Should Not the Radical Left Take into Account the Attitude of Workers Towards Their Own Jobs? Part Ten, The Case of Bank of Montreal Workers

Series: Worker Attitudes Toward Their Own Jobs
Case: Bank of Montreal Workers
Part Ten

Introduction

One of the few things that I agree with the academic leftist Jeff Noonan, professor of philosophy at the University of Windsor, Ontario, is that leftists must start where workers are at:

Political engagement begins from trying to understand where people are coming from.

But where people are coming from can be interpreted in at least two ways: objectively–what their real situaiton is, and subjectively, what their attitudes towards their interpreted situations are. In relation to workers, there is their objective situation of being treated as means towards ends defined by employers (see The Money Circuit of Capital).

Subjectively, though, there are undoubtedly a variety of attitudes and interpretations of their own work and life situations.

Some among the radical left do not even address the issue of what workers think of their own jobs. It is hardly idealist to inquire into such attitudes.

I have started to gather evidence about the attitudes of some workers in unionized (and non-unionized) settings where I have calculated the rate of exploitation of those workers. I have also started a similar inquiry process for unionized public-sector workers with the largest employers in Canada and in various Canadian cities.

Objective Exploitation and Oppression of Bank of Montreal Workers

In a previous post, I calculated the rate of exploitation of Bank of Montreal workers for 2019 (see The Rate of Exploitation of the Workers of the Bank of Montreal (BMO), One of the Largest Private Employers in Canada). I will copy part of the conclusion from that post (and add a clarification at the beginning):

The rate of exploitation measures the extent to which workers work for free, producing or transfering all the surplus value and hence all the profit for employers. However, even during the time when they work to produce their own wage, they are hardly free. They are subject to the power and dictates of their employer during that time as well.

The rate of exploitation or the rate of surplus value of Bank of Montreal workers is s/v; therefore, s/v is 7,533/8,162=92 percent.

This means that, in terms of money, $1 of wage or salary of a regular bank worker results in $0.92 cn surplus value or profit for free (calculated on the basis of the procedure outlined in the post on the rate of exploitation of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce bank workers). Alternatively, for every hour worked, a Bank of Montreal worker works 55 minutes for free for the Bank of Montreal.

It also means the following:

For a 6.8-hour working day (410 minutes), BMO workers spend 214 minutes (3 hours 34 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 196 minutes (3 hours 16 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For a 7.5-hour working day (450 minutes), BMO workers spend 234 minutes (3 hours 54 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 216 minutes (3 hours 36 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For an 8-hour working day (480 minutes), BMO workers spend 250 minutes (4 hours 10 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 230 minutes (3 hours 50 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For an 8.5- hour working day (510 minutes), BMO workers spend 266 minutes (4 hours 26 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 244 minutes (4 hours 4 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For a 9-hour working day (540 minutes), BMO workers spend 281 minutes (4 hours 41 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 259 minutes (4 hours 19 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For a 9.5-hour working day (570 minutes), BMO workers spend 297 minutes (4 hours 57 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 273 minutes (4 hours 33 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO.

For a 12-hour working day (720 minutes), BMO workers spend 375 minutes (6 hours 15 minutes) to obtain their wage for the day, and they spend 345 minutes (5 hours 45 minutes) in obtaining a surplus value or profit for BMO

In practice, Bank of Montreal workers work for more than necessary to obtain the equivalent value of their wages and benefits, and their surplus labour transfers to Bank of Montrea all of its profits (surplus of value).

You would think that, given these circumstances, Bank of Montreal workers would find their work situation mainly negative. Indeed, there are leftists who have argued that workers explicitly experience alienation from their work. David Graeber (2018), in Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, states (page 19):

The result was to reveal that men are far more likely to feel that their jobs are pointless (42 percent) than women do (32 percent).

Drawing upon data provided from another survey, he states:

… the survey makes abundantly clear that ( 1) more than half of working hours in American offices are spent on bullshit, and (2) the problem is getting worse.

In another survey, we read the following (Peter Fleming (2015), The Mythology of Work: How Capitalism Persists Despite Itself, page 3):

A recent survey … reveals that only about 13 per cent of the global workforce considered themselves ‘engaged’ by their jobs. The remaining 87 per cent feel deeply alienated.

Subjective Attitudes of Bank of Montreal Workers Towards the Bank of Montreal and Their Working Situation

The data provided below, however, does not substantiate such views.

To obtain such data, I provided a review of my last employer–Lakeshore School Division–for the website Indeed in order to gain access to company reviews.

On the Indeed website, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) Financial Group has 2,848 reviews.

Of course, the numbers above will have changed in a relatively short period of time.

Bank of Montreal Workers’ Attitudes Towards the Bank of Montreal and Their Working Conditions

In similar posts, I provided a more detailed quantitative breakdown of the reviews (see for example Should Not the Radical Left Take into Account the Attitude of Workers Towards Their Own Jobs? Part One, The Case of Magna International Workers), but such detail requires much more time. Unless there is a political reason for engaging in such detailed work, I will only provide the total quantitative data.

The ratings are from 5 to 1, with 5 being the most positive evaluation and 1 the worst.

Distribution of the Evaluations to the Various Ratings: Quantitative Data

908

938

590

189

223

I will consider #5 and #4 ratings to be positive evaluations of their work experiences with the Bank of Montreal. I split the #3 into two since some ratings with a #3 rating are positive evaluations while others are negative. I will consider #2 and #1 ratings to be negative evaluations.

I justify the categorisation of #5 and #4 as positive because, in addition to being quantitatively higher than #3–a nominal middle evaluation–comments made by some workers that correspond to the quantitative evaluation seem to indicate a positive evaluation. Further on, I give a couple of arbitrary examples drawn from each numbered evaluation.

Positive attitude towards working for the Bank of Montreal
908+938+295=2,141
2,141/2,848×100=75%

Negative attitude towards working for the Bank of Montreal
295+189+223=707
707/2,848×100=25%

To get a flavour for the ratings, I include immediately below a couple of comments from each rating. They are not meant to be representative since I chose them to reflect the above characterizations of the evaluations.

A Few Comments from Each Evaluative Category: Qualitative Data

Fun workplace
Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – Calgary – 20 September 2024
Great place to work, supportive managers with an opportunity to grow with the organization. The systems are a bit out dated but it’s learning and getting used to them that helps
Best place to work at. Best manager ever
Customer Service Representative (Current Employee) – British Columbia – 4 September 2024
What is the best part of working at the company?
Positive work environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Maintaing 100% accuracy

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Best place to work. Collaborative team.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Productive and Growth

Working for BMO
CSR – Customer Service Representative (Current Employee) – Alberta – 10 October 2024
Working with BMO will depend on your colleague and your manager, I’ve had a manager from my previous branch that is super supportive and is willing to help you grow in the company, while on my other branch just don’t care and does not encourage you. But overall, a good place to work with.
Lots to learn but great people
Sales Associate (Former Employee) – Mississauga, ON – 24 September 2024
Lots of opportunities inside the organization.
Wish I took moving up more seriously when I was younger. Now feel too settled in life for big advances.

Bad management
Analyste financier (Former Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 18 September 2024
Dont work there. You need balance in your life.not everyhting is work in life.love yourself much and go have some fun with friends cause monry is not everything
Collaborative Environment
Personal Banking Associate (Former Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 13 August 2024
Working at BMO has been an enriching experience. Each day is filled with opportunities to collaborate with knowledgeable colleagues on diverse projects, which has allowed me to expand my skills in financial analysis and customer service.

worst place to work at as the management is really bad.
Resolution Officer (Current Employee) – Mississauga, ON – 31 July 2024
stressful work environment without proper training. low wages however a lot to learn. management is worst throughout the bank especially senior management. work place culture is competitive. The hardest part of the job is dealing with irate customers as everybody things banks are ripping people. Enjoyable part is working remotely to save some travel expenses.
Pros
benefits
Cons
work is stressful without proper training
Was not a good expierence and not a right fit for me.
QA Analyst (Former Employee) – Toronto, ON – 26 July 2024
What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay was good and there was no probation period. Six weeks vacation right off the bat.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
My entire team was in India….working India hours. So I was working with no team all day. When I did have calls with them they didn’t come in clear.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I was talked down to alot and made to feel incapable. I did not feel like a valued member of the team.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working alone because my entire team was in India. I was working when they were sleeping.

Terrible work environment
CSR – Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – London, ON – 26 November 2024
All they are interested in is upselling clients. Huge pressure to book appointments for investing/mortgage/borrowing etc. Set quotas and if not met they will let you go.
micromanagement
Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 18 September 2024
Terrible manage team, terrible work team, terrible work environment. After you finish all service request, managers are asking for your sales………

Political Relevance

Such analysis forms only a preliminary tool for socialists interested in relating to workers working for this particular employer. It is crude quantitative and should be supplemented by a qualitative analysis of comments–a much more labour-intensive task.

Unlike Jane McAlevey’s approach, which focuses on organic leaders–leaders who form a key focus since winning their allegiance leads to other workers (or community members) being convinced to join a union or community campaign (see my review in the Links section)–the issue here is to see which workers are the most disgruntled and the least disgruntled in relation to a particular employer.

Of course, the discrepancy between the objective conditions of exploitation and oppression and the generally positive attiude towards their working conditions and their particular employer, the Bank of Canada, has many explanations, including the lack of their consciousness of their being exploited.

Socialists should aim to increase the number of workers who have negative attitudes towards their particular employer (and, when possible, the class of employers).

It may be thought that the more disgruntled workers would then be the focus of socialists’ efforts. That may well be, but the issue is of course more complicated than that. For example, for socialists the issue is not just being disgruntled against a particular employer but generalizing this to all employers. It would be necessary for socialists to use their judgement in determining how susceptible disgruntled workers are to such generalization. In some cases, less disgruntled workers may well be more susceptible to generalizing than more disgruntled workers. Initially, though, it does give socialists a preliminary method of approaching workers, at least in a general way. Of course, no specific workers can be identified through such an approach. That would be the responsibility of socialists engaging with specific workers or community members.

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