Thoughts on Labor Day

Monday, September 7, 2009
I have to admit - I'm a bit old fashioned. When it comes to work, I have this idea that if someone agrees to pay me money to perform certain tasks, then I have an obligation to, you know, perform those tasks. And perform them without someone having to stand over me with a stick to ensure I do them correctly, or to make sure I'm not fucking off, or to make sure I'm not stealing from my employer.

On the other hand, I have had to supervise people who were not old fashioned in this way, and there is nothing more frustrating than having to chase after people to get them to do the work for which they're paid.

Except raising teens. That makes you want to take your own eye out with a fork.

So when Labor Day rolls around, I find myself on the horns of a moral dilemma.

On the one hand, I sympathize with the workers. There are many, many circumstances where companies will try and take advantage of their workers, up to and including lining their pockets on the backs and health of their employees. In such situations, workers are absolutely justified in unionizing and telling their collective bosses to fuck off in no uncertain terms if they can't provide decent wages and relatively safe working conditions for their workers.

On the other, I sympathize with the bosses. I've seen the so-called "work ethic" of some of these good-for-nothing SOBs, and sometimes the correct answer is to tell your worker to go play in traffic because their contribution to the company is in the negative column.

If you could trust employees to actually have a work ethic, and if you could trust companies to actually treat their employees fairly, then such disputes would be greatly reduced. Unfortunately, it seems like the only thing you can count on is that people are going to eventually behave in some foul way.

Cynical - who, me? Yeah. Happy Labor Day.

5 comments:

Stacey said...

Amen Sister - Happy Labor Day to you too.

Juan Federico said...

Nicely put, Murph. :)

Steve Buchheit said...

There are always people who will take advantage of the situation. When the workers and the management can meet on even terms and have trust in each other, the best things can happen.

With our recent contract we negotiated changed work rules that shouldn't affect the vast majority of us, but will impact the ones we all accepted as "gaming the system." The union side of the discussion went something like:

(employee that will be affected most) "But this is unfair. We should stand up to this."

(rest of us) "Sit down and STFU. If it weren't for you we wouldn't be having this conversation. So, yes, we're going to agree to this. If you don't like it, you can always leave. We have your paperwork right here."

mom in northern said...

A side comment about the work ethic. It has to do with how good is your "word". Pay or no pay. If you agree to do a thing...then do it, and do it right and in at timely manner. Just ask me. :-)

MWT said...

That was one of the great things about the takeout I worked at, before it changed management. We didn't require paperwork to tell us that they would treat me well and pay me fairly for me to show up on time and do the work. It was understood, because we were responsible adults. And it was one of the big reasons why I kept working there even when I didn't need the extra money anymore; those kinds of jobs are unfortunately rare.

On the other hand, sticking with the food service theme, there are definitely lots of people who will say "that's not my job" if the supervisor tells them to do anything that is outside the job description for which they were hired. If they're there to run the cash register they won't fetch supplies from the back for the sandwich makers, etc. It annoyed the crap out of me.