’t we get to Fifteen dollars per hour?
Another discussion is the “Fight for Fifteen”. I’ve been in the fight for fifteen for several years now. I hear the stories and I talk with young workers often. It seems that the corporate community has found many ways to rip off the young workers and keep them in poverty. An example of this is the “seasonal staff”, this means someone who will work for less than a livable wage and better yet (better for the corporation, NOT for the human being), will not have any type of benefits. “Seasonal staff” will sometimes work well past the “season” and will end up working for years without a permanent status.
The pathologies of the workforce environment endanger everyone. An insensitive supervisor that is crushed between management and staff can be scared, angry and unreasonable. I read about a young woman who worked at McDonalds. After suffering 2nd degree burns through no fault of her own, she was told to stay at work, or get fired from her job. Just as dangerous are those supervisors who are interested in their own rise / promotions and who abuse their own staff to gain benefits to their career. An example of this is claiming a subordinate’s work as their own or denigrating a subordinate supervisor in front of staff. These are normal daily happenings in the corporate world. Ask the workers, that’s all you need to understand the truth in the corporate world.
The corporation does everything to ensure that you do not know about their abuses. Look at the constant marketing campaign that Amazon must pay for. Staff who wear diapers to work because they are afraid to take a break from the work is an example of this abuse. Amazon drivers are also afraid to take breaks and relieve themselves in a jar rather than pulling over and taking a bathroom break.
If there is any way to get out of these working conditions, people will try it. Somehow the pandemic has given workers time to think and think they have. It’s not worth it to have a life torn apart by stress and cruelty. Workers wake up and realize that what was, does not have to be.
The Big Corporations
Let’s face it, supervisors are often idiotic and narcissistic assholes who don’t deserve their position. The big corporation is another thing altogether, the corporations have carefully crafted the biggest rip-off of all. Take no care of the human being and keep feeding shareholders the dollars that they have NOT earned. Sam Walton of Walmart was first to craft the best ripoff of the American worker, and every money hungry boss in America practices it.
“Keep people discouraged and whatever you do, give a very, very small raise and ensure that no staff member is eligible for the benefits.” What an awful and mean mindset. The results may make shareholders happy, but my tax dollars are going to the health care and the food stamps that Walmart and McDonald’s workers are consuming. That’s not how I want to spend my tax dollars, how about you?