EFFICIENCY ENSLAVEMENT: The scientific management of labour and corporate takeover

This article was published in The Mindful Word journal of engaged living (http://www.themindfulword.org)

We know the truth. Every entry-level employee, every assembly line worker, every customer service agent. We wear the forced smile behind the corporate machine. The machine that sees stakeholder profits growing and our cubical shrinking. It is all about efficiency, be it outsourcing, technological improvements, or the simplification of jobs. Businesses are continually finding ways to make us “Human Resources” obsolete. The striving for efficiency leaves too many of us underpaid, under-appreciated or just plain unemployed. But how did we create this machine and where is it taking us?

Given the mechanical nature of business, it should not come as a surprise that a mechanical engineer named Fredrick Taylor was significantly influential in shaping the way businesses operate. Taylor introduced his theory, Scientific Management, in the late 1800s. Scientific management or “Taylorism” sets out to improve economic efficiency and especially labour productivity. One of Taylor’s most famous accomplishments was his Science of Shoveling experiment, where he found the optimal size of a shovel. This simple improvement, resulted in a three- to four-fold increase in productivity. Under Taylorism, factories became more efficient and owners delighted in the higher profits that resulted. Workers on the other hand, complained about their jobs becoming more repetitive and more controlled by management.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with improving economic efficiency as Fredrick Taylor did. The ability to produce more efficiently, means more people can receive the goods they need and for a cheaper price. However, at some point we have to step back and see who is really benefiting from all this efficiency. Seldom does it appear to be the workers.

While many of us are dissatisfied with our jobs, we know it’s much worse elsewhere. Take Foxconn, the producer of Apple, Sony and Nintendo Products. Foxconn came under harsh media scrutiny when the world was informed about the notorious suicide nets—the giant nets Foxconn put up around its factories to save suicidal workers from jumping to their deaths. Despite all the outrage, Apple still remains one of the most profitable companies in the world. The memory of reports that expose 72-hour workweeks, unpaid overtime and factories that have residencies built into them has faded under the glare of this year’s shiny new iPhones.

It’s not only labour that has seen efficiency improvements, it’s also slick marketing and advertising that has us literally trampolining over each other. But as corporate efficiency improves, so too does our awareness of its detriment, even in our zombified consumer state.

In the age of information, the luxury of claiming ignorance is disappearing. Even mainstream publications like Rolling Stone are acknowledging that Everything Is Rigged in favour of the few. With each new article published exposing corporate greed and corrupt politicians, with each new activist who takes to the streets, the truth becomes clearer: We, the people, are in the midst of corporate takeover.

And the more we buy into the corporate message, the more we give in to the takeover. The message that attaches owning products to self-worth and status. The message that convinces us to swap uncertainty and adventure for the comfort and stability of a mindless job. The message that keeps us trapped in debt for products that leave us feeling empty. By now we have started recognizing that this trade-off is not in our favour. The continual striving for efficiency is only favouring the few. We know the truth now, and it’s up to us to choose between enslavement and freedom.

Read more about Taylorism and the efficiency of the workplace in THE MINDLESS OCCUPATION: Outside of the 9 to 5, we’ve adopted another job – one that we’re neither paid for nor receive any benefit

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