why we go back to the job site

not a  bad read 


=================================

"A survey question that is becoming increasingly popular
 asks people if they like their jobs.
 Depending on which survey you read, 
somewhere between 40% and 50% 
of American workers say they don't like their job"  

.

" Funny perhaps, but apparently 
it is something to be found at the job site 
that makes the job so bad.
... it's the people" 

"Fear comes in varieties.
 Humans can experience 
a whole botany of these feelings,
 varying from flicks of worry
 to cross-eyed terror,
 but stresses on the job
 are now so serious,
 that 53% of people keep going back to the job,
 despite feeling overwhelmed "

" We do it so regularly 
that eight hours of loathing 
is an everyday routine"


"Fear on the job? 
Of course there are other difficulties,
 the eyestrain, the hurried meals 
when meeting deadlines.
 But frequent descriptions 
of supervisors and coworkers at some job sites
 are frightful
 in fact they sometimes sound 
like a tribe of mutants"

"The Intimidator (loud, domineering, abusive, throws tantrums),

 the Stressor (spills her chronic frustration over coworkers in sarcasm and unending interruptions),

 the Micromanager (requires written reports at every turn) 

the Withholder (has data necessary for operations which she will not share), 

the Inconsistent (high drama, unpredictable hysteric, lapses into stream-of-consciousness communications) and the brilliant but hostile Techno-specialist)

These personalities can be extremely judgmental
 and may turn rabid when confronted,
 sending waves of anxiety across the office

 Ranting supervisors and other rageaholics
 are so frequently listed 
that "the office bully" is now a cliché "

"Cubicle workers patch their emotions together
 to get through the day". 



"this is difficult to change
 because the perpetrators are often
 hard-to-replace specialists. 
They are often extremely competitive personalities,
 interpreting every successful intimidation
 as a personal win ("

"So why do workers go back?

The simple answer is, we owe"

 

"the average American is  about $8,500 in debt 
aside from mortgage

 if payments are late, 
interest charges up to 30% are common,
t many states have no usury laws,
 so credit card companies can charge 
what the market will bear" 


"If you fall behind on your debt payments,
 you'll meet another bully, 
the debt collector.
 From distant phones which nobody can trace,
 these unblinking intimidators
 wait until you get home 
and then call you persistently
 to make sure you never forget
 about the money you owe"

" Legally or illegally,
 they threaten criminal charges, garnishment,
 property confiscation,
 or revealing your purchases 
to your boss and relatives "

"About half of Americans
 say they worry about debt,
 and 2 in 10 say they worry about debt
 most or all of the time "

Debt payments are a scourge.

"Back at work, the manager understands. "


"In 1960 Douglas McGregor wrote a book 
The Human Side of Enterprise
 detailing two different management styles.
 The more common (especially in bigger companies)
 he dubbed "Theory X,"
 a theory managers carry around in their heads:
 that humans inherently dislike work,
 and they have to be threatened and coerced.
 These managers openly use a hard, 
punishing style to get people to produce; 
they also believe people like being controlled.

 (Theory Y bosses are convinced people
 are naturally happy and creative, 
and that job satisfaction is a motivator)

. Theory X supervisors are very common
 They can induce saturnine hopelessness
 in the easiest of jobs"

"From intimidation at work,
 to debt fears at home
, and back again"

" People bear these fears 
in an ancient silence born of shame
 believing they are failures 
in a system which otherwise
 seems free and open
 because everybody else on TV 
looks like they're having a good time"

"60% see a job scarcity,
 with so many jobs going overseas "

"So we can add to the catalog of fears
 another type,
 the fear of consequences. 
"What would happen if?" 
 if they lost their jobs, 
lost their credit, 
lost the car,
 wound up in court, 
lost the house, 
­ all the more possible
 if they have divorce stresses, 
support payments,
 large medical costs, 
or are in a legal suit"

"The manager understands.
 Which is why he can act with impunity"



"people who bear this for years develop other signs: 
a few drinks each lunch,
 the inaudible voice of the seriously depressed, 
the trembling hands.
 The effects of stressful events add up. 
Later, the praying on the way to work,
 the paranoia, road rage, alcoholism, 
the sobbing in the toilets, and domestic violence"




"this large proportion of the population living 
in degrees of coercion and fear
 is incompatible with enlightened democracy".

 Barbara Ehrenreich  :
 "We can hardly pride ourselves
 on being the world's preeminent democracy,
 after all, if large numbers of citizens
 spend half their waking hours 
in what amounts, in plain terms,
 to a dictatorship"

". We lurch forward another year under the banner, business is business"
.

"It is fear. If workers
 had no fear of the consequences,
 they would not work on the job ".

"Could our economy run without fear? "

" What if all people living in this quiet desperation 
stopped working?"

 
"if you removed fear of consequences,
 we don't need calculators to figure 
that the system would come to a collapsing halt"

.
" From the point of view of employers,
 of course, 
fear is useful. 
It is a goad. 
It keeps workers pulling at the oars"

"The science of economics 
will not truck with this, of course.
 Fear is not a rational factor.
 They call it an "externality,"
 because it will not fit
 into their dry formulas"

"Perhaps we can try this image.
 We have been talking about 40% to 50% 
of the population,
 so perhaps the economy floats on fear
 like a boat half in, half out of the water.
 Technically the water is 'external' to it.
 Then, like a boat,
 the economy doesn't need fear to exist;
 but it works much better with it.

Julian Edney