I’m in the final stages of giving a fuck about my job. There’s a lot that can be said about how that came to be, but one thing I wanted to focus on, which is prescient to these modern times is the mindset and behavior of capitalists and the people beneath them.
Whenever people start discussing topics like this a lot of emotionally charged terms begin being used, like: elites, millionaires, billionaires and more misnomers like conservatives, fascists, and on and on. I’m not interested in all that. I’m just talking about one guy and how he behaves and whether that behavior is the better or worse choice to make for someone in his position.
So, then. The owner of this company, he’s a boomer, he’s a multi-millionaire, he’s staunchly conservative, and – I feel independently – he’s a capitalist. I use that last term very specifically, because it encompasses certain traits that transcend all the former categorizations. Academically, a capitalist uses resources to make money for themselves. In practice, those resources typically are other people’s labor, thus, a capitalist uses other people to make that money for themselves. Now, where I am going in this post is wondering if it is proper to be honest about that fact.
The owner’s company, my workplace, has had an extended period of decline spanning probably over five years by now. And going along with that, we’ve had layoffs. After every round of layoffs, we have a big company meeting where we are told the company is healthy, has no debt (this point I actually admire), and is profitable. In every single meeting, it is pointed out that the company is profitable. Sometimes we have meetings for encouragement, to say how things are looking up and how more business is coming. In those meeting as well, the company is still profitable.
Here’s the thing about being profitable. The employees shouldn’t give a shit. As long as the company is breaking even, the bills are being paid, payroll will be met and they will get paid. That’s the end of their involvement. That’s it. Profit is exclusively for the owners. Bragging about or even emphasizing being profitable to employees is telling them right to their faces that they are making money for you.
Before I really misrepresent the point I’m trying to make, I want to recognize that profits can be reinvested in the business. That reinvestment can provide a buffer for salary raises to occur until revenue rises to match the new cost of salary. However, reinvestment in the business increases owner equity, which again, benefits the owner, not the employees.
In the most recent meeting (which was an encouragement meeting as we have had an event that is causing customers to flee), it was said again. And this time, I wish to quote because the delivery was what spurred this post.
"It is a business’s purpose to grow and make a profit, for its employees… *pause for dramatic emphasis* and its owners."
I have to give credit to the man. He is honest. I actually believe he is deviously crooked, but he speaks with brutal honesty. It’s a special gift some have where they can tell you the truth right to your face and unless you unpack the second meaning of it, it sounds perfectly reasonable. So let no one forget why they are here. They are to make money for this man and his family (who are all co-owners of the company).
To close, this does sound like I am spouting communist propaganda. That is not the case. I believe there is a better way which involves employee ownership of the company. And while that is a better way, I have another story for another post about the company I was at prior to this one where the owner was more devious than this one and inadvertently told the employees his plan to fleece them on his way out – using that very method.
And I never examined the counterpoint to the argument, which is, should the owner just not have said anything about that, like probably 95% of business owners do? Is it better to not tell the workers what they are working for? Maybe in another post another time.
