Passive Resistance?

[Undertow]

So you've finally realized your job is meaningless, unrewarding and even a little silly. You come home every night exhausted for having done very little physical work, but from being run dry by demands and protocols.

...It's not that you want to stick your finger in "the Man's" eye, it's that you DON'T want to be any more a part of the bureaucratic nightmare then necessary. You don't want to harm the people you help through your work, but you can't possibly continue working at the break-neck pace your boss (and your boss' boss) demands. You know trying to find a new job in today's market is almost definitely suicide...

...So how do you resist? Or do you resist at all? Do you quit and collect unemployment? Do you drag your heels on all of your projects and take long breaks? Do you work harder, and harder, hoping to impress the bean counters?

It seems employers, especially corporate ones, are demanding higher and higher production totals from their employees now'days. People don't have the luxury of quitting their jobs anymore than they do winning the lottery. Many of the current service-sector jobs are often nothing but paperwork and bean counting.

Let's hear your vintage thoughts on this, whether it's a historical perspective or modern with a "vintage" twist. And if you need examples, imagine a job in Communist Russia late 1950's where you're a clerk processing paperwork for some monolithic entity.

 

[Angus Forbes]

I am certainly no expert on this topic, but the scenario you describe reminds me of Thoreau's point that goes approximately as follows: "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." In other words, there is no solution having the properties of a magic bullet. Stoicism maybe the appropriate course of action. My own career had its ups and downs along the same lines, but, in retrospect, I am very glad that I didn't do anything impulsive.

Edit -- I do have some advice: whatever you do, try to keep out of debt. Debt is deadly poison.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"They pretend they're paying us and we pretend that we're working."
...Yakov Smirnov

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always tried to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and it helps that I actually believe in what I do for a living. But in my radio days I worked for a genuine psychopath who went out of his way to make everyone as miserable as he was. He was also obsessive-compulsive, so I used to slip into his office every morning before he arrived and move everything on his desk an inch to the right or an inch to the left, just so he'd sit there puzzling about what looked different. My last day there, I stuffed half a ham sandwich and an orange up into the air vent that opened into his office, guaranteeing that within a week he'd be overwhelmed by fruit flies.

This may sound cruel, but be assured, he got what was coming to him.

 

[Pompidou]

I've never been fond of regimentation and regulation, being told what to do and how to do it, so I had to start my own business.

 

[hatophile]

I've never been fond of regimentation and regulation, being told what to do and how to do it, so I had to start my own business.

Don't you find though, that even though you are your own boss, you may still have rules and regs to follow?

 

[sheeplady]

Living off the dole isn't nearly as luxurious as it seems, unless you are willing to majorly scam the system. And unemployment won't cover you if you are fired for "fault of your own."

Your choices are to find more fulfilling work or move away from modern society. There are many fulfilling jobs out there. I seriously think that some of the most high paying jobs are the most life and soul sucking ones. It's far better to be under paid than be overworked to the point where you have no life whatsoever.

There are plenty of people who have "checked out" live on 5 acres (sometimes more or sometimes less) and support their families on $5,000 a year- enough to pay the taxes and keep the basic necessities. You need to grow your own food, provide your own heat, etc. They have their babies at home, don't have health insurance, don't have running water or electric (unless it is self-supplied), and live really lean.

Life is what you make it. Lots of people like to say that they have no alternative, but in reality what that means is that you just like the alternative even less than what you have chosen. Plenty of people could really do themselves good by exploring their alternatives really closely to see if they are really as bad as they think.

 

[Stanley Doble]

You've got hold of the wrong end of things too quickly. What are your goals? What are your plans? Where do you see yourself a year from now, 5 years, 10 years?

You can do whatever you want if you know what it is, map out a plan and follow it up. If something supports your goals you do it, if it doesn't you don't.

This getting caught up in some meaningless hassle at work is not the point.

Here is how I look at it. I am on my way to the bank to cash a check for $1,000,000. On the way to the bank I step in some dog shit. Does that mean I obsess about dog shit? Do I dedicate my life to dog shit? Of course not, I scrape it off on the curb and go on my way the same as I was doing before the dog shit.

The tricky bit is figuring out who you are, or who you want to be. Setting goals and mapping out a plan. After that everything goes a lot simpler. When you want to know if you should do something ask yourself, does this support my goals or not? Does this get me closer to having or doing what I planned or not?

 

[Undertow]

Just to clarify; my question wasn't regarding my own career, although my job is an inspiring example of bureaucracy.

I've been dwelling on the last few years as employers lay off increasingly more employees while maintaining - no, increasing - productivity. Mix that with some of the turn-of-the-century Russian literature that pokes fun at the same needless bureaucracy we see in corporate jobs today, and I'm seeing a good conversation here.

Think about it this way - you work at a 1933 tire factory making tires. If you fall behind, yeah, the foreman is going to come by and ask you if something's wrong, if you're feeling ill, if you need a break. If you consistently fall behind, the foreman's boss is going to call the foreman and you in and see what's happening. Fine, that's business.

Now imagine the same plant, but they've laid off 200 of 400 workers. AND they want you to increase production by 30%. AND they aren't planning on giving you a raise any time soon.

That kind of stuff happened. There were strikes. Labor unions thrived. Things changed. Well, here we are in 2012 and existing labor unions are nearly as bad as corporations, while industires that need labor unions are quite unlikely to see any.

So what does one do to "fight back"?

 

[LizzieMaine]

When the A. F. of L. got complacent and clubby with management, the C. I. O. came along in the thirties and shook up the status quo. It's time for that to happen again.

Yeah, he was a psychopath. He bragged, constantly, that he was the guy who fired Bill Cullen from WNBC back in the fifties. One of us -- I won't mention any names -- responded with "Well, look where he ended up and look where you ended up," which didn't go over too well.

 

[1961MJS]

I've always tried to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and it helps that I actually believe in what I do for a living. But in my radio days I worked for a genuine psychopath who went out of his way to make everyone as miserable as he was. He was also obsessive-compulsive, so I used to slip into his office every morning before he arrived and move everything on his desk an inch to the right or an inch to the left, just so he'd sit there puzzling about what looked different. My last day there, I stuffed half a ham sandwich and an orange up into the air vent that opened into his office, guaranteeing that within a week he'd be overwhelmed by fruit flies.

This may sound cruel, but be assured, he got what was coming to him.

Lizzie, are you sure he started out as a psychopath, you know, BEFORE you got there?



I worked with an OCD guy. Someone (not me) cut their finger nails at work and left the clippings on his keyboard. I heard he was going off for three days. I had to be nice and not help his compulsiveness... It wasn't easy, but I was nice.

Later

 

[1961MJS]

When the A. F. of L. got complacent and clubby with management, the C. I. O. came along in the thirties and shook up the status quo. It's time for that to happen again....

Hi

The main problem with most of today's unions are that they mainly provide profit for and protect the union officials, not the actual workers. It's great to be the President of the local IBEW, it's just o.k. to be a member of the local IBEW (for example).

later

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I'm very OC.

I work for myself.

I'm NOT an easy boss.

 

[penates]

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own."

 

[Stanley Doble]

Just to clarify; my question wasn't regarding my own career, although my job is an inspiring example of bureaucracy.

I've been dwelling on the last few years as employers lay off increasingly more employees while maintaining - no, increasing - productivity. Mix that with some of the turn-of-the-century Russian literature that pokes fun at the same needless bureaucracy we see in corporate jobs today, and I'm seeing a good conversation here.

Think about it this way - you work at a 1933 tire factory making tires. If you fall behind, yeah, the foreman is going to come by and ask you if something's wrong, if you're feeling ill, if you need a break. If you consistently fall behind, the foreman's boss is going to call the foreman and you in and see what's happening. Fine, that's business.

Now imagine the same plant, but they've laid off 200 of 400 workers. AND they want you to increase production by 30%. AND they aren't planning on giving you a raise any time soon.

That kind of stuff happened. There were strikes. Labor unions thrived. Things changed. Well, here we are in 2012 and existing labor unions are nearly as bad as corporations, while industires that need labor unions are quite unlikely to see any.

So what does one do to "fight back"?

Oddly enough I used to work in a tire plant. It sucked. It was not only hard noisy dirty work, it was the most dangerous place I ever worked. No kidding, crippling injuries were a monthly occurance and 2 men were killed in 4 years.

I didn't like it so I left - as soon as I found a better job. Never wasted a damn minute "fighting back" or "getting even".

Later, in the 80s, there were NO decent jobs of any kind, not for me anyway. This was when they were "downsizing" and sending all the jobs overseas. So I became self employed and eventually ended up doing OK.

But I never got anyplace until I wised up and quit obsessing about what everyone else was doing and started thinking about what I wanted to do. As long as I was looking for a job and worrying about what an employer or prospective employer thought I was like a puppet looking for strings and it just never worked out for me.

 

[Pompidou]

Don't you find though, that even though you are your own boss, you may still have rules and regs to follow?

Definitely - Just had our second health inspection a week ago. I suppose it's the freedom to determine how I meet obligations that I like, moreso than any assumption that I'm free from obligations. I'm not just pushing a broom around because the boss says look busy, for example.

 

[MissMittens]

I've always tried to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and it helps that I actually believe in what I do for a living. But in my radio days I worked for a genuine psychopath who went out of his way to make everyone as miserable as he was. He was also obsessive-compulsive, so I used to slip into his office every morning before he arrived and move everything on his desk an inch to the right or an inch to the left, just so he'd sit there puzzling about what looked different. My last day there, I stuffed half a ham sandwich and an orange up into the air vent that opened into his office, guaranteeing that within a week he'd be overwhelmed by fruit flies.

This may sound cruel, but be assured, he got what was coming to him.

I think that was so perfect

 

[hatophile]

Definitely - Just had our second health inspection a week ago. I suppose it's the freedom to determine how I meet obligations that I like, moreso than any assumption that I'm free from obligations. I'm not just pushing a broom around because the boss says look busy, for example.

Very well put.

 

[Undertow]

The new healthcare legislation means there are going to be more people covered under health insurance, which in turn means more bean counters, red tape and busy work.

So Bill breaks his leg walking the dog one night, goes to the hospital, his insurance processes the claim and they deny it because they say it was a work related injury (happens all the time).

The question is, what if you're Bianca the claims examiner and you KNOW this is not a work related injury? You KNOW this is your company's way of dragging heels. You KNOW this is just one of millions of claims that denies every day like this to slow down the payout. And on top of it, you could fix this ONE claim, but you're so busy trying to meet deadlines with all your other busy psuedo-work, that you just let this one slide like all the others.

What should Bianca do? Go work in another office? Go make less money flipping burgers? Try to start her own business doing...who knows what, she has been in an office most of her adult life?

Bianca is a bean-counter-turned-aware; how does she resist this machine?
(Replace health insurance with car insurance, or mortgage financing, or debt collections, or student loans, or any pencil-pushing atmosphere.)

 

[sheeplady]

Bianca is a bean-counter-turned-aware; how does she resist this machine?
(Replace health insurance with car insurance, or mortgage financing, or debt collections, or student loans, or any pencil-pushing atmosphere.)

This is just my personal opinion, but some of those industries are not exactly the same and the consequences of of letting something slip are not the same. Health insurance- where someone not paying for a claim might mean you're going to die because you can't receive treatment- is totally different than financing a mortgage. Nobody ever died because they were denied a mortgage.

We'd all be in a better financial place if the banks had denied more mortgages.