Office Quandries
Peter Rachleff
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PUNCHING OUT page 3 of 3 | |||||
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Weekly Answers to Office Quandries |
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Professor Peter Rachleff |
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The Wobblies urged workers to "hang their brains on a hook with their caps" when they punched in at work and they predicted that utter chaos would result. They were usually right!
They also said that it would be hard for employers to punish workers for this behavior, since workers could say that they were "merely doing what they were told." This strategy proved successful for the Wobblies in many industries, despite employers' efforts to label it "sabotage." In the last twenty years, labor activists have resuscitated this tactic, largely because it has become so futile to strike in the United States. The threat of losing one's job is just too great. One of the best sources of information about "working to rule" is Dan LaBotz's The Troublemaker's Handbook, published by Labor Notes magazine in Detroit. To get back to your situation, Sherry. I would recommend that you and your co-workers discuss ways to stick tight to your job descriptions. If your supervisor is going to give you a hard time for covering for each other and helping each other out, then you need to give her a dose of the old Wobbly tactic. Do what your handbooks tell you to do and nothing more. Now, you have to be organized to do this. All of you have to agree to stick to your guns. But I guarantee you that 1. you'll have fun doing it, 2. you'll become a closer-knit group of employees, and 3. your supervisor will get the point, probably quickly, and you'll get much more of what you want in terms of working together. |
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