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Although I am employed, I have gone through two bouts of unemployment, none of which were my own fault. The first incident occurred because a conjoined hospital-nursing home I worked at closed and the second incident occurred because I worked in a corrupt place that I left because my professional registration was on the line because I was constantly being commanded to do fraudulent activities and abusive behavior on behalf of my administrator and other employees.
Because of two experiences with unemployment, I have become highly interested in the current socioeconomic scene and truly sympathize with those having work or unemployment problems. I have also become highly jaded and cynical, but also realistic.
What I think some people don't get, and I am not saying this as if I am wise or some type of learned elder, is the fallacy that employers are infallible--that is, the fallacy that employers, just like anyone else, are not lazy, unreasonable, stupid, nonsensical, tardy, uncouth, dishonest, unfair, and so on.
I see the same trite beliefs expressed here, some of which are true in some cases, but in many cases are not, and are in fact, simply things that we were taught in school, by society in general, or in self-help books. Here are some that come to mind.
1) Your job performance is only what counts, not that you are a good socializer. While this is true in some cases, there are many cases in which you, the steady and focused loner, will be put upon and targeted or simply be considered weird.
2) That employers are honest and transparent. Well, many aren't.
3) If you work hard, you will get a raise or more up in position. Yes, this is true in solid places, but in many cases, your hard work will go unnoticed or if appreciated, not appreciated in a way that leads to more money or higher ranking.
Keep in mind that these days, many owners of private businesses do not want to pay anyone anything! Their wet, but impossible dream is to have a modern plantation of slaves who they don't have to pay at all!
4) Go in early and stay late; the boss likes to see you there when he gets there and when he leaves for the day. Truth: many bosses don't give a rat's a-- about this so long as you get your work done, whether it's in 8 hours or 16 hours. See 3 above.
5) Because someone is high in rank, they are upstanding. In many cases this is false. They do the same dumb s--- everyone else does: curse, f--- around on Facebook and Instagram, take care of personal business, dodge phone calls and emails, loaf around, flirt, behave obnoxiously, take two hour lunch breaks, pass the buck to someone else, and so on.
6) It's a waste of time for employers to interview people or to do whatever else. False. Whoever said, that like everyone else, employers are not disorganized, scattered, and inefficient like every other Tom, Dick, and Harry?
Seriously, why do people think so damn highly of these people, as if they're perfect. Truth is, they have the same flaws seen in everyone else.
I think our economy is too reliant on small business. And a lot of small businesses really shouldn't be in business at all. They are only able to make a profit by exploiting their work force. I've seen it time and time again. I worked for a company that paid its lowest level employees minimum wage, over-worked them, skimped on their overtime, and never ever gave them vacation time. They just found a bunch of people on the fringe of society that were desperate for work, that probably lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with four other people and they worked them like dogs. It is absolutely shocking behavior by an employer. To work 50 hours a week, every week, and to never ever get paid time off? Any employer that thinks this is appropriate behavior belongs in prison(in a perfect world). But, its really our government and the electorate that is to blame. We allow this structure.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Who thinks that employers are infallible? I have been a supervisor or manager for many years, and a small business owner for 16 years, and am the first to admit that we all are human and make mistakes. I have never met anyone from frontline supervisor to CEO that thought they or anyone working for them was perfect.
This insane belief that employers can do no wrong is grounded in a mix of misplaced Puritan work ethics and modern political beliefs.
Nobody will deny that it takes more work to start or run a business than to be an employee of said business, but somewhere along the line the fact that more work was involved became equivalent to "these people can do no wrong."
This rolls into the misplaced Puritan work ethic in the following way: the business owners and higher ups are working and have a business, so they are "good" people, while countless others are out of work, so they are clearly "bad / lazy / sinners / etc."
We are still lost in an outdated national mindset that: worker = good, owner = better, unemployed = useless bum. This no longer reflects modern reality: the vast majority of people cannot effectively work for themselves since we are far too industrialized a society for everyone to just go out and work on the family farm or move west and settle the frontier in some small town. There may have been a time in this nation where anyone who wanted to work and who could do most any simple task could find a job, but that era is long gone. Now, we have fewer jobs than unemployed people, and every job requires laughably narrow skill requirements and experience. And yet, the unemployed are still seen as "bums."
The flip side of this is what business has become today. Tied into the same old Puritan work ethic - and a healthy dose of right-wing "corporations are people" nonsense - we still have this belief as a nation that "what's good for the corporation is good for America." Again, this is completely outdated. There was a time when what was good for the big corporations did benefit this nation, but since the age of globalization the tide has turned. Nowadays, corporations are international entities that have no problem extracting wealth from the working class and funneling it all to the top even if doing so ruins a nation's economy. They don't need to care since they can just move on to some other nation once they've bled the first one dry. Unfortunately, many people are still lost in the past where "the company" did what it could to build a good product locally and a healthy middle class to support that product. Now, the company builds the same product in an overseas slave labor market, sells it at a huge profit, and then whines when anybody questions the lack of jobs, the excessive executive compensation, or the need to pay taxes on those record profits.
The game has changed - very few people are truly in control of their own employment destinies anymore since we're all basically over-specializes tools sitting on a shelf, and very few large companies care what harm they do in the name of greater profits. Unfortunately, the belief system held by far too many in this nation is in no way tied into those facts.
Isn't this pretty much the entire argument of the tea party and so-called 99%ers?
Nobody is denying that those who work harder should get more reward. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone out there (at least in serious circles) who advocates equal wealth distribution or some other silly thing.
On the flip side, just because one owns a business, that doesn't mean you're entitled to exploit your work force and get paid insanely more per hour worked than anyone under you, nor does it mean you're somehow infallible and above reproach because of some misguided notion that one's value as a human being can be measured by one's bank account or amount of personal power. Everything must be done in moderation.
The situation grows even more extreme with the typical mid-sized to larger corporation, where those at the top in most cases had little to nothing to do with the company's founding. In short, they were not there for those brutal first years, nor did they have take on any real risk at all since the company was well-established and profitable by the time they arrived. And yet, these types love to pass themselves off as the "only reason the company exists" - which is complete BS since the company's founder died years ago and, in reality, companies can function fine for a while without their executives but they *cannot* function without their day-to-day staff. These types also have no problem paying themselves insane salaries while short-changing the staff, shipping jobs overseas, and gutting the workforce. If confronted, they love to claim that they deserve their insane pay because of the "risk" of their position - and yet without fail, they all get paid huge amounts of money no matter what they do and will even collect large bonuses if forced out of the corporations. There's no risk in such jobs at all, but there's no shortage of unearned profit to be had.
That's the type of nonsense that is to be opposed.
This insane belief that employers can do no wrong is grounded in a mix of misplaced Puritan work ethics and modern political beliefs.
I'm having eye issues. When I glanced at this, I thought it said mix of misplaced Puerto Rican work and was so confused. Then my vision cleared up lol
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