The Coming Authoritarianism.

[constant escape]

Not in any strict economic sense, if that is what it regards. Not familiar with any of the names/groups listed. Whatever insight I have is more limited to the psychological side of economics, and even then I'm sure theres room for refinement - and naturally I'm eager to extrapolate.

 

[constant escape]

I refer to neoliberalism as the phase of capitalism wherein the market becomes its own end.

edit: and by "psychological side" I mean how this impresses itself as a reality upon the neoliberal subject.

 

[constant escape]

How that phase maps onto economic policies, here or there, I couldn't tell you.

 

[linebaugh]

it's not enough to perform your job, you're now mandated to enjoy your job or face a competitive disadvantage from the work-play thought police

tho even the most hardline of neoliberals wouldn't dream of the level of social control needed to enforce such a thing

this is already a reality of sorts, no? ofc no literal thought police, but this is the slant corporate jargon has taken. Your coworkers are your family, your boss is your friend, the company advertises principles and values that purportedly align with your own - in this way enthusiasm is expected and mandated. Theres a Fisher bit on this:

In keeping with the 'being smart' ethos, the management style in Office Space is a mixture of shirtsleeves-informality and quiet authoritarianism. Judge shows this same managerialism presides in the corporate coffee chains where the office workers go to relax. Here, staff are required to decorate their uniforms with 'seven pieces of flair', (i.e. badges or other personal tokens) to express their 'individuality and creativity': a handy illustration of the way in which 'creativity' and 'self-expression' have become intrinsic to labor in Control societies; which, as Paolo Virno, Yann Moulier Boutang and others have pointed out, now makes affective, as well as productive demands, on workers.

 

[woops]

i've never got a job through an interview in my life but i've been to interviews and i definitely thought that there is a necessity and expectation that you will lie outright to get a job. you will present yourself as someone who wants to work for the company and speak a foreign language of conformity to be accepted. this may explain why i've never got the jobs

 

[constant escape]

i've never got a job through an interview in my life but i've been to interviews and i definitely thought that there is a necessity and expectation that you will lie outright to get a job. you will present yourself as someone who wants to work for the company and speak a foreign language of conformity to be accepted. this may explain why i've never got the jobs

And wouldn't you say that those who would actually enjoy it, all other things being equal, have a significant advantage here? At least, those who would be outspoken and explicit about their enjoyment.

 

[constant escape]

Just speculating on where we could be heading. Just scouting out and returning to the tribe.

 

[constant escape]

And sure there will be (edit: more) coercion involved - so part of my inquiry is whether or not one can willfully align their work with their fun, in order to prevent such a fusion being incrementally thrust upon them.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

this is already a reality of sorts, no? ofc no literal thought police, but this is the slant corporate jargon has taken. Your coworkers are your family, your boss is your friend, the company advertises principles and values that purportedly align with your own - in this way enthusiasm is expected and mandated. Theres a Fisher bit on this:

absolutely it is

I was going to go on about how what stan's describing reads like a heightened satire of what already exists, only one that doesn't realize it's a satire

enthusiasm - real or pretend - has always been an integral part of a being a company man

albeit with the general rule that the more rare/irreplaceable yr skills are the less you need to pretend to enthusiasm

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

and the "work-play" line is a similar heightening of an already existing trend

that is, the blurring and eventual demolition of the line between work and not work

i.e. you're not "working" but you're writing work emails, in an omnipresent endless work Slack chat, etc

or on an even more insidious level, the feeling that any time you're not devoting to personal branding is wasted

it's a conception of work ethic that Benjamin Franklin would have marveled at

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

the dystopic element - beyond what already exists - is in trying to force ppl to see work as the discharge of libidinal potential or whatever

like no facet of your life can be free from work, enjoyed simply of itself, everything has to be captured for the market

I'm not saying anything that isn't obvious, but it's the ethos of an economy of endless side hustles

 

[luka]

Revealed: Pret a Manger's bizarre 'emotional labour' rules for workers who are told to 'be happy', touch each other and NEVER act moody | Daily Mail Online
2 Feb 2013 — Details have emerged of a regime of 'enforced happiness' at Pret A Manger, where staff earning little more than the minimum wage are monitored to ensure they are relentlessly cheerful ...


www.theguardian.com › apr › pret-...
Pret a Manger – behind the scenes at the 'Happy Factory' | Supporting business growth | The Guardian
14 Apr 2015 — Back in 2013, Pret's CEO, Clive Schlee, made headlines when he revealed that on store visits: “The first thing I look at is whether the staff are touching each other. Are they smiling, reacting to each other, happy, engaged? I can almost predict sales on body language alone.”
Missing: rule ‎| Must include: rule



newrepublic.com › article › pret-ma...
Pret A Manger: When corporations enforce happiness | The New Republic
31 Jan 2013 — Labor of Love. The enforced happiness of Pret A Manger. John Li/Getty Images News.
Missing: rule ‎| Must include: rule

www.hrmagazine.co.uk › prets-peo...
Pret's people management secrets - HR magazine
23 Jan 2015 — As Pret a Manger expands its global reach, the focus is on building and maintaining a happy ... staff are encouraged to be natural while serving, rather than following strict customer service rules. Once a ...

 

[Leo]

weird. I'd still buy the coronation chicken sarnie if the workers were grumpy.

 

[luka]

I worked there for three weeks. Couldn't hack it. It made me go mental.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I do think that stan is correct to identify it with neoliberalism, even if he's only invoking that term in a kind of popular conception totemic sense

or more like, the product of neoliberal thought worming its way so deep into the culture that it's informed ppl's basic outlook on economic life

the core tenet of neoliberalism is the optimization of society for the operations of the free market by virtually any means

of course, it turns out that optimization is often wildly unpopular - i.e. austerity - and neoliberals have always been perfectly happy and willing to use the power of the state to enact and enforce - often violently - policies designed to further that optimization. Hayek's support of Pinochet is the most infamous example, but you could also look at famous 80s labor battles like Thatcher breaking the miners or Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers, which both involved harsh repressive measures.

however, there's obviously a certain amount of friction that comes along with violent repression

so if you can incentivize people to "voluntarily" optimize their own lives for the market out of economic necessity, indoctrination, ambition, etc, so much the better

 

[boxedjoy]

as someone who has made many great friends in jobs over the years - I would never touch a colleague and I would never appreciate being touched by one. If I were to go round touching the men I work with it would be easy to construe as sexual harassment I'm sure. You can't know what people's histories and limits are and a job serving overpriced sandwiches on minimal pay shouldn't see you open to having those boundaries violated.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

so if you can incentivize people to "voluntarily" optimize their own lives for the market out of economic necessity, indoctrination, ambition, etc, so much the better

in other words, our recent/current moment - the obsession with personal branding, life as work, "rise and grind", etc

is to large a degree a result of 35 years of unbroken Anglo-American neoliberal consensus on economic policy

both in a physical sense - the decades-long assault on the social safety net, labor movement, etc

and a mental sense - any time not spent "productively" is wasted time that you should somehow feel guilty about

which again, I think that's pretty obvious, but it's good to be able to spell that out concisely

if you're trying to explain to someone why things like social safety nets, unions, and leisure outside work are good things

 

[woops]

there's a fine line with the pret thing 'cos it's a service job. so it might be alright to ask the staff to smile and be friendly with the customers. but it could easily cross over into something sinister. in boxedjoy's sense or another. sometimes i look over the tills at mcdonald's or whatever and they have creepy notes telling the staff how to behave and to offer such and such an extra,

what i'm talking about is office jobs where there is an unspoken personality that needs to be expressed and inhabited at all times, a fakeness, smoothness or enthusiasm that i am evidently incapable of. so yes stan some people are at an advantage. padraig's stuff about capital taking over outside of work life is just fucked up. i read an article recently about dude generation perma anxiety based on being at work all the time but it was longer and more boring than this thread.

 

[woops]

and a mental sense - any time not spent "productively" is wasted time that you should somehow feel guilty about

yes, the article i read in one line

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

padraig's stuff about capital taking over outside of work life is just fucked up

what really gets me is insidious and total it is, and how rapidly it's become essentially the norm

the Weberian Protestant work ethic - Ben Franklin etc - is one thing, you're supposed to be sober, industrious, rationalize yr time etc

but you're still supposed to have an active life outside work - family, religion, etc

or in other words there's a greater value outside work - in that case God - and everything you do is in service of that greater value

whereas the always working thing is about work as an end in itself. there is no greater value. "being at work" is both the means and end.

the identification of self with company is essentially an enforced substitution of that greater value actually, now that I think about it

cf the messianic cults around CEOs, the tech cliche of "making the world a better place", etc