Co-Worker knows we do not need a boss/owner....

[RadioRaheem84]

Co-Worker came to an epiphany today. She is an apolitical person as far I know and has never mentioned anything that would make me believe she has ever even heard of Marx.

Anyways, our manager is out on injury, so the minions are minding the store. We've done everything from close it down to open it up, counted drawers to stock the books, order and send back books to the publisher and keep inventory for the past week and a half.

She comes up to me and tells me, "you know what do we need the boss for" ? She went on to say that we never see or hear of the owner of this major corporation except when a security guard comes in to collect the money. She said we could run the store and share the profits!

I laughed. She has no idea that I am a Marxist. :lol:

I asked her (trying to inject some subtle ideas into her), "did you ever notice that one week of profits at this store pays for our month's salary"?

She looked at me bright eyed and said yes, of course she knew that, she filled in the rest by saying that we're working for free!

Is exploitation that noticible to the worker? Did Marx say it would be?

[danyboy27]

well yes, 99% of worker obviously know they are fucked over and over by the rulling class!

The only worker i came across who didnt knew that where either Union member earning relatively high salary, or sociopath minded people who believed that its okay to advance to crush their collegues and get promotion.

every time our bosses are in vacantion, the atmosphere is more relaxed, and i dare say we are more productive.

i just think its sad that so many union member are so unaware of the exploitation going on.

[Raúl Duke]

Is exploitation that noticible to the worker?

Why would it be not noticeable?
It's obvious once anyone puts some thought to it.
Even the part about not needing the boss becomes noticeable when for some occasion the boss happens to not be around (such as it were in your situation for that day) and everything seems to run smoothly (perhaps even better).

Sometimes it depends on how the workplace is set up though. In my last job, we barely/never saw our "actual boss" but we did see our supervisors who tended to be people who were once in our shitty job position which managed to get promoted. While everyone disliked the job, no one seemed to hate the supervisors...although there was some underlying contempt for the job and perhaps our invisible bosses/incompetent survey script-writers.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I believe the workers know they're being screwed over.The capitalists drive their prices up for their goods so high that everyone whose employed under them knows their essentialy working for free most of the time.It's destructive and gross.

I also know that employees are more productive when their boss is lazing about on his vacation.I know this from the way my mother speaks every time her redneck boss leaves town for his hunting trips.She's elated when he leaves.Like the world just got better and less suffocating.

[Invincible Summer]

I was in a similar situation when I worked at Subway. The head manager/owners were never around, and the location was pretty much worker-run (albeit under the Subway franchise model).

i said to Co-worker 1, "We don't even need a boss. We're doing all his shit for him." Co-Worker 1 agreed and said that she noticed the profits from the store were more than enough to pay us more than minimum wage.

But Co-Worker 2 overheard and said "No, we need our boss to give us the paycheques and do all the paperwork. I don't like him either, but who else is going to pay us? Without him we have no job!"

So I think that it goes both ways - some people are class-conscious without knowing, and some are utterly hopeless.

[RadioRaheem84]

My manager is really cool. She's just a higher payed employee too basically. They bleed her dry and pay her shit.

[Animal Farm Pig]

I'm not trying to piss on the parade here, but there are some things that bosses/managers do that are not so visible to the workers. They work with budgets and cash flows, insurance and taxes, leasehold and utility costs, staffing and payroll, financing, business analytics, etc.

I'm not saying that average workers can't take these tasks. They can be democratically organized within a productive unit. What I am saying is that the day to day operation of a productive unit is different from actually running and managing a productive unit. If the management is doing a good job, these details should be invisible to the line workers.

I've worked in places where these details were not invisible to workers. Paychecks getting delayed or bouncing because management didn't do the cash flow correctly is a good way to spoil a weekend, make friends with the bank, and make friends with the landlord when you can't pay rent in time. I once had to learn the location of all the truck weigh stations in my area and find surface road routes around them because the boss had screwed up the paper work on the motor carrier permit, and I risked getting the truck impounded if I went through a weigh station. I've been ordered to dump hazardous waste products in a stream, because the boss didn't think to include waste disposal costs in a bid and would have lost money on a job if we disposed of waste properly. It's not fun.

So, I'm glad your co-worker is gaining some consciousness. I'm just pointing out that there's a lot going on that you don't see in the day to day. The things you don't see aren't rocket science-- anyone can do them. Just things to keep in mind if you're thinking that operating a business is easy just because your own job is easy.

[RadioRaheem84]

I agree but we were talking about running that one store not the entire corporation and it's many franchises. I am sure the dynamics of running the entire Corp is more nuanced.

[Animal Farm Pig]

I agree but we were talking about running that one store not the entire corporation and it's many franchises. I am sure the dynamics of running the entire Corp is more nuanced.

I can't say much about really big companies, my only experience with them has been as entry level employee. For large enough companies, I can imagine there being managers who do fuck-all. Just depends how to company is organized, I guess.

I've been both worker and management in small enterprises, and, well, that shit can be hard. Most of the time, I'd rather be loading and unloading stuff from trucks than staring at fucking spreadsheets.

I wish I hadn't even brought this up. It's a great story, and it should make all of us hopeful for the future. Your co-worker is correct. You certainly don't need the business owner(s). He/she/they are parasites making money from money. The management shouldn't be some special caste. The workers can run the enterprise. That's what we should agitate for. Just, when we finally take over, we should be prepared for it to be a little more tricky than we expected. :)

[Stephen Colbert]

It's the best isnt it. Apolitical people randomly adopting radical views in the workplace. Makes me lol a bit

[RadioRaheem84]

I hear them make these comments all the time. It's quite common. People have to be trained to think otherwise. The ones that comment to the contrary are usually rightists that think they know more than their co workers.

[Stephen Colbert]

Or are usually petit-bourgeois who have had a slice of the pie, and realize that it is a bit larger than their co-workers. And plan on keeping it that way

[Thirsty Crow]

It's the best isnt it. Apolitical people randomly adopting radical views in the workplace. Makes me lol a bit
Oh I beg to differ.
They are most certainly not adopting such views randomly, but out of their own material position and a (renewed) sense of self worth and correct perception of their own abilities.
Makes me think a lot. Immediate workplace solidarity and gradual introduction to socialist politics seem like a good tactic.