curiousbrain
Well-Known Member
A bit late to the conversation; it seems like a good one, though, so I'll chime in, anyway.
In an abstract sense, it seems to me that the way people "low on the totem pole" feel is probably the end result of capitalism (public company, shareholder demands, etc) on any large corporation; there is simply no denying that when a company goes public, various managerial freedoms become subservient to profit or disappear altogether. I'm not arguing the merit one way or the other, but I would argue that this is the end result. Some people may point to various anomalies like Google, but who's to say conditions in that company have not radically changed, either? I certainly don't work there, so I couldn't say.
When middle/lower management loses the ability to make decisions that directly impact the "front line" employees (in this case, drivers), it is inevitable that this group of employees will eventually begin to regard their immediate management as useless, or less flattering terms. Also, it seems logical to me that when immediate management loses the ability to make these decisions, expectations on the employees will rise as management attempt to meet metrics associated with the operation - this, in turn, brews resentment among management.
As this goes on for awhile, eventually the culture probably just perpetuates itself, and new hires are assimilated into an environment which they might not fully understand (or care to understand), but that they perpetuate because it is all they have ever seen. The people who "just want to work hard" probably do as they are told, which is fine - except that some things they are instructed to do are in the interest of perpetuating the aforementioned culture.
Add in a company/union relationship, which throws out a whole other nest of self-interest and power brokering, and it is quite easy to see why anyone on the business end of any major public corporation feels some tinge of hopelessness. In my opinion, this is what people speak of when they talk of modern society having no "soul", and people being zombies.
On a final (and perhaps more practical) note, I think that UPS and other large, established corporations face this issue because of a lack of growth; investors love growth. If UPS was an upstart company with huge annual growth, it would be a lot easier (at least, I think it would, as I've never been a part of a corporation with huge annual growth) for freedoms to be granted to middle/lower management, which in turn would create a happier workforce. Instead, as it stands today, the way in which UPS makes profit is akin to a millstone, slowly grinding out each unit of profit; which breeds the conditions that generate the hopelessness highlighted in this thread.
In an abstract sense, it seems to me that the way people "low on the totem pole" feel is probably the end result of capitalism (public company, shareholder demands, etc) on any large corporation; there is simply no denying that when a company goes public, various managerial freedoms become subservient to profit or disappear altogether. I'm not arguing the merit one way or the other, but I would argue that this is the end result. Some people may point to various anomalies like Google, but who's to say conditions in that company have not radically changed, either? I certainly don't work there, so I couldn't say.
When middle/lower management loses the ability to make decisions that directly impact the "front line" employees (in this case, drivers), it is inevitable that this group of employees will eventually begin to regard their immediate management as useless, or less flattering terms. Also, it seems logical to me that when immediate management loses the ability to make these decisions, expectations on the employees will rise as management attempt to meet metrics associated with the operation - this, in turn, brews resentment among management.
As this goes on for awhile, eventually the culture probably just perpetuates itself, and new hires are assimilated into an environment which they might not fully understand (or care to understand), but that they perpetuate because it is all they have ever seen. The people who "just want to work hard" probably do as they are told, which is fine - except that some things they are instructed to do are in the interest of perpetuating the aforementioned culture.
Add in a company/union relationship, which throws out a whole other nest of self-interest and power brokering, and it is quite easy to see why anyone on the business end of any major public corporation feels some tinge of hopelessness. In my opinion, this is what people speak of when they talk of modern society having no "soul", and people being zombies.
On a final (and perhaps more practical) note, I think that UPS and other large, established corporations face this issue because of a lack of growth; investors love growth. If UPS was an upstart company with huge annual growth, it would be a lot easier (at least, I think it would, as I've never been a part of a corporation with huge annual growth) for freedoms to be granted to middle/lower management, which in turn would create a happier workforce. Instead, as it stands today, the way in which UPS makes profit is akin to a millstone, slowly grinding out each unit of profit; which breeds the conditions that generate the hopelessness highlighted in this thread.
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