Comments on: … is visceral hatred? http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/ A working notebook Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:20:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Steve http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-7 Tue, 13 Sep 2005 12:11:50 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-7 My mum, who is a very diehard CS, won't drink coffee - but no, it's not grounds for ex-communication, unlike tobacco or alcohol. Anyway, I'm a tea snob, as ange and az could probably attest (my overwhelming favourite is Madura premium blend - maybe I should send you some). Things are very fragmented where I work, unfortunately. The admin staff are being 'sorted' at present, and then it will be the turn of the academics. And the rationalisation of units will have flow on effects for staffing, no doubt. Two people came to see me independently last week and say they were intending to take voluntary redundancy packages, and quite a few others are also voting with their feet in various ways ... My mum, who is a very diehard CS, won’t drink coffee - but no, it’s not grounds for ex-communication, unlike tobacco or alcohol. Anyway, I’m a tea snob, as ange and az could probably attest (my overwhelming favourite is Madura premium blend - maybe I should send you some).

Things are very fragmented where I work, unfortunately. The admin staff are being ’sorted’ at present, and then it will be the turn of the academics. And the rationalisation of units will have flow on effects for staffing, no doubt. Two people came to see me independently last week and say they were intending to take voluntary redundancy packages, and quite a few others are also voting with their feet in various ways …

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-6 Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:10:17 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-6 hi Steve, Welcome. I'd fix you coffee if I could figure out how to send that to you (are christian scientists allowed to drink coffee?) electronically. I have a similar reaction to landlords, actually, but it's a little different there - for the most part I just have to pay my rent on time and things will work out (the same goes for airport security, those people give me the creeps!). The idea implied in my normal emotional response is "these powerful people are out to get me", which is not actually the case. It's more like they are indifferent to me as long as I stay within proscribed bounds (though those bounds can change - work restructuring, decision to sell the building for condominiums, new profiling rules for passengers etc), unless they are a capricious sadist. I've had run ins with the latter as most of us have, but that's not the real problem with bosses, that some of them are sadists. Most of the jobs I've had in my adult life have been in 'nonprofit social justice campaign' groups (calls to mind Castoriadis's quip - "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, four words, four lies"), where there's a weird sort of "we're all in it together" mentality deployed by management (and to some degree believed in by management), in which managers try to be friendly and cool with the employees. This is probably no different than anywhere else in some ways - an attempt to pin shopfloor problems on employees ("I'm cool with everyone, it's that guy's attitude problem/laziness/lack of dedication to the cause/etc that's the problem"). In some of the place I've worked this "we're doing it for the people" (kind of like the "we're doing it for the kids" thing in some sectors of [sub]cultural production) idea gets in the way of workplace organizing, because co-workers believe it enough to doubt themselves, and end up discussing "what will it do for/to the campaign" if workplace action is undertaken, instead of organizing and planning well. As for parenting, I intend to be a deeply authoritarian parent. ;) The difference, though, is that my kids won't face the threat of firing and so on - management's disrespect wouldn't be as big of a deal if they didn't have such power of reprisal against people who don't like that treatment. Then they'd just be assholes and the rest of us could organize ourselves to gang up on them. Actually, that's sort of the plan anyway... take care, Nate ps- you mentioned something a while back about some workplace restructuring at your current employ, any news on that? hi Steve,

Welcome. I’d fix you coffee if I could figure out how to send that to you (are christian scientists allowed to drink coffee?) electronically.

I have a similar reaction to landlords, actually, but it’s a little different there - for the most part I just have to pay my rent on time and things will work out (the same goes for airport security, those people give me the creeps!). The idea implied in my normal emotional response is “these powerful people are out to get me”, which is not actually the case. It’s more like they are indifferent to me as long as I stay within proscribed bounds (though those bounds can change - work restructuring, decision to sell the building for condominiums, new profiling rules for passengers etc), unless they are a capricious sadist. I’ve had run ins with the latter as most of us have, but that’s not the real problem with bosses, that some of them are sadists.

Most of the jobs I’ve had in my adult life have been in ‘nonprofit social justice campaign’ groups (calls to mind Castoriadis’s quip - “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, four words, four lies”), where there’s a weird sort of “we’re all in it together” mentality deployed by management (and to some degree believed in by management), in which managers try to be friendly and cool with the employees. This is probably no different than anywhere else in some ways - an attempt to pin shopfloor problems on employees (”I’m cool with everyone, it’s that guy’s attitude problem/laziness/lack of dedication to the cause/etc that’s the problem”). In some of the place I’ve worked this “we’re doing it for the people” (kind of like the “we’re doing it for the kids” thing in some sectors of [sub]cultural production) idea gets in the way of workplace organizing, because co-workers believe it enough to doubt themselves, and end up discussing “what will it do for/to the campaign” if workplace action is undertaken, instead of organizing and planning well.

As for parenting, I intend to be a deeply authoritarian parent. ;) The difference, though, is that my kids won’t face the threat of firing and so on - management’s disrespect wouldn’t be as big of a deal if they didn’t have such power of reprisal against people who don’t like that treatment. Then they’d just be assholes and the rest of us could organize ourselves to gang up on them. Actually, that’s sort of the plan anyway…

take care,
Nate

ps- you mentioned something a while back about some workplace restructuring at your current employ, any news on that?

]]> by: Steve http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-5 Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:56:21 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2005/09/11/is-visceral-hatred/#comment-5 I have a similar reaction to bosses, Nate. Before working in the federal public service in the late eighties, it was more of an insufferance for authority in general (as I have been reminded over the past week, in discovering some of my old school reports) - probably because my experience of paid work was fairly limited (mostly as a university tutor, with quite a lot of job autonomy, at least back then). I do remember just before I started work in the government job, saying to a couple of close friends who were union delegates in the department for which I was headed, 'I can't see myself coming to hate managers like you do - capital is a social relation, they are just its bearers, blah blah blah'. 'You'll learn', Cate and Paul said, and funnily enough they were right. A year later I was also a union delegate, doing my best to worsen my section manager's ulcer. I think what shocked me the most - and brought me around to my friends' point of view - was precisely the being 'bossed around' that you mentioned. Ursula Huws once talked about management treating workers as infants, and that was certainly my experience for much of the time there. Not that much of this was at the hands of the section manager - I had one great run in with him, but mostly he stayed in his office - but rather of some of the lower level supervisors. One of the sweetest moments then was when a supervisor who had bullied a whole group of us mercilessly for weeks, suddenly became quite frightened for her own position, and changed into a pussycat almost overnight (even baked us brownies once!). But that was in an 'exceptional' moment - and in fact virtually all the positions in the section were wiped out, due to a change in work procedures (although the majority of people were redeployed rather than sacked). The scary thing about seeing workplace power relations in terms of treating others as infants is that I'm not sure my parenting style is any better at times ... I have a similar reaction to bosses, Nate. Before working in the federal public service in the late eighties, it was more of an insufferance for authority in general (as I have been reminded over the past week, in discovering some of my old school reports) - probably because my experience of paid work was fairly limited (mostly as a university tutor, with quite a lot of job autonomy, at least back then). I do remember just before I started work in the government job, saying to a couple of close friends who were union delegates in the department for which I was headed, ‘I can’t see myself coming to hate managers like you do - capital is a social relation, they are just its bearers, blah blah blah’. ‘You’ll learn’, Cate and Paul said, and funnily enough they were right. A year later I was also a union delegate, doing my best to worsen my section manager’s ulcer. I think what shocked me the most - and brought me around to my friends’ point of view - was precisely the being ‘bossed around’ that you mentioned. Ursula Huws once talked about management treating workers as infants, and that was certainly my experience for much of the time there. Not that much of this was at the hands of the section manager - I had one great run in with him, but mostly he stayed in his office - but rather of some of the lower level supervisors. One of the sweetest moments then was when a supervisor who had bullied a whole group of us mercilessly for weeks, suddenly became quite frightened for her own position, and changed into a pussycat almost overnight (even baked us brownies once!). But that was in an ‘exceptional’ moment - and in fact virtually all the positions in the section were wiped out, due to a change in work procedures (although the majority of people were redeployed rather than sacked).

The scary thing about seeing workplace power relations in terms of treating others as infants is that I’m not sure my parenting style is any better at times …

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