Going into Labor

Find a corporation with a solid foundation, be loyal, and stick with them. Dedication of this level will be noted and pay off in the end.

My working for [Company X] affords me some wonderful benefits not found at smaller corporations or start-ups. There's the insurance coverage (when it isn't being reduced each year), there's job security (when they aren't laying off to recover their bottom line) and, of course, there's the induced creative spark and energy to work hard that can only be fostered by that rare form of cooperative leadership and business-driven decisions. That well chosen path, coupled with investor-backed funding and a large workforce, makes for an agile industrial machine that can adapt and respond instantly to the changing environment. So, when the contract was up for northern workers at [Company X] and a potential strike loomed on the approaching horizon, the swift and decisive action of the powers that be provided an efficient and healthy solution that fit the market:

All workers in non-essential positions that didn't check the box marked "afraid of heights or confined spaces" on their application get shipped off to fill in on physical labor after reviewing a helpful pamphlet on how to cope with lobbed insults/bricks. Everyone else gets to stay behind and work 72 hour weeks.

Due to the nature of my work, I fall into the latter collection and cannot speculate on what it is like to be a member of the former. So, while we haven't actually been put into the position of going into "emergency mode" just yet, the reasoning behind this particular strategy isn't immediately obvious to myself. One would suspect that shifting a workforce accustomed to a standard 8 hour/5 day workweek to 12 hour/6 day workweeks (with coverage 24 hours a day) implies that there is a mountain of work to overcome due to the situation. But no, nothing tangible has changed in the departments and a large portion of the unpaid time over the normal eight hours would be spent with twiddling thumbs as work waits on the inverted schedule of the other half of the department. This detrimental change actually costs the company quite a lot of money and seems to be a knee jerk solution to a problem that doesn't exist. When objections were raised, the logical response was given on why we could not be exempt: "It wouldn't be fair."

So, what's the point? What's [Company X] up to? Like an elementary school teacher revoking recess for an entire class based on the misbehavior of a single student, are people taking punishment to influence negotiations through developed resentment? It is not as if denial of vacation one month in advance of the event actually accomplishes anything productive in this mess. Is this a message sent saying, in blurred but with obvious force, that no one else better think of trying something similar?

Man, I hate big business.