[PEN-L:239] Re: Disgruntled

["AK Sinha" <aks1v@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> BY HEATHER CHAPLIN

> The very real problems of the modern-day workplace -- stagnant salaries,
> long hours, economic disparity, demoralizing conditions, eroding civil
> liberties -- have been trivialized in the incredibly unfunny world of
> "Dilbert" and essentially ignored by the business pages.
_____________

How could he miss bully bosses? They are the true criminals.
___________
 There are also
> workplace horror stories you're not likely to have seen in the mainstream
> press and wonderful accounts of employee revenge.
____________

I can give you a few stories myself.
________
 but what really eats away at people and
> demoralizes them is their failed expectation of fairness in the workplace.
___________

Right on! Hit the nail on the head! Cheers, ajit sinha

> For some reason they expect hard work to be rewarded, think those rewards
> should be proportional to the contributions made to an enterprise and feel
> everyone should be treated the same. The workplace has never been fair.
> Like they used to say in ancient Egypt, 'You don't get promoted to Pharaoh
> by working hard on a pyramid.'"
>
> At least in the days of the Pharaoh, though, you knew who the enemy was.
> The guy in the loincloth with the whip in his hand was the guy ruining your
> day, and the guy in the funny hat sitting in the throne up on the hill was
> the guy ruining his. Those were the days before the era of team members and
> co-workers and mission statement participation.
>
> It's as if somewhere along the way, employers realized you catch more flies
> with honey than with vinegar, and (for the most part) out went the goon
> squads of an earlier era and in came the company picnic and bagels every
> Friday. We eat our "free" breakfasts, call our fellow team members -- who
> just happen to make 200 times more than we do -- by their first names and
> wonder why we feel so, well, disgruntled.
>
> Levine's book cuts through the façade of civility that has framed
> employee-employer relations in the second half of the century, and that's
> why it's so refreshing to read. It's riddled with stories of employees
> chained to their desks by supervisors, locked into the office for drug
> testing, spied on after complaining, traumatized by too-real security
> demonstrations and just plain pissed about too many hours and not enough
> money. Levine makes no bones about pointing out the lows to which employers
> will stoop to maintain order in their companies and fat checks in their
> bank accounts. And he offers suggestions on building a life less dependent
> on them.
>
> In closing, here are a few figures from "Disgruntled" to keep you smiling
> on your way to work in the morning:
>
> --Between 1980 and 1995, CEO pay climbed 500 percent, while factory wages
> rose 70 percent.
>
> --By 1987, the average employee worked at least 163 more hours per year
> than in 1969.
>
> --Since 1989, the total number of announced corporate layoffs has exceeded
> 3 million.
>
> --And, just to throw in my two cents, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
> says the median salary that same year was $490 per week, $29 less in real
> terms than was earned in 1979.
>
> Now, get to work.
>
> SALON | Sept. 25, 1998
>
>
> Louis Proyect
>
> (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
>