Writing about Work

Writing about our work and what we do can be a rage against the machine; a joy-filled instance of love and wonder at how fulfilling our mission in life has grown or a whinge and whine about how under-appreciated and unloved we are at home, at the workplace, in our lives.

When someone pays employees to do work is it just done and never talked about again? If they tell employees what to do and then employees make choices on how to the the work and get it done on time or ahead of time and on budget or under budget - is that not what any organization would want? Of course, preserving relationships is also something likely cherished by the organization - unless it's the underworld.

If the supervisor tells employees not only what to do but how they want it done and then manages the employees so closely that it is work overseen and micro-managed, then the supervisor is wholly responsible for the results, good, bad, ugly or indifferent which will result from this work. And most of the time those results will be indifferent, ugly and not effective. The sheer oppression of human energy by one supervisor of their "team" is tantamount to slavery. Employees are not horses bound under a harness and driven to plough a field. If that were the case, hire horses. Employees are creative, energetic, compassionate, willing, open-minded and passionate people who want to make a difference in the world and if offered the opportunity would do so. Leadership is needed in the workplace to create and stimulate such teams and to empower this kind of energetic contribution. Such leadership is not difficult to find. It is difficult to sustain in workplaces that operate like workhouses however. Such workplaces denigrate their workers at every turn, blame them for every failure, even budgetary overages and plans that were political rather than operational. Such workplaces cannot sustain leadership because those workplaces have employees who are old and wise, plus young and flexible. Why would either of these groups stay in a workplace such as I describe?

In a unionized workplace, workers and employers have rights and responsibilities. There is a contract. There are obligations to inform and respect each other. Each time the contract is re-negotiated those two principles remain intact - be informative and be respectful. When one party begins not to practice using the principles, i.e. not informing or not respecting the contract, the tensions between workers and employers grow in direct proportion to the kind of information perceived as withheld and to the level of disrespect practiced. Even as employees are continuing to produce excellent work, the union and the employer begin to build their "grudge match". That is unless people step up and begin a conversation - with courage, information, honesty and respect once again established - on both sides.

No employee working in a unionized workplace could write such postings as this, could they?
No employee working in a workhouse, under leadership that is more politically minded and bent to do their bidding, would write such a posting, would they?

I hope so.