Two things that enrage me generally and in my workplace is the "team concept" and the way that the bosses talk about “change.”
In the business section of my morning paper there were 2 articles designed to assist managers to motivate workers to be on side with the goals and objective of the company.
The columnists clearly were encouraging the managers and bosses to use“motivational"techniques to bring workers on side with the goals of the company or corporation. There is nothing new about this it is just more blatant and pervasive right now.
It made me reflect though on how often and in so many subtle ways workers are manipulated and frightened.
I work in a hospital, which like all aspects of health care in Canada, has adopted a corporate , business model of operating.
This means nothing more than the gradual incursion of privatization and adoption of business practices at all levels into the public health care sector in Canada. I could give hundreds of examples of how in both blatant and subtle ways this has been happening over the last decade and a half.
I could devote an entire blog item to just one small practice imposed upon nurses and the implications it has for the undermining of public health care. I have for the same decade and a half been talking to workers about this. Most understand but in the absence of a real opposition from the leadership of our respective public sector union leaderships, almost all feel unable to do anything except accept the changes that are happening.
It is harder for front line health care providers like nurses and social workers to fight the team concept.This is because the bosses take the advantage of blurring the lines between the “team” that is nurses, doctors, social workers etc, who assess and provide health care to clients and patients, a practice that is designed to give holistic and comprehensive care and address all the patients needs, and the team in the corporate sense similar to the team concept in an auto factory. Of note of course is that the fact that support staff are never included as part of the "team" despite the fact that the work they do is vital to the health and well being of patients. (For instance the escalation of hospital acquired infections and the laying off of support staff over the years – a direct relation.)
I have always been very open talking to my co-workers about this, pointing out the economic and political trends as well as the ideological assaults that try to justify privatization-the brain washing at work and in the media, the deliberate underfunding of health care, designed to make a mess that they will try to convince us can only be fixed by the private sector -of trends and how they adversely affect our patients and ourselves as workers.) I have always exploited their intuitive knowledge that they are getting screwed and tried to articulate in a manner that makes sense to them.
On the topic of change. This is where the bosses really try to put one over on us.
We all know that change happens from the top down. We are not consulted of course. Though sometimes there is a sham exercise of consultation with front line workers after the fact and we all know it is a sham and that the decision have been made.
So let me take 2 examples. We all know that frontline nurses are being laid off in the new round of public sector cuts. Already the union leadership has implemented 10 layoffs of frontline nurses.
We know that in 2010 there will be more layoffs at the bedside level and we know that this will adversely affect patient care. We also know that the union leadership will do the bosses job for them and implement the cuts “according to seniority,” they will offer no alternatives or fight back.
In the meantime they have hired in my division alone 8 what are called “advanced practice clinicians,” nurses and social workers, non union and simply an arm of management. They have blurred the line between labour and management and left it up to stewards like me to point this out and the dangers involved.
They have also hired a new CEO with a “friendly face.” She has a blog called, “ Call me Catherine.” where she invites workers to freely write to her on the blog and express themselves. At the same time that she announced her blog on the internal e-mail, there was a proud announcement to all staff that the second round of private investment – (P3) had been approved and the next round of building was to begin for the new site. The private company is a well known health care privateer and some of their disasters have been well documented by a health care coalition in Canada. So we are all supposed to cheer and be happy, after all our public health care system has been subjected to one more blow of the privatization axe, and to top it off we have a “friendly new “ CEO who wants us to chat with her on a blog with our concerns as front line staff!
My co-workers had to practically pull me off the computer when I read this reminding me that I needed my job for a few more years. This was expected news but the celebratory tone of the announcement really infuriated me.
Shortly after this we were told that the new friendly CEO was visiting each unit and that she would appear on my unit that evening. I prepared my co-workers for some of the questions I was going to ask her about all the new and wonderful “changes” that were about to happen under her leadership.
I told them I was not afraid to ask them and I was not stupid and most would expect it from me. I told them that I would be friendly and would after all just be following up on her friendly invitation to open up to her and feel comfortable to address her. I told them that I was going to ask her 3 main questions re privatization, the implications for our and future patients, layoffs and if she was prepared to take a pay cut in light of the new budget cuts and freeze on spending and hiring. This was not pure bravado on my part and I have done similar things in the past and I told them I would be skillfull and would exploit her own language in a way that she would be hard pressed to challenge.She never showed up.!
Now why would I do that? I calculated the risks, - next to none – and if i accomplished anything at all, it would be very small and would amount merely to giving voice to all our worries and concerns. After all my union leadership will not do this and I am privileged to be their steward on my unit and it was necessary for someone to let them know that we are not stupid. Plain and simple. No big victories expected.
Back to the issue of “change” and how the bosses spend millions of dollars in resources to try to get us to “buy in,” millions of dollars province wide that could be spent on health care.
Any worker who dares ask a qualitative question re proposed change, who attempts to put it into a context, and draw out the implications, in this case for workers jobs and workplace conditions as well as patient care is viewed a “ resistive to change,” “thinking inside the box” ( the irony here is no one ever mentions which box and that in fact workers who question are in fact thinking outside the box-using their sickening psycho babble.)
So to quote the columnist today “management must deliver a balanced message that addresses both the consequences of failing to change and the benefits of adopting a new approach.” Ouch there goes the critical worker/thinker. After the buy-in (manipulation of workers fear) they must then rely on "change leaders, ”of course from among our peers. Often they call them “champions of change.” On and on it goes. This sophisticated manipulation if workers and their fears has been going on for decades .
Oh how I wish I could have a blog at work – The title could be “Call me Wendy”
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