Reply to post: Its a corporation, not a cooperative

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martinusher Silver badge

Its a corporation, not a cooperative

I get the feeling we've been neglecting to tell our children about the facts of life with regard to the nature of work and how it relates to society. Since this isn't the first time I've read this sort of thing maybe we should fill them in with a bit of a history lesson.

First, a primer in the economics of work. Companies make money by making profits and those profits are typically from buying something at one price and selling it at a higher price. People are used to this with stuff in shops but don't realize that their labor is also a commodity that gets bought and sold. A typical employee doesn't have a whole lot of negotiating leverage with a company; some of us are sufficiently highly skilled to have more leverage than others but on the whole regardless of the HR BS you're just a work widget, and a replaceable one at that.

As anyone who's worked for a tech company who's been through layoffs will tell you the Kumbaya "We're all part of the XXXXXX family" comes to a shattering halt when reductions in force happen. That's when you discover that you really are a work widget. Corporations are not democracies, at least not below the executive level, and you don't really get a say in corporate policy. The corporation is also very interested in getting the maximum return on investment out of their work widgets; the only question is how they'll go about it. In the bad old days down the mine it would be a 5 and a half day work week, back breaking toil, dangerous working conditions and a bit of silicosis on the side. These days it might be worked to near death while being closely monitored for signs of slacking at an Amazon fulfillment center. Or it could be a collegiate environment that's made so comfortable that you don't really want to go home. Ever. Do not misunderstand your place, though -- at the first sign of a slowdown it will be back to cheap filter coffee (if you're lucky) and cube farms.

Last, but by no means least, back in the Good Old Days the way work widgets tried to redress the balance of power between them and the company was by forming a union. Companies hate them which is why there's been such a sustained campaign against them in both the US and the UK spanning a generation or more (when they first appeared in the UK the reaction was to pass the Combination Acts which promised free relocation to Australia for anyone participating in a non-religious meeting). They have their place, though, and you never know, the company might be smart enough to co-opt a union representative or two onto the board.

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