Power In Business (Part 2): Employees

It is of course true that employers can have quite a bit of power over their employees, and that power is not always channeled or approached in rational, just, or even pragmatically productive ways.  That employees have power of their own does not mean that they can never be exploited by their managers or employers or that the power of an individual worker is enough to deter any wrongdoing within a company.  As I mentioned in part one, there are four different groups that all people involved in business in some way are a part of, with all but one being necessities for there to be such a thing as business in the first place.  Those groups are employers, employees, unions, and consumers.  Each of these groups has a power that is not identical in its ramifications to the other forms of power in business, but each could make things very difficult, rightly or wrongly, for the others.  Employees do indeed have genuine power in the workplace.

Without workers, any business that is not a sole proprietorship in the strictest sense will collapse (a business with a single member just has a dual employer-employee role, so there is no such thing as a functioning business without at least one worker), and rather quickly at that.  If workers were to universally quit their jobs or even just complete too few tasks to make up for the resources invested in making or selling something, the entire business world would come to a halt.  There is more power in the position of an employee than some realize.  Not even a megacorporation could continue if there is no one willing or able to do the work necessary to keep the company alive, the same being true of small businesses and companies of any size between them.  This power, like that of employers, can be used for rational, just, and constructive ends, or selfish, haphazard, idiotic ends.

Employees are still morally free to do anything in their best interests that does not violate any moral obligation or involve irrationality, though, no matter how aggressive or selfish it will be misperceived by fools to be.  There are those, typically conservatives, who think that even an employee who has only refused to be subjected to exploitation their circumstances could let them avoid has done some egregious wrong to business owners and employers, just as they might think that it is evil for employees to switch jobs as is best for their finances or personalities.  Then there are those, typically liberals, who think that even employees who hate their employers on the basis of assumptions and feelings are morally free to express that hatred however they wish, taking every small and more blatant opportunity to exercise power that they can no matter how that opportunity is handled.

If theft or deception or selfishness is wrong, then an employee who intentionally steals from, lies to, slanders, or otherwise mistreats their employer is no less guilty of those things than an employer who steals from his or her workers (by not paying them adequately or by other means), lies to them, or slanders their employees through stereotypes or because of personal vendettas.  If something is wrong and a person is empowered by participating in it, then that person cannot deserve to be empowered, so it does not matter how exciting or helpful such things would be if practiced by an employee.  However, even abruptly leaving a job right after being hired or other such actions is not automatically cruel or selfish on an employee's part, no matter if someone people assume it must be.  Even doing this could still hinder or set back a business, exemplifying one way workers do have power although in some circumstances it might sometimes seem faint or illusory.

There is also the possibility that workers can come together to form and support unions, which will be the subject of part three in this series--not all workers are part of unions and businesses can be created and conducted with or without unions, so they are not one of the three categories logically necessary for there to be a business--at least one employer, employee, and consumer.  Unions, yet another way employees can gain or express power, are a way for workers who specifically band together to guarantee as best as they can that they will have non-predatory compensation and working conditions.  Employees do indeed have some degree of power by default and there are others that they can choose to develop as a group rather than on an individual level.  Both workers and their employers have power in a business context, and both would also have the same moral obligations.  Neither employers nor employees are powerless or incapable of being mistreated by the other party, though there are many irrationalists who will pretend otherwise.