commit: 621548e8c7e8cbb5d454b73db47f2a7f981a481b parent ff592c67f00e3f91cd99af16f146692d1c069641 Author: Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 18:07:52 +0200 How to go to war with your employerDiffstat:
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1 file changed, 160 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)diff --git a/content/blog/How-to-go-to-war.md b/content/blog/How-to-go-to-war.md@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@ +--- +title: How to go to war with your employer +date: 2023-06-12 +--- + +There is a power differential between you and your employer, but that doesn't +mean you can't improve your working conditions. Today I'd like to offer a little +bit of advice on how to frame your relationship with your employer in terms +which empower you and afford you more agency. I'm going to talk about the +typical working conditions of the average white-collar job in a neo-liberal +political environment where you are mostly happy to begin with and financially +stable enough to take risks, and I'm specifically going to talk about individual +action or the actions of small groups rather than large-scale collective action +(e.g. unions). + +I wish to subvert the expectation here that employees are subordinate to their +employers. A healthy employment relationship between an employee and employer is +that of two entities who agree to work together on equal terms to strive towards +mutual goals, which in the simplest form is that you both make money and in the +subtleties also suggests that you should be happy doing it. The sense of "going +to war" here should rouse in you an awareness of the resources at your disposal, +a willingness to use them to forward your interests, and an acknowledgement of +the fact that tactics, strategy, propaganda, and subterfuge are among the tools +you can use -- and the tools your employer uses to forward their own interests. + +You may suppose that you need your employer more than they need you, but with +some basic accounting we can get a better view of the veracity of this +supposition. Consider at the most fundamental that your employer is a for-profit +entity that spends money to make money, and they spend money on you: as a rule +of thumb, they expect a return of at least your salary ×1.5 (accounting +for overhead, benefits et al) for their investment in you, otherwise it does not +make financial sense for them to employ you. + +If you have finer-grained insights into your company's financial situation, you +can get a closer view of your worth to them by dividing their annual profit by +their headcount, adjusted to your discretion to account for the difference in +the profitability of your role compared to your colleagues. It's also wise to +run this math in your head to see how the returns from your employment are +affected by conditions in the hiring market, layoffs, etc -- fewer employees +increases the companies return per employee, and a busier hiring market reduces +your leverage. In any case, it should be relatively easy for you to justify in +the cold arithmetic of finance that businesses speak that employees matter to +the employer, and the degree to which solidarity between workers is a meaningful +force amplifier for your leverage. + +In addition to your fundamental value, there are some weak points in the +corporate structure that you should be aware of. There are some big levers that +you may already be aware of that I have already placed outside of the scope of +this blog post, such as the use of collective bargaining, unionization, strikes, +and so on, where you need to maximize your collective leverage to really put the +screws to your employer. Many neo-liberal workplaces lack the class conciousness +necessary to access these levers, and on the day-to-day scale it may be +strategically wise to smarten up your colleagues on social economics in +preparation for use of these levers. I want to talk about goals on the smaller +scale, though. Suppose your goals are, for instance: + +- You don't like agile/scrum and want to interact with it from the other end of + a six foot pole and/or replace it with another system +- Define your own goals and work on the problems you think are important at your + own discretion moreso than at the discretion of your manager +- Skip meetings you know are wasting your time +- Set working hours that suit you or take time off on your terms +- Work from home or in-office in an arrangement that meets your own wants/needs +- Exercise agency over your tools, such as installing the software you want + to use on your work laptop + +You might also have more intimidating goals you want to address: + +- Demand a raise or renegotiating benefits +- Negotiate a 4-day workweek +- Replace your manager or move teams +- Remove a problematic colleague from your working environment + +All of these goals are within your power to achieve, and perhaps more easily +than you expect. + +First of all, you already have more agency than you know. Your job description +and assigned tasks tells a narrow story of your role at the business: your real +job is ultimately to make money for the business. If you install Linux on your +work laptop because it allows you to work more efficiently, then you are doing +your job better and making more money for the business; they have no right to +object to this and you have a very defensible position for exercising agency in +this respect. Likewise if you adapt the workflows around agile (or whatever) to +better suit your needs rather than to fall in line with the prescription, if it +makes you more productive and happy then it makes the business more money. +Remember your real job -- to make money -- and you can adjust the parameters of +your working environment relatively freely provided that you are still aligned +with this goal. + +Often you can simply exercise agency in cases like these, but in other cases you +may have to reach for your tools. Say you don't just want to have maintain a +personal professional distance from agile, but you want to replace it entirely: +now you need to talk to your colleagues. You can go straight to management and +start making your case, but another option -- probably the more effective one -- +is to start with your immediate colleagues. Your team also possesses a +collective agency, and if you agree together, without anyone's permission, to +work according to your own terms, then so long as you're all doing your jobs -- +making money -- then no one is going to protest. This is more effective than +following the chain of command and asking them to take risks they don't +understand. Be aware of the importance of optics here: you need not only to make +money, but to be *seen* making money. How you are seen to be doing this may +depend on how far up the chain you need to justify yourself to; if your boss +doesn't like it then make sure your boss's boss does. + +Ranked in descending order of leverage within the business: your team, your +boss, you. + +More individual-oriented goals such as negotiating a different working schedule +or skipping meetings calls for different tools. Simple cases, such as coming in +at ten and leaving at four every day, are a case of simple exercise of agency; +so long as you're making the company money no one is going to raise a fuss. If +you want, for instance, a four day work-week, or to work from home more often, +you may have to justify yourself to someone. In such cases you may be less +likely to have your team's solidarity at your disposal, but if you're seen to be +doing your job -- making money -- then a simple argument that it makes you +better at that job will often suffice. + +You can also be clever. "Hey, I'll be working from home on Friday" works better +than "can I work from home on Friday?" If you want to work from home *every* +Friday, however, then you can think strategically: keeping mum about your final +goal of taking all Fridays from home may be wise if you can start by taking +*some* Fridays at home to establish that you're still productive and fulfilling +the prime directive[^money] under those terms and allow yourself to +"accidentally" slip into a new normal of working home every Friday without +asking until it's apparent that the answer will be yes. Don't be above a little +bit of subversion and deception; your employer is using those tools against you +too. + +[^money]: Making money, of course. + +Then there are the big guns: human resources. HR is the enemy; their job is to +protect the company from you. They can, however, be useful if you understand the +risks they're trying to manage and press the right buttons with them. If your +manager is a dick, HR may be the tool to use to fix this, but you need to +approach it the right way. HR does not give two fucks that you don't like your +manager, if your manager is making money then they are doing their job. What HR +does give a fuck about is managing the company's exposure to lawsuits. + +They can also make your life miserable. If HR does not like you then you are +going to suffer, so when you talk to them it is important to know your enemy and +to make strategic use of them without making them realize you know the game. +They present themselves as your ally, let them think you believe it's so. At the +same time, there is a coded language you can use that will get them to act in +your interest. HR will perk up as soon as they smell "unsafe working +conditions", "sexual harassment", "collective action", and so on -- the risks +they were hired to manage -- over the horizon. The best way to interact with HR +is for them to conclude that you are on a path which ends in these problems +landing on their desk without making them think you are a subversive element +within the organization. And if you are prepared to make your knowledge of and +willingness to use these tools explicit, all communication which suggests as +much should be delivered to HR with your lawyer's signature and only when you +have a new job offer lined up as a fallback. HR should either view you as mostly +harmless or look upon you with fear, but nothing in between. + +These are your first steps towards class conciousness as a white-collar +employee. Know your worth, know the leverage you have, and be prepared to use +the tools at your disposal to bring about the outcomes you desire, and know your +employer will be doing the same. Good luck out there, and don't forget to +actually write some code or whatever when you're not busy planning a corporate +coup.