Ever been driving down the highway, and see the spinning lights of police and rescue? Notice how the traffic slows, and how we'd all like to pretend that we are slowing to make sure no one else is involved in a wreck, but deep inside, most if not all of us are slowing to see the carnage.
Ever actually see it happen? That Naked Lunch moment, where everyone sees what is at the end of every fork?
Being either emotionally repressed to the point of sociopathology or emotionally retarded to the same point (thus not making a difference), it is my twisted nature to observe and remove myself. I cannot respond immediately. It is not possible. I don't know how, and when forced to respond in The Moment, the results are usually pretty unpleasant.
On the plus side, however, it does allow for the perception of a moment and place The Moment into a more condensed version that allows for a deeper understanding.
Watching my parents was most instructional on how Management and Labor behave.
Mom worked at the Pontiac World Headquarters on Wide Track Drive (or was it Widetrack? Who cares...), the front office. At one time, she was part of the pink-collar You're Just A Woman brigade of human fodder that the corporate fascists love to feed to their own version of Moloch of the Burning. As the years progressed, and slowly so did the corporate/social order, she moved higher in the ranks. Never in a position of what others would call "power," she was privy to inside discussions.
One evening, Mom came home in the typical Allard fashion: high dudgeon. Ah, the reddened face, the swelling of the cranial veins! How I remember it well, and still fall prey to it. The cause on this fine evening was the result of her watching Higher Ups return from the then-normal "three" martini lunch.
Enter the gentlemen of industry, and the topic of their conversation was the pending legal requirement that all automobiles built in the US had to have an impact resistant bumper. It seems that the model designed and being pushed through production had a minor flaw: the distance between the bumper and the vehicle was a little more than anticipated, and there was a gap, and nothing to fill the gap, so (Miss? Another round here) the decision was made to use a certain cheap ... inexpensive, sorry... plastic that was available, paint the plastic and pop it in. Problem solved!
Mom, whose intellect was never in doubt (and why I always prefer to associate with women of intellect), had read the reports of said intended plastic. Enter, Angry Woman, snarling and spitting with rage: The plastic was rejected because it didn't hold the paint, and even on the slightest impact it was known that the paint would come loose from the plastic and look like Hell.
The parental example was to allow the Spouse to rant and tirade, but not really focus. Really, was it all that necessary? Let them get it out, and move on.
Dad worked for the then GMPD (General Motors Parts Division), a warehouse for all of the extra parts sent out to the dealerships and all other outlets that sold Genuine GM Parts. He was an hourly employee, Union man.
One fine day, oh, a few months after the great Three Martini Lunch Decision, Dad came home, raving and raging. Mandatory overtime, more work than anyone wanted to do but with no options. Reason: all of these parts were flooding in, seems that on a low impact to the front end of GM vehicles, the paint flaked off the plastic to such an extent that the product owners (you know, the customers) were certain that the visual damage reflected greater damage than actually existed, so the company was cranking out replacements.
Mom = Management. Dad = Labor.
What did I learn?
1) Management does not fully understand what Labor does. In this case, if they had, perhaps a few more moments of (sober) conversation would have lead to, But what will happen later?
2) Labor does not fully understand what Management does. In this case, had Labor (Dad) asked, perhaps the end result could have been understood rather than merely a point of complaint.
3) Management can change the events in the life of Labor, but the reverse does not hold true. All Management can do is turn a deaf ear to what appears to be whining and complaining.
From that point on, I have yet to see a single corporation I have worked for, large or small, regardless of industry, that sees the problem may (gasp! Dast I suggest such a thing??? I dast, I dast) be at the top of the ladder and not at the bottom. I have also yet to see in the rank and file, union and non-union, a single moment of clarity that allows for a frank discussion of a problem that could help both Management as well as Labor come not merely to an understanding but a resolution for both sides.
While I am Labor, and will always be so (I'm okay with that), I place the blame more on Labor. Whining don't cut it: learn to speak Corporate. That is not the same as the Cheerleader Rah-Rah that some think, but rather that straightforward "Here is the problem, and here is how we should make it go away, and make more profit for the company as well as improve our lot."
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