Divide by Zero
The Living Force
I work a job that occasionally has me on standby on the off tours. They used to have us do maintenance during the slow times, but that affected our response time to emergencies as we would have to restore the equipment safely first before going out to handle the call. So, they gave us routines that don't tie us up from emergencies.
The idea that spending slow time reading for example is stealing company time is a paramoralism. How is that stealing time when your job is to be standing by for a call? If you were tied up doing something else, or tired from working on it, you won't be able to respond as fast or efficiently. Also, where is the incentive for you to improve the company? When I worked in IT, we had a fixed salary and small bonuses. The management got huge bonuses for the increased production we made. That makes it an unfair exchange.. they dangle promotions over our heads as a carrot on a stick, meanwhile giving promotions to politically connected people.
It reminds me of a book I've read in a labor studies class. There was a factory that made telephones and they were not meeting production quotas. A new supervisor came in and asked the workers what could he do to fix this problem. The workers said to get off their backs with "busy work" requests and allow them to budget their time themselves. The supervisor gave them 60 days to try it out and see if production improved. Within 30 days they were exceeding the quota! That supervisor was then transferred to another location where he wasn't able to do this and the old system was implemented once again, with the workers not meeting quotas. Without the incentive of some free time, the workers weren't as motivated to work harder.
The author of the book was shocked and started to realize that the purpose of management is not just production or profit, but also control. When reading Ponerology, I realized why!
Michael Moore's new movie goes into employee owned companies, where each employee shares an equal amount of the profits. Those companies do pretty well with morale and motivation. It cuts out the middlemen, the shareholders!
The idea that spending slow time reading for example is stealing company time is a paramoralism. How is that stealing time when your job is to be standing by for a call? If you were tied up doing something else, or tired from working on it, you won't be able to respond as fast or efficiently. Also, where is the incentive for you to improve the company? When I worked in IT, we had a fixed salary and small bonuses. The management got huge bonuses for the increased production we made. That makes it an unfair exchange.. they dangle promotions over our heads as a carrot on a stick, meanwhile giving promotions to politically connected people.
It reminds me of a book I've read in a labor studies class. There was a factory that made telephones and they were not meeting production quotas. A new supervisor came in and asked the workers what could he do to fix this problem. The workers said to get off their backs with "busy work" requests and allow them to budget their time themselves. The supervisor gave them 60 days to try it out and see if production improved. Within 30 days they were exceeding the quota! That supervisor was then transferred to another location where he wasn't able to do this and the old system was implemented once again, with the workers not meeting quotas. Without the incentive of some free time, the workers weren't as motivated to work harder.
The author of the book was shocked and started to realize that the purpose of management is not just production or profit, but also control. When reading Ponerology, I realized why!
Michael Moore's new movie goes into employee owned companies, where each employee shares an equal amount of the profits. Those companies do pretty well with morale and motivation. It cuts out the middlemen, the shareholders!
