When you've gotten too big for your britches

Photo by Rick Tap on Unsplash

The view from the Ivory Tower is always the same: self-centered, wealth-hording, sheltered from the real world, and blissfully all of the above. The view from the real world is conflicted. We don't like it when we find out someone from the halls of power doesn't know what a grocery store scanner is or how to use it; that one moment in time tells us all we need to know—this guy does not have a clue what life is like for a working person. That same lack of perspective exists among the wealthy elite of corporate America as well. We don't necessarily hate that they're wealthy and protected; after all, we have been brainwashed to believe the American Dream is attainable if we just work hard enough. We assume they worked hard for what they have and we hope for the same for ourselves. Can't hate that. But, there's that moment that we catch a glimpse of something...not quite right. It doesn't seem fair. That's the twinge we feel in our guts. Fairness. Not hating the wealthy, not even really hating the poor though we blame them for their situation because we've been told they're just lazy. It's about fairness. What's fair is fair. Isn't it?

Last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, several business leaders spoke of moving away from shareholder capitalism to a pro-stakeholder capitalism that supports society, they even declared shareholder capitalism dead. I certainly hope so. Every generation is a new beginning, if it has the courage to stand its ground and do the right thing. Despite the promising chatter at Davos, don't think for one second that the bastards in the Ivory Towers are going to give back willingly. No, the transition will take them down in the dog-eat-dog capitalistic manner that they so admire. Meanwhile, those of us whose labor produced such profits watched in disgust as the Ivory Tower used tax shelters and every loophole they paid a congressman to create for them to keep the profits as far as possible from ever touching our tattered hands, will gladly restore our lives and regenerate our communities with the abundance long denied. What's fair is fair.

I don't think it's fair that employee work hours are cut every quarter just so the corporate Ivory Tower can use buybacks to raise the stock prices for their shareholders. Cutting part-time employees' work hours, cutting full-time employees' overtime hours, maintaining permanent short-staffing year-round so that only one employee per department is scheduled, restricting pay to state minimums, all serve to strip down expenses. Buying back excess stock creates demand and raises the stock price. Doing so on the backs of people trying their damn best to survive is evil and toxic.

I don't think it's fair that staffing one person in a department for their entire shift means the employee can't take a break or even run to the bathroom without the department phone ringing to get back to the department and can't take an uninterrupted meal break off the clock. It's not only unfair, it's illegal. But try enforcing it and see what happens to you.

I don't think it's fair for a store HR administrator to harass a pregnant employee who is trying to schedule FMLA leave, threatening her job is she applies for the full amount of time according to law. Screwing with people's lives out of spite comes back around eventually, Ms. HR. At least that's my hope; the promise of Davos realized.

I don't think it's fair that pay is so low that a department supervisor can't afford to buy an air conditioner for her tiny 50 year old apartment when outside temperatures are in the high 90s and it's over 100 degrees in her home. The supervisor came to work two hours early and worked off the clock just to get a break form the heat exhaustion. I gave her my air conditioner since my apartment already had one. Why couldn't the Ivory Tower step up and do the right thing?

I have had my own bad experiences. The rules seem to change depending on who I ask concerning what other work I can apply for to get out of this part-time gig that I'm stuck in. One supervisor says I can't apply for management since I'm part-time, a year later someone else says I can; or, I can't work both my assigned gig and crossover to store-side for additional hours, someone else says I can. Why the different information? My vehicle has sat parked since mid-November in need of a transmission. I requested a grant from the employee emergency fund, noting on the 20-page application that my work hours had been reduced to 20 hours per week (at minimum wage!) and I had no savings and am ineligible for a loan due to low income. Two month later, the fund managers rejected my application because I could not pay $1500 out of my own pocket if they agreed to pay the other half. So there it is, create the poor conditions then blame the employee for the result. And you can see that their holidays and vacations were more important than a part-time employee's request for financial assistance.

Needless to say at this point, I don't think it's fair that the draconian tactics of favoritism, nepotism, and cronyism are used to coerce a compliant, obedient workforce. This has been the environment since former CEO Nardelli prioritized a centralized, top-down management structure that overruled local store management. This structure enabled Nardelli to secure for himself an exorbitant salary during his reign from 2000 to 2007, plus a $210 million retirement package in exchange for his resignation. Even after his departure, profits over people has been the rule. And that brings us back to Davos. Yes, shareholder capitalism is gasping its final breaths. It remains to be seen if we have the courage to return to a form of capitalism that supports the communities in which they are located and serves stakeholders in time to save our environment from the threat of extinction brought about by purely greedy capitalists.

If you're a fan of history or sociology or even political science, you know civilization has been here before. Rome didn't fall in a day but it fell as sure as the New Roman Empire is falling today. Change is certain. History is replete with examples of collapsed warmongering nations and empires that pillaged the land and treated its subjects as nothing more than the means to their ends, they just got the ends wrong and served up their own demise. It's time, again, to stand up and fight as though your life depends on it. Because it does. All of our lives depend on what we do right now.