Mastodawn

uncapybarable Mar 21

A firm in Ohio denied a woman her request to work from home during a high-risk pregnancy and, as a result, she gave birth prematurely and her baby died.

Capitalists hate work-from-home, even though study after study has shown that workers are just, if not more so, productive at home than in an office.

This is because work-from-home threatens something worth more to the capital class than productivity and even an individual firm’s profits.

Work-from-home threatens the capitalist ur-myth that economic activity *must* take place in centralized locations under the supervision and surveillance of managers, bosses, and capitalist owners.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-firm-must-pay-225-million-mom-whose-baby-died-was-denied-work-hom-rcna264321

Ohio firm must pay $22.5 million to mom whose baby died after she was denied work-from-home

An Ohio-based company that initially balked at granting a mom's request to work from home during a high-risk pregnancy has been found liable for the newborn's death and ordered on Wednesday to pay $22.5 million in damages

NBC News

HeavenlyPossum Mar 20

People who work from home report spending a non-negligible amount of time persuading their remote managers that they’re busy. This labor is entirely useless to a firm from the perspective of generating revenue, but absolutely critical to sustaining the myth that capitalists are necessary for economic activity.

If workers all knew they could generate the same amount of value and revenue from home, without an office or bosses, in decentralized cooperarion with other workers in their own homes, then what would we need capitalists for?

cybervegan Mar 20

@HeavenlyPossum I believe DG, in Bullshit Jobs, pointed out that the real point of having employees is to indicate status, and if they're nowhere to be seen, that doesn't work.

Less about making money, more about control...

@HeavenlyPossum You suggest there must be some form of coordinated plot to maintain the myth. I have a simpler explanation: The capitalists are just unwilling to let their serfs go unsupervised. A work-from-home worker might be getting distracted talking to family, or have the TV on, or just spend too long in the bathroom. That's company time, bought and paid for, and workers doing their own thing are stealing company property.

Corvid Crone Mar 20

@Qybat @HeavenlyPossum

A company with WFH pays for work, not time. A company does not own your body, even though many managers seem to believe this. They are buying the product of your labor.

If the work gets done, it doesn't matter if the worker is watching tv while they work.

Spending too long in the bathroom? 👀 Found the micromanager 👀

Paw-1|426 Mar 21

"Workers doing their own thing are stealing company property" is an extremely, chillingly accurate description of capitalists relationship with the exploited class...

@HeavenlyPossum

HeavenlyPossum Mar 21

Except that we know both that working from home is often more efficient, in terms of generating revenue, than working in an office, AND that workers are performing counterproductive labor to convince their bosses that they’re working productively.

If firms *only* cared about productivity, revenue, and profit, then they would not behave the way they do.

The Cyberwitch Mar 20

@HeavenlyPossum folks spend a non-negligible time in the office standing around desks chatting about sports and politics that was almost nil with WFH. Bosses are now asking us to move these chats to conference rooms 🤦‍♀️. Its not about productivity, its the illusion of productivity.

ArchiveScribe Mar 20

@HeavenlyPossum Profits before people. I feel awful for this woman.

Irenes (many)Mar 21

@HeavenlyPossum yeah that sounds like a plausible explanation. we've tried before to analyze why it gets such a strong, ideologically motivated reaction but we hadn't put together that capital feels threatened by it

Daniel Gibson Mar 21

@ireneista @HeavenlyPossum
I guess middle management fears it, because it might make them look useless when they're not seen herding their underlings by *their* superiors

Irenes (many)Mar 21

@Doomed_Daniel @HeavenlyPossum yeah that's true, too

Daniel Gibson Mar 21

@ireneista @HeavenlyPossum
there certainly are several factors, and many of them have to do with control, fear (kissing up and kicking down) and the nonsensical idea that *looking* busy is more important than getting things done

Irenes (many)Mar 21

@Doomed_Daniel @HeavenlyPossum yeah for sure. and maybe not every manager feels that they understand their work well enough to know whether their reports are doing anything useful, but it's easy to measure butts-in-seats

ShadSterling Mar 21

@HeavenlyPossum how is that not murder?

And if you’re going to treat homicide as “civil”, why is the financial liability so low? And why isn’t there an order that the company must not deny such requests going forward?

@HeavenlyPossum @ireneista While I totally agree that it's ridiculous to deny work from-home I think it's missing the point: If a work(place) introduces a risk for a pregnancy the pregnant person should have the obligation to stay hone at full compensation. That's at least how I knew it from Germany.

Irenes (many)Mar 21

@acid @HeavenlyPossum oh that's definitely also extremely true and how it should be, yes. that hadn't occurred to us because we've never lived somewhere it existed....

tessarakt Mar 21

@HeavenlyPossum In Germany the woman's doctor would just issue a Beschäftigungsverbot (prohibition of employment) ... That's how pro-life we are.

Paw-1|426 Mar 21

@HeavenlyPossum

Yet another reminder than capitalism isn't just about money, or else they would take every opportunity to increase productivity.

It's about control and power.

@HeavenlyPossum This is why I instantly turn down any offers that aren't 100% remote, and explicitly say why I'm not interested.