Politics of work...

Are employers deliberately oppressing and disenfranchising us?

Wow, how's that for an attention graber? First things first, I'll state some things about myself and that this is just an opinion of mine that I'd appreciate some discussion on and to find if anyone has had experiences that are relevant.

Firstly, I'm quite liberal in my views, although I am a capitalist at heart, I do believe in the validity of the welfare system and personal freedom for people to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't curtail others ~ for consenting adults. With regards to any legal points, I live and work in the UK.

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I'm currently involved in a disciplinary procedure where I work and it seems like this is serving no other purpose than to enforce the idea in the employees that they are to serve at the whim of the employers, that individualism (in or out of work) will not be tolerated. The company I work for is very large and I just got to wondering if the board of directors sat down one day and thought they needed to address this.

There have been numerous instances of people I know getting screwed over by their employers (legally), being pressured to do extra hours, work overseas, curtail planned events etc.

I believe there is a very real thought process where employers are conspiring against their employees to make them not only financially dependant, but to bend them to their will. Now this may seem like "D'uh, of course" ~ I'm looking for personal anecdotes and experience here from employers and employees (most of us) and if anyone has actually stumbled across literature or resources that confirm this.

Yeah, I myself was involved in feeling oppressed and I feel that my views were what got me fired, and that management had been trying to get rid of me for a while. I'm still unemployed after being fired last September. I guess I'm luckier than most, being 19 and all.

Management kept enforcing way too many procedures that work good in theory, but never really are able to be applied in a practical situation. People were getting to made to work extra hours and stuff, and a lot of the people I had worked with all had a lot of personal difficulties in their life. I really felt for them.

There was nothing but condescension and the feeling of hopelessness there. I tried telling others that how everyone is treated is completely wrong, and that they're better than the place made them out to be.

They all didn't want to say anything. Because no one's willing to fight back against oppression, corporate people get to control people more and more as time progresses.

I'm just sick to death that "care not what they do to me, only for me" is the only thing that's in the back of the minds of the oppressed.

Our security guard at work has a disabled son who is undergoing lots of medical tests so he sometimes needs different days off - he always makes up the time and we're a 7 day a week operation, so it's not hard for him to do this, but still they're making it difficult for him to do this.

It's disgusting, he's a good guy, working hard and he's being treated like crap, which in turn is impacting the atmosphere at work.

Yeah, it's always painful to see a good guy down.

Some people just don't care. Anything to meet a stupid requirement. Maximisation of profit - What a game, huh?

Yeah, the thing is it seems this attitude is permeated from the top down, via our board of directors all the way to the Saturday staff. Everyone knows they're expendable and is scared of losing their job, it seems that anyone higher-up than you in the chain is using this as leverage to exploit those lower down. There are so many unspoken rules ~ like turning up early, a lot of the staff are now in the position of turning up to do extra work without pay, working for longer without a day off etc...