[lbo-talk] Time Use studies

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Sun Mar 25 11:51:21 PDT 2007


On 3/25/07, Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> > I fully agree with Doug, managers and professional
> > workers work much harder and longer hours than wage
> > workers. The difference lies maninly in the symbolic
> > status recognition that the former receive.
>
> Another example of this: the job description for the Dean position I'm
> temporarily occupying includes "other duties as assigned". As you might
> expect, this extraordinarily broad job description is not found in the
> faculty or staff union contracts. Woj is right here: this is about
> symbolic status recognition, not autonomy at work.

Isn't that part of the autonomy? As part of the professional/managerial class (PMC), I have greater latitude in running the corporation's affairs than a working-class person. Less micro-management. I participate in far more internal planning (behind closed doors).

PMCs tend to know sensitive data, are harder to fire, and have more docile attitudes. Many are even encouraged to shout at the boss and bust down bureaucracy, if they're doing so within typical PMC ideological constraints.

(Of course, terms like "bureaucracy" have ideological meanings. For example, you might think marketing departments are bureaucracies, but here we're discussing internal forces which get in the way of corporate profit and power.)

If you're a PMC and are treated as a replaceable cog, like the working class typically is, you're in trouble.

One obvious consequence is that increased control over decisionmaking translates into greater control over working conditions. Not absolute control obviously.

Personally, I (and friends) have chosen to work far longer hours -- even when pressured by the corporation to work less. (Because overwork is bad for productivity.) Sometimes, an internal sense of responsibility grows from increased control over one's production.

Obviously, these are broad, fuzzy classifications, so some straddle classes... and there's a spectrum of empowerment in any given class in an organization.

Tayssir



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