This is not “oh my gosh, how do our bosses not understand that the culture before was modeled after being in prison, and that it stifled innovation?”

They knew that. That was the entire point. The workplace culture was like that on purpose, and absolutely intended to keep us busy and miserable, because there are more of us than there are of them, and the last time the working population was aware of that, bosses were forced to make major concessions.

Our previous workplace culture made no fucking sense to continue for as long as it did. We’ve known for decades that the 8-hr workday is not effective, that cubicles destroy morale, and that “lean staffing” is bullshit designed to keep the bosses rich while causing massive burnout to everyone else. More recent is the knowledge that they could afford to double their workforce AND sharply increase everyone’s salary and benefits and still make astronomical profit, but that they won’t, solely out of greed.

But our bosses always said, “well okay, maybe that One Study said this was bad… but there’s Just No Other Way, and even if there was, we can’t implement it! Oh no, things just have to stay the same!”

….until the pandemic forced a change.

Rather than completely grind to a halt and make $0, bosses implemented radical, sweeping changes, and they did it FAST.

And their lies have fucking fallen apart.

We can work from home, and we’re just as efficient- if not more so.

Wearing jeans, t-shirts, and even pajamas or no pants at all does not affect the quality of our work.

Since plenty of us are at home, and “stepping away from the desk” more often than managers would typically allow, we now know that actually, yeah- we can get all of our tasks done in 4-5 hours instead of 8.

Not every meeting needs to be in person. Not every meeting even needs to be a meeting- a lot of them can be emails.

…all those lies our bosses told us have been revealed to be ash, falsehoods to preserve the status quo. Their system of power that was broken beyond repair has been un-glamoured. We see it for what it really is.

…which is why our bosses want us to return to it ASAP.

Because we’re aware now that it’s broken, but we haven’t truly started to fight back yet.

We can see that the structure is essentially held together with sticks and spit, but no one’s given it a good kick yet.

They want us back under their thumb before we get a chance to remember what our greatest weapon is and use it against them.

Hint: it’s unions. It’s organization. It’s dignity, and knowing that we deserve it, and collectively deciding that we’re not going to put up with less. Unions, and collective bargaining, and strikes, have the power to completely dismantle the system, and they know it…

They want to returns us to the system that burns us out, because for the first time in decades, we’re not just smoldering coals anymore- we have a spark. And motivation to fan it into flames.

Nurture that spark, y’all. Unionize.