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There is definitely something missing in the current management/employee relationship. For example, the Wells Fargo account fraud issue. Where they had thousan
by johngalt 8y ago
There is definitely something missing in the current management/employee relationship.
For example, the Wells Fargo account fraud issue. Where they had thousands of new accounts being opened without customer authorization. Caused by ratcheting sales mandates and mid level management pushing employees to open accounts fraudulently and firing those who objected. It showed an obvious lack of ability for the branch level employees to push back, and everyone involved being worse off for it. A more organized group of employees could have pushed back effectively and prevented a costly situation for Wells. This benefits more than just the workers. It's not like the shareholders were better off after having a bunch of fraudulent accounts opened to game sales metrics.
In my opinion there are many business instances where a small problem becomes a large one because acknowledging a small problem would offset this quarters goals, or embarrass someone who has enough authority to prevent acknowledging it.
This missing piece certainly looks union-shaped, but the problem is that any union strong enough to push back against bad policy is also strong enough to push back against good policy. Unions are also not immune to the same power dynamics where small problems can go unacknowledged.
Rather than rehash the 1930s, what would a well coordinated 21st century organization look like? One that resists small numbers of managers risking the business just to make a bonus target, or pad their resumes? Yet is also able to take advantage of new efficiencies and market opportunities without employee revolt. Are there existing models that work that we could grow to cover other industries?
- yellowbuilding 8y agoNot really. Worker co-ops. Otherwise, the union just needs to implement the right policies as they do in Europe. The problem with unions in the US was largely that the big ones were often very integrated with the government and company owners; not a project so much of the workers.