isaacsapphire | (no subject)

"... creating a group norm that working for unethical businesses is a shitty low-status thing to do would be a net positive for the world." Argumate. https://morlock-holmes.tumblr.com/post/181455022670/argumate-as-napoleonchingon-said-creating-the

This was within the context of a discussion on if being an investment banker who is earning-to-give is a net positive, but of course Argumate can't keep it to "high paying jobs taken by people who could definitely get other jobs" no, we gotta make sure we shit on the cashiers along with the CEOs, where would be the fun in it if we can't find people making subsistence wages and can't get other jobs and shit on them for working for a low status company?

Seriously, I did my time at Walmart as a floor associate, cashier, and overnight remod, and before the company went to hell, the worst part of working at Walmart wasn't anything that happened on the job, it was the looks and lectures I would get at parties by people who knew fuck all about the company, just that it was low-status to work for it, and they'd lecture me about the various crimes of Walmart which were always 1. Based on outdated half-truths or completely untrue 2. When true, all comparable companies did the same thing or worse, but it's fine when Target or Home Depot does it, because it's not Eeeevil Walmart.

Fuck this classist hipster bullshit.

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I'm hoping that they just didn't think of that case, but the ramifications and results are pretty sobering. Not just in that the lower-class frontline workers would be the overwhelming majority of people affected by count, but that they're much more exposed to the public and effects of social stigma.

Hell, in many cases "and then customers treat them in shitty low-status ways" is one of the big unethical business practices.

In context, I interpreted the comment as meaning that you were making enough to be considered a beneficiary of, rather than victim of, the company's practices, but that is admittedly a) kinda fuzzy and b) not explicitly stated.

Yeah, it's very reasonable and potentially helpful to criticize the decision-makers of a company that engages in various unsavory or antisocial practices, but I've been chewed out for Walmart's buying practices when I was the person who put the shit on the shelf, not a buyer.

Heck, the main Walmart I worked at was The big local employer of 1. People who didn't have a good grasp of English yet (they started as unloaders in the back and moved into customer facing positions when their English improved) and immigrants in general, in a generally very WASP-y White area (I remember the German lady who was my department manager for a while very fondly, and there were a Lot of Black people and other non-white folks working there considering how White the area was) 2. Somewhat disabled people who weren't stuck at the local what I'm pretty sure was a sheltered workshop where they were paid under minimum wage. The cart pushers were all somewhat mentally disabled, there was a lady in a wheelchair in softlines (didn't require being able to reach very high, plus the bathrooms actually had an ADA compliant stall), and so on. Oh, and 3. They'd hire felons, for overnight stocking, and there weren't a lot of jobs in the area that would. I think I've mentioned a Black man who was a felon due to failing to pay child support for a kid who turned out to not be his kid after all; he worked as an overnight stocker.

Like, none of those folks really had many other options, at least not comparable options, and they definitely didn't have any ability to change how the international company with a bottom line bigger than a lot of countries ran itself.

That said, fuck the people at the top so hard.

Edited 2019-01-01 12:46 (UTC)