Workers of the World, Relax!

[eridani]

Slacking Workers of the World Unite

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17448/slacking_workers_of_the_world

Paulsen isn't the first to make the connection between slacking and resistance. The Industrial Workers of the World, which flourished in the early 20th century, endorsed various work-thwarting-tactics, ranging from “soldiering” (going through the motions, as slowly as possible) to shirking to sabotage. Unlike their sworn enemies at the American Federation of Labor, who championed the intrinsic dignity of labor and envisioned a future of well-paid jobs for all, the IWW Wobblies saw waged work as a coercive system that should be resisted overtly and covertly: If you couldn’t strike, you should shirk. In their view, shirking was a kind of redistribution of wealth because you got the same pay for less effort.

Paulsen raises an important question: If slacking is an effective form of resistance, why don’t employers do more to combat it? If the average worker really spends a quarter of her eight-hour day slacking off, that’s a huge inefficiency. Slacking is by definition covert, but management must also be somewhat complicit, turning a blind eye to infractions. The Internet is a major time-waster, and most employers say they monitor employees' web use. It seems like bosses could easily crack down harder, if they wanted to.

Some of Paulsen’s white-collar subjects told him that being allowed to slack off made them feel important. In this view, permitting some slacking can be a very cheap perk. Ignoring the occasional extended lunch hour is a bargain if it makes workers feel like valued professionals who are paid for their output rather than harried wage-earners who must account for every minute of their time. Who knows? Some employees might even be willing to compromise on salary or benefits in exchange for a “fun” or “laid back” workplace.

Perhaps this explains why Google and some other “new economy” companies have proudly institutionalized empty labor, with workplace amenities like video game consoles, nap pods and beer nights. Some of these are offered in the name of reducing stress or enhancing creativity. Cynics, however, say that corporate “cultures of fun” are really cultures of cut-rate bribery, where companies induce workers to put in more hours with cheap incentives, instead of paying them better wages.

Paulsen also suggests that the celebration of empty labor by tech companies is a form of corporate conspicuous consumption. He thinks Google is showing off what a rich company it is by flaunting the amount of paid idleness it supports.

[canoeist52]

1. Slow-downs, strikes and boycotts

Are the next steps we need to take. I tell the young'uns don't work so hard. You don't get paid enough to worry if all of the job gets done in the allotted time. The more you do the more work they'll pile on. You'll never hit their marks.
Force 'em to hire enough workers to do the work.

[MisterP]

2. this'd happen all the time in the old MIC companies before "rightsizing"

from Berkeley Heights to San Jose "warehouses" full of 40-something engineers and managers sat around playing whist waiting for better times

then the Cold War ended and they threatened a "peace dividend," so they rightsized and let thousands go: the Supercollider was shuttered; but instead of turning to productive stuff like solar panels and HSR trains they further separated pork-barrel divsiion between investment and result: the $400B F-35 might be only the beginning