I'm convinced that the cause of this is social media. Thirty years ago, companies had no claim over your personal life, aside from a few outlier mega-corporations which made you sign NDAs and No Compete clauses. When you clocked out, you were on your own time, which your company had no say over; nor did they really care, because unless you ran around shouting about how you were an employee of Acme Corp., there wasn't anyway for someone to know that.
Flash forward to today. It is likely that the company you work for has a social media presence. And if your personal social media presence can in any way be linked to your employer's, you're screwed. Everyone is increasingly connected, to the point that our personal and public lives have essentially overlapped, like a Venn diagram.
As for money and the corporate ladder, that's all an inevitable part of capitalism. American capitalism involves celebrating success, which means obscenely wealthy people have no incentive to give back or treat their employees with respect.
I remember it but it was clear to me as soon as I was old enough to understand what it was that it wouldn't exist for me once I became an adult. The switch from pensions to 401k was an earlier indicator in the changing relationship between Business and employee. Investment banking and Private Equity were manipulating labor for profit with no responsibility or consequences too. Silicon Valley has accelerated this exponentially. The switch of the worker being rewarded and appreciated to the worker's every data point packaged and sold with little right to refusal and no compensation.
Technologies gave employers the upper hand. Employees, desperate for advancement (i.e. status and income) began to understand that "showing up" outside established office hours was going to work in their favour. It went from a few "keeners" back in the early 2000's to an expectation of everyone as of today. It went from being the exception to being the standard. And, of course, with no extra compensation or acknowledgement.
Then, as you aptly point out, your private life managed to become something for them to scrutinize. Why? Because not one government official thought it was inappropriate, thus no legislation. Why? Because government(s) are now just a subsiduary of global corporate control machinery. Their job is no longer to protect the people. It's to protect trans-national business interests, and come up with delicious four-word punch lines and slogans that sell a completely different storyline to the uninformed.
Neoliberalism is the root cause of this, dating back to the early 1900's but it didn't start taking a grip until after WWII. Reagan and Thatcher catapulted it into the stratosphere.
Until governments willingly de-couples from corporate appropriation, nothing will change. It will only get worse.
Yeayyyyyy! Another great one Fae, if not a bit brutally truthful in your exposé:)
I personally think that the ratwheel called money captures us right out of school and makes it even seem fun until it isn't, and we spend our best years there trying to find a substitute for it!!
I'm convinced that the cause of this is social media. Thirty years ago, companies had no claim over your personal life, aside from a few outlier mega-corporations which made you sign NDAs and No Compete clauses. When you clocked out, you were on your own time, which your company had no say over; nor did they really care, because unless you ran around shouting about how you were an employee of Acme Corp., there wasn't anyway for someone to know that.
Flash forward to today. It is likely that the company you work for has a social media presence. And if your personal social media presence can in any way be linked to your employer's, you're screwed. Everyone is increasingly connected, to the point that our personal and public lives have essentially overlapped, like a Venn diagram.
As for money and the corporate ladder, that's all an inevitable part of capitalism. American capitalism involves celebrating success, which means obscenely wealthy people have no incentive to give back or treat their employees with respect.
I feel you, Fae, and I am also old enough to remember life before the oligarchs.
Same here Haggis. I’m glad some of us can still remember it or no one would believe it was anything but an urban legend.
Me too-seems like a dream now!!
I remember it but it was clear to me as soon as I was old enough to understand what it was that it wouldn't exist for me once I became an adult. The switch from pensions to 401k was an earlier indicator in the changing relationship between Business and employee. Investment banking and Private Equity were manipulating labor for profit with no responsibility or consequences too. Silicon Valley has accelerated this exponentially. The switch of the worker being rewarded and appreciated to the worker's every data point packaged and sold with little right to refusal and no compensation.
First, glad to see a post from you.
Technologies gave employers the upper hand. Employees, desperate for advancement (i.e. status and income) began to understand that "showing up" outside established office hours was going to work in their favour. It went from a few "keeners" back in the early 2000's to an expectation of everyone as of today. It went from being the exception to being the standard. And, of course, with no extra compensation or acknowledgement.
Then, as you aptly point out, your private life managed to become something for them to scrutinize. Why? Because not one government official thought it was inappropriate, thus no legislation. Why? Because government(s) are now just a subsiduary of global corporate control machinery. Their job is no longer to protect the people. It's to protect trans-national business interests, and come up with delicious four-word punch lines and slogans that sell a completely different storyline to the uninformed.
Neoliberalism is the root cause of this, dating back to the early 1900's but it didn't start taking a grip until after WWII. Reagan and Thatcher catapulted it into the stratosphere.
Until governments willingly de-couples from corporate appropriation, nothing will change. It will only get worse.
Yup!!
Yeayyyyyy! Another great one Fae, if not a bit brutally truthful in your exposé:)
I personally think that the ratwheel called money captures us right out of school and makes it even seem fun until it isn't, and we spend our best years there trying to find a substitute for it!!