Under a watchful eye

It’s the background noise,
The pressure bearing down,
The bills, the watching,
That mean you have no choice,
The grind that steals your voice.

It’s take and take and take,
Slowly and imperceptibly,
Subsuming you,
From the moment that you wake,
To the sleep that’s no escape.

It always wants more,
Just another five minutes,
Maybe an hour,
Always keeping score,
On when you walk out the door.

Your service isn’t expected they say,
But watch them note,
Because, below the surface,
They think whatever they pay,
Delivers a right to your whole day.

So you’re held by it, robbed by it
Shackled, surveilled,
Bound.
It’s a fantasy to quit,
When the paymaster, politely, asks “submit”.

Another musing as part of this month’s ALE topic of Capitalism. A slightly different angle on the same “locked in” feeling I covered last time. I often think about the way work is so easily extended into our lives particularly in the internet era. The office email on your phone being a prime example… but I also think about the ways we’re routinely pressured into working beyond what we’re paid for in a multitude of ways. Where I used to work it typically came in two forms:

“If a customer calls just as you’re leaving do you spare the time and take that call?”
and
“Why don’t we socialise more after work?”

The former is obvious extraction right? A company that gives that much of a toss about customers would have cover beyond your hours rather than ask you to undertake unpaid work. And yet, it’s your problem to solve for no remuneration? The trouble is you know scores are kept in the background and you’ve likely obligations of your own to meet so you can live. To say no, is to place your head on the chopping block or risk advancement at the very least.

The latter is less obvious, but a great double whammy. Not only does the company get to keep you on site longer and extract that labour (after work stuff keeps staff later even if you go off to a pub). It also serves to divert you from salary demands. I mean, the company gave you a cookie, “it cares”, “you’re not doing it just for money are you?” Lots of us do work because we care about the things we do professionally so it’s an easy appeal to sneak under the radar to our better natures and self-regard. Even when you have a terrible job that you hate, this can be effective. But here’s the rub, while you may have a sense of personal responsibility the organisation you work for has *no* equivalent. It literally is for the money, one way or another whether it’s profit or stretching budgets further; people don’t factor in, only their value and how more can be extracted.