In Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century (1974), he discusses the controversial theme of labor and labor power. He also analyzes the degradation of work, which is also shown in Charles Bukowski’s proletarian novel Factotum (1975). Along with these concepts, Braverman develops the boss/worker antagonism, which directly relates to Bukowski’s representation of the compilation of such degrading jobs. Braverman’s most prominent point is the notion of alienated labor in which the boss has complete control over the workers for the best outcome. We see boss/worker antagonism in these situations. This aspect is shown in Factotum in every job Chinaski had. For example, when he was chipping huge blocks of ice with a hammer, his boss asked him to be the driver so he can get the most out of him. Although, Chinaski listens to all his boss’s orders, he somehow manages to do something wrong; for this reason, he always ends up getting fired. He does as little work as possible. He doesn’t work to the best of his abilities. He doesn’t do the job completely and with full interest, which is why he can never stick to one job. When he realizes he is in desperate need of money, he decides to become serious about finding another job. For example, when his parent’s forced him to pay for his room, board, and laundry, he was obligated to work because he was broke. In Factotum, the subjective state of the worker is explicit through Chinaski’s everyday activities. He leads a very unconventional lifestyle. He has no aim in life. The only thing that motivates him to work is when he has absolutely nowhere to stay or mainly when he can’t afford a drink. Nothing really upsets him or makes him happy. His addic... ... middle of paper ... ...them “all afternoon and half the next morning to nail the racks back up” (138). After all, he was the boss and they had no choice but to obey his commands. This relates to alienated labor where the boss is in complete control over the workplace and extracts the most work possible out of the workers. This scenario supports absolute exploitation because, the worker had to work for long, strenuous hours with poor working conditions. The boss demands hard work for a decent profit and eventually thrives. Not only does this scenario represent absolute exploitation but also, how it is a degrading job. In this example, we clearly see the boss/worker antagonistic relationship. To conclude, Braverman and Bukowski share similar beliefs regarding capitalism. Braverman’s beliefs are all confirmed in Factotum. Chinaski’s work experiences verify and support Braverman’s theories.
David Brody argues that the rise of contractual or collective bargaining relationships during the post WWII era formalized the relationship between employers and unions, but simultaneously began to put a break on shop floor activism. Explain Brody’s argument and, where relevant, incorporate Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
Employment is hard to find and hard to keep and a job isn’t always what one hoped for. Sometimes jobs do not sufficiently support our lifestyles, and all too frequently we’re convinced that our boss’s real job is to make us miserable. However, every now and then there are reprieves such as company holiday parties or bonuses, raises, promotions and even a half hour or hour to eat lunch that allows escape from monotonous workloads. Aside from our complaints, employment today for majority of American’s isn’t totally dreadful, and there always lies opportunity for promotion. American’s did not always experience this reality in their work places though, and not long past are days of abysmal and disgusting work conditions. In 1906 Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was published. His novel drastically transformed the way Americans felt about the unmitigated power corporations wielded in the ‘free’ market economy that was heavily propagandized at the turn of the century. Corporations do not have the same unscrupulous practices today because of actions taken by former President Theodore Roosevelt who felt deeply impacted by Sinclair’s famous novel. Back in early 1900’s in the meatpacking plants of Chicago the incarnation of greed ruled over the working man and dictated his role as a simple cog within an enormous insatiable industrial machine. Executives of the 1900’s meatpacking industry in Chicago, IL, conspired to work men to death, obliterate worker’s unions and lie to American citizens about what they were actually consuming in order to simply acquire more money.
Industrial capitalism transformed greatly in a century; however work continued to decline with the advancement of time. Therefore, work was better in 1750 then it was in 1850. " The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself" (134.).
He is the shown as the mean and hateful owner, who could care less if his workers are well because he could always get more people. He knew this because during the Industrial Revolution there were more people than there were jobs, so people had to settle for worse conditions because that was all there was. When two men some into his shop wan... ...
While this is a dramatized statement regarding the plight of the worker under the new machine driven industrial system, rhetoric such as this did represent the fears of the working class. Over time, as industrialization appeared more common, there emerged more heated debates between the working class and business owners. The struggle between the two opposing classes of labor was the embodiment of the argument for national identity, according to Trachtenberg. His attention to detail of the divide between the lower class workers and the rich upper crust industrialists, serves to illustrate the varying changes which occurred across the country.
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
The leaders of big business didn’t give workers the rights they deserved. In the text, Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?, it states, “Workers were often forbidden to strike, paid very low wages, and forced to work very long hours.” This evidence is a perfect example of the dehumanization of workers. The employers treated their workers like interchangeable parts, which were easily replaced. The big business leaders started paying less attention to the working conditions, and more to the production rates, and money. They didn’t care about worker’s family or the worker’s wellbeing. Due to the horrible working conditions, the workers were more likely to be injured, and sometimes, die. The capitalists didn’t give their employees the rights and respect they deserved, because to them they were just unskilled, cheap labor. If the workers were unhappy, they would easily replace them with other unskilled workers. That’s why they were considered interchangeable parts. This evidence shows the big business leaders only cared about money, and didn’t treat their workers
The working class--the proletariat--must work to survive. Conversely, the bourgeois own the means of production and exploit the proletariat for their labor as well as the goods produced as a result (Ollman). The characters of Fuenteovejuna fit easily within this dichotomy. The townspeople exemplify Marx’s proletariat class, working tirelessly only to have the fruits of their labor--the crops they have harvested--taken by the Commander and the other nobles. Then, the Commander and his fellow nobles exemplify the bourgeois
Early in American history during colonial times and into the middle of the 19th centry, relations between employers and those whom they employed were many times hostile and adversarial. Sometimes these disagreements between employee and employer would explode into violent confrontations. Workers wether skilled or not would fight with management over improved/safer working conditions, fair pay, long exhausting hours by uniting and form...
It is the worker’s condition that he truly focuses on. Many of the problems that people faced during this time include: tenement housing, poor working conditions, child labor, monopolies of business, social and political inequality, and most importantly people putting profits over lives. It is around the same time that a terrible fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The unsafe working conditions made the employees escape nearly impossible.
For example, we work 10 to 12-hour work days (Module 10, Alienation at Work). This is true, truck drivers drive for long hours. They are more likely to be alienated since most of their day is occupied on the road delivering loads. Drivers have less power because they need to work, they need to get the job done since work is essential. Karl Marx notes that work is compulsory, not voluntary (Module 10, Marxist Concept of Alienation). For example, drivers are told what loads to deliver they do not chose to do it, rather they are told what to do. Thus, leading to the idea that we are controlled by someone else. Truck drivers are controlled by dispatch and Marx calls this the workers “essence” (Module 10, Marxist Concept of Alienation). What they produce does not belong to them, thus creating alienation from work and the production. Drivers are creating something not for themselves, but for someone else, in particular their employer. Alienation is about how work is organized, we can see that for truck drivers work can be alienating. Drivers tend to be separated and left alone; told what to do.
Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...
Watson, T. (2008) The Meaning of Work. The Sociology of Work and Industry. London: Routledge.
Producing goods or services are dictated not by employees but by their employers. If profits exist, employers are the ones that benefit more so than the regular worker. “Even when working people experience absolute gains in their standard of living, their position, relative to that of capitalists, deteriorates.” (Rinehart, Pg. 14). The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Hard work wears down the employee leaving them frustrated in their spare time. Workers are estranged from the products they produce. At the end of the day, they get paid for a day’s work but they have no control over the final product that was produced or sold. To them, productivity does not equal satisfaction. The products are left behind for the employer to sell and make a profit. In discussions with many relatives and friends that have worked on an assembly line, they knew they would not be ...
One winter day, the speeding-up process upon the workers caused the factory’s steer broke loose, causing the workers to run to a pillar in order to avoid the frantic animal. Unfortunately, Jurgis fell into a trap, collects the animals’ blood, while trying to dodge the runaway steer, spraining his ankle in the process. This pain was too much that Jurgis couldn't stand for a few minutes before passing out, resulting him in being bedridden and evidently being replaced by another worker. In Dr. Pettengill’s lecture, The American Response to Industrial Capitalism, it further expands the harsh working conditions and connects the idea on how unfair workers were treated, using The Jungle as an example to explain how Jurgis was forced to stay in bed for months because of his injury; with this, the factory boss is no longer interested in him, since Jurgis can’t do his job properly, and decides to higher stronger men who would be willing to work to even lower wages (Pettengill,