>So Kelley, how DO they feel, when/if they realize they aren't any different
>from the working class.
Ummm well the biggest thing that surprised me was that a lot of them talked about how they'd once hated unions but now understood why they were important. Whether or not they acted on it was another question that I couldn't pursue with that particular group. However, i did go on to do research inside a major corp that had gone through some very public downsizings with Chainsaw Al at the helm. So, I asked how 'survivors' were dealing. I spent a lot of time with them at work observing and listening as well as in interviews.
I found out a LOT about casual Fridays and how important it is to wear clothes that got them in touch with the common man. Oooooh. Gad, the careful thought they put into the politics of dress--who woulda thunk. I could have written a book on it, actually. Oh and the politics of schmoozing. About the pretenders/suck ups and the authentic hard workers.
And, gad, the intrigue. the duplicity. the melodrama. lordy, lordy the things these buoys told me. Fascinatin. But see, they saw me as this ditzy blonde writing a paper or somesuch and they had no problem spilling their guts about things that they really shouldn't have told me. I started to feel as if they thought I was their therapist. I mean I'm glad they did, but the things I know. If I had had more of a clue I coulda done some damange or at least blackmailed someone or two.
It's hard to characterize what they thought/think as I'm still sorting through the mounds of field notes, but all in all they were a callous lot be/c they were trying to save their asses. Main thing: they utterly despised CEOs--intraclass war fare (always a latent tension w/in the structure of the corporation anyway, ownership v. control; here's a quote:
"Those shits don't know crap about running things. They've never been hands on like me. Maybe if they got out here in the trenchs like us and actually had the challenge of making things work on a weekly basis, then they'd know how to run this damn company. And this delayering the corporation, shit. Hey, I'm all for it, but these people like to talk the talk, they never have to walk the walk and they don't really want to anyway, the fucks."
I'd say that they were much more concerned w/ the Big Boys and honing their antipathy toward them than anything, but that *didn't* mean that they identified w/ workers. No way, No how. And that has much to do with the 'new rules of work' discourse.
Women started becoming a little more cognizant of sexism. Though they generally said that they just couldn't believe that sexism was really out there. I have a really great story--well a lot of them actually--about that one too but too long for this. But, almost all of them chose to drop out in some form or other. Some decided to start their own businesses, the rest chose to go into third sector work in order to get out of a world in which they could no longer understand themselves as 'mentoring' managers who helped people up the career ladder. As they say it, the 'new rules' of work meant that the rungs of the career ladder had been sawed off and they just couldn't see how work could be meaningful to them anymore.
(course they are diff, they have more options,
>unless they've been really frivilous with their money)
Yeah. I forced myself to do research on them in conjunction w/ a comparative study of downsized blue collar workers. I did so b/c I never had much sympathy: managers who needs em; good ridance. But, you can't sustain that one on a conscious level and still do what you need to do to get them to talk to you. But man I had a rilly rilly hard time feeling sorry for them when they had to sell the boat or the vacation home in order to get by. Oiy, I feel your pain buddy. Oh and then there was this one conversation right before Christmas. They were talking about whether or not to take jobs for $7/hr just for some cash and something to do. One guy says, "look I'm never going to do that. no way. I'll make my wife do it before *I* do it" And no one batted an eyelash, chortles and knowing nods was all. Jesus.
Kelley