Co-opting the workforce

In this time of credit crunch economics employers seem to need all the help they can get and they’re looking to their workforce to provide them with ideas for making profits as well as cooperating in making cutbacks.

Channel 4’s ‘I’m Running Sainsbury’s’ shows the bosses at head office looking to the shelf-stackers and till operators, the lowly shop floor staff to come up with new ideas on saving money for shoppers who are looking for value for money deals, offers and promotions that are also profitable for the stores.

Becky Craze, a young shelf-stacker cum till-operator had a great idea for enhancing the existing ‘feed your family for under a fiver’ deal suggesting they put all the items for the meal in one place so it could be easily picked up. One of 16 employees selected to present their ideas to head-office; she won over the top table with her simple idea and youthful enthusiasm.

Chuffed with her new ‘Project Manager’ badge, she liaised with the kitchen and food testing departments to design her own menus and waited nervously for the verdict. The experience seemed to transform her from a mundane shop floor worker to a budding executive, chatting away on her mobile to senior personnel about the possibilities of rolling her idea out nationwide. Although she had been happy at the Watford store where she had worked for 6 years and felt at home with the other staff this new project revealed a potential that had been suppressed by the routine tasks she normally performed.

Many of us feel similarly restricted and limited by the work we do and often look to activities outside of work to stimulate our creativity and interest. But should we expect our employers to make our work interesting and constantly provide stimulus? Their priority is making a profit not making our lives enjoyable. Can these conflicting interests be reconciled? Mundane jobs need to be done. Someone needs to do it.

The project failed to make a profit so Becky was sent back to the shop floor with a dismissive ‘I’ll be in touch, as they say’ from a real high-flyer; somewhat deflated albeit with raised aspirations.

The downside to this ‘we’re all in it together’ plea is that workers are co-opted into volunteering suggestions for cutbacks that affect their conditions and earnings. At our last team meeting we were asked to consider where the £2million savings for this year should come from as a planned restructuring consultation is about to take place. Other companies are suggesting getting rid of pension contributions, accepting fixed hours without reducing productivity and in some cases taking pay cuts – all as alternatives to redundancies and in the name of efficiency savings. Are we all in it together? What’s the alternative?

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