Globex Corporation Newsletter

I remember when it used to be called Personnel. You know, that group of people in an organization who made sure the employees got paid, insurance information was up to date, helped manage retirement accounts and the like. In truth, I've had very little contact with the personnel folks at any job I've had. I've always been something of a low maintenance employee. Sure, I complain about stuff, but as long as any company I work for pays me as promised, I have very little need to talk to personnel folks.

Somewhere along the line, it turned into Human Resources. I don't know when it happened, I don't know why it happened, all I know is that if I'm working for a company, I find the idea of being treated like a resource to be somewhat troubling. Resources are the computers and printer paper, the purchased items, property of a company that allows said company to do whatever business it is that they do. And that's the problem, I have never allowed any company I've worked for to treat me like a piece of property.

An employee is vastly different than a resource. That computer that allows a company to bill clients won't just up and walk out the door if you mistreat it. In a better economic environment than we enjoy in our country today, an employee just might do that. Hell, some still will, and good for them. Those are the employees who don't allow themselves to be treated as a resource.

But the problem is that we don't enjoy a great economic environment right now. Employees are trapped, sometimes due to their own bad choices, sometimes due to the shity economy, but they need that steady paycheck and will put up with anything to keep it coming in. Company Personnel have turned into Human Resources, completly at the mercy of their employers. And don't think for a second that companies don't take advantage of this.

Now if the workers controlled the means of production....... Sorry, I thought I was Karl Marx for a second....

I'm currently having problems with the HR department of a company that I don't even work for. They'd like me to work for them, but they're treating me like a mere resource. When a company wants to acquire a new computer because the old one crapped out from mistreatment, they just go out and buy a new one, I suppose they have to be somewhat civil with the person they're actually making that computer purchase from, but the treatment of the computer itself is the bare minimum of care required for the computer to arrive at it's new destination in working order.

That's what this company is doing to me, treating me with a bare minimum of care. They've screwed up in some way in contacting every one of my references. They've lost paperwork that I filled out at their facility. They've disregarded phone messages. They failed to acknowledge receipt of my expenses and thought it unimportant that I know when my reimbursement will occur. Plus, they're a national company making lots of money. They don't repay expenses for a minimum of 3 weeks. Now they set me up in a hotel, the likes of which I never would have stayed in had I been choosing myself, had I known they wouldn't be paying me back for a minimum of 3 weeks. I'm just a resource to them, like that computer that they're in the process of purchasing requiring a bare minimum of care to arrive at it's new destination in working order.

I found a lot of interesting information in the movie Schindler's List. One of the most interesting was that Jewish labor in the German Reich was allocated through a Ministry of Natural Resources. Jewish labor was simply a resource to be used by German corporations in conducting their business. Yes, the very idea offends me to this day, but the arrogance of those in power in Germany at that time, that they referred to living human beings as a resource to be used in business was really telling to me.

Are American corporations fascist regimes set up to exploit the labor force? No, I don't believe that. When companies start referring to their employees as a human resource though, I think it gives a little insight into how corporations view the labor that allows them to conduct business.

BOJ