Bosses intensify their spying on workers

Some people have no principles

The bosses are increasing their surveillance of workers who take sick days “when they may not, in fact, be sick” Business Week informs us.* For years we had a struggle over this at work, the Union and our bosses. There was a place on the form where we had to say what ailed us. “Sick of work” wasn’t acceptable so we usually had stomach-aches or food poisoning, backache whatever. We eventually got that part on the form eliminated as we weren’t doctors and therefore not qualified to diagnose our condition, only the symptoms.

This is not to say we aren't "genuinely" physically sick when we take off, but being sick of work is legitimate and anyway, many of our ailments are work related. Workers here in the US have terrible benefits compared to those in other industrialized countries and spend more time at work, approximately two months a year, so we get our own back any way we can.

According to BW, corporations are increasingly hiring detectives to spy on workers, boosted by a landmark court decision that found that an employer that fired a woman after they hired an off duty cop to spy on her was within their rights as she was “exploiting her benefits” by “abusing her paid medical leave”. All the boss needs is “reasonable suspicion.” to begin surveillance.

But given the long hours, drudgery and alienation of the workplace and the dismal vacation benefits workers get, more and more are using sick leave because they’re sick of work, 57% of them according to one workplace productivity company. I used to remember the feeling that came over me after the sick call, especially when it was a message and you didn’t have to talk to them personally.

“Hey Bill, (cough, cough) I am feeling real bad this morning, (sniffle) I won’t be in today, hope to be back on the job tomorrow.”

As soon as I put that phone down I felt like anew man.  We all feel this way which confirms our self-diagnosis that we are indeed, sick of work. The trouble with people that never used their sick leave is the same as those who work faster, the boss uses that as the benchmark for everyone. And despite the stress of having the reserve army of the unemployed waiting for a job opening, 57% is a 20% climb from just two years ago. It shows a “general lack of enthusiasm for work” says one expert. It’s the lack of enthusiasm for work under capitalism, that’s for sure. The term "wage slavery" is a good one.

So slimebags are getting $75 an hour to spy on working people desperate to get back some of the time the employer's steal off us. Business Week gives one example of a three-time teacher of the year who was "arrested and charged with lying to colleagues about having an inoperable brain tumor so she could take extended sick leave”. Anyone that’s worked in a classroom knows the pressure and stress that that entails. Teachers have one of the most stressful of jobs.

They have even developed technology like “LiarCard " which "uses voice analysis to determine if a caller is being dishonest” says BW . Many employees are “interested in new and creative ways to get out of work” says one “equal opportunity privacy consultant”.

Human beings need to be productive, that’s what life is about. The bosses, who don’t like productive Labor themselves, who don’t like work,think we’re all like them which is why they spy on us. It is obvious that when productive life is based on exploitation, on the purchase of a human being’s Labor power for the use by and under the direction of another, and when the product of that activity is not ours; then work is oppressive and alienating.

Business Week does give us one little piece of interesting information though. Apparently, during his two terms in office, former President Bush spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 at his ranch in Texas which means that one third of his Presidency was spent, “working from home”.

Talk about creative ways to get out of work.  He wasn't a complete idiot then.

* The Sick-Day Bounty Hunters: BW  Dec 6-12 2010