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

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 will start 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 will also in the not-too-distant future start 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 Indigo Workers

In a previous post, I calculated the rate of exploitation of Indigo workers for 2019 (see The Rate of Exploitation of Workers at Indigo (or Chapters or Coles) Or: How Unionized Jobs Are Not Decent or Good Jobs). I will copy part of the conclusion from that post:

So, with the adjustments in place, the rate of exploitation or the rate of surplus value=s/v=34/211.425=16%. This means that, in terms of money, for every $1 of wage or salary of a regular Indigo worker receives, Indigo receives $0.16 surplus value or profit for free.  Alternatively, for every hour worked, an Indigo worker works 10 minutes for free for Indigo. Or, within one hour of work, a worker receives an equivalent of her hourly wage in 52 minutes and works for free for 8 minutes for Indigo. Of course, during the time that the worker works to receive an equivalent of her/his own wage, s/he is subject to the power of management and hence is unfree (see, for instance, Management Rights, Part Four: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Ontario and   Employers as Dictators, Part One). In a 2-hour (120 minutes) work day, the worker spends 1 hour 43 minutes (103 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 17 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit for Indigo. In a 4-hour (240 minutes) work day, the worker spends 3 hours 26 minutes (206 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 34 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In a 4.5-hour (270 minutes) work day, the worker spends 3 hours 53 minutes (233 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 37 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In a 5-hour (300 minutes) work day, the worker spends 4 hours 19 minutes (259 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend  hour 41 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In a 6-hour (360 minutes) work day, the worker spends 5 hours 10 minutes (310 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 50 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In a 7-hour (420 minutes) work day, the worker spends 6 hours 2 minutes (362 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 58 minutes for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In a 7.5-hour (450 minutes) work day, the worker spends 6 hours 28 minutes (388 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend  1 hour 2 minutes (62 minutes) for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo. In an 8-hour (480 minutes) work day, the worker spends 6 hours 54 minutes (414 minutes) to obtains her/his wage for the day, and they spend 1 hour 6 minutes (66 minutes) for free in obtaining a surplus value or profit  for Indigo.

In practice, Indigo workers work for more than necessary to obtain the equivalent value of their wages and benefits, and their surplus labour obtains Indigo profits (a surplus of value). You would think that, given these circumstances, Indigo 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 Indigo Workers Towards Indigo 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. There were 887 reviews at the time that I started this post. Of course, the numbers above will have changed in a relatively short period of time.

Indigo Workers’ Attitudes Towards Indigo 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

#5 330 #4 300 #3 152 #2 51 #1 54 I will consider #5 and #4 ratings to be positive evaluations of their work experiences with Indigo. 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 Indigo 330+300+76=706 706/887×100=80% Negative attitude towards working for Indigo 76+51+54=181 181/887×100=20% 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

#5

1. Excellent Customer Experience Representative (Current Employee) – Saskatoon, SK – 30 October 2024 What is the best part of working at the company? environment,equality, learning What is the most stressful part about working at the company? helping accurately at cash for long time. What is the work environment and culture like at the company? excellent welcoming, learning & engaging environment What is a typical day like for you at the company? helping customers & going extra miles
2. Pretty Good Place to Work Seasonal Shipping/Receiving/Visual Merchandising (Former Employee) – Waterloo, ON – 24 October 2024 I enjoyed this job. Good culture and reasonable expectations. I’d recommend it. One of my favourite jobs I’ve ever worked. Met some great people as well.

#4

1. Had a great team in early shift Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – Victoria, BC – 11 October 2024 Coworkers made the job, company was fine. Obviously stressful around the winter season and days are extremely long if you work 5-2. Overall average company, no complaints on management.
2. Incredible job with fantastic coworkers Customer Experience Representative (Former Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 10 October 2024 Honestly, this job was one of the best I’ve ever had- and I had A BUNCH. Customers were often very kind & understanding and management was incredible. The only reason I don’t give it five stars is because the wage increases aren’t very much. If it only paid a bit more, I would still be working there 🙂

#3

1. Productive and fun workplace Merchandiser (Former Employee) – Ajax, ON – 25 March 2024 Had a great time with my coworkers, they made the place a lot of fun. Also fortunate to have a great manager. The work was organized and doable in the morning shift.
2. Sales-focused, but it’s retail Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – Vancouver – 31 January 2024 The magic of reading! But mainly it’s about selling products, gifts, etc. You’re always expected to sell and upsell. Managers were strict about us showing up early and the break is short especially considering how you’re expected to be back on the floor before it’s over. Arbitrary rules to follow.

#2

1. Stressful and micromanaged by head office Customer Service Representative (Current Employee) – Alberta – 10 September 2024 If you love books don’t work here, find a local book store to support instead. Upper management nitpick everything and are impossible to please, I’ve worked in two different regions and the issue remained the same. They push you to do more work than your typically understaffed team can manage, pressure staff to sell overpriced memberships, give insulting raises (like 30 cents a year) if you’re lucky enough to get a raise at all. Favoritism and drama is rampant within most management but if they have an issue with something you do chances are they’ll never bring it up but still expect you to change. Miscommunication is a non stop problem between regional, Managers, staff etc because rules or visuals can change sometimes daily. The balance between customer satisfaction and employee mental health is a huge issue. All of my former coworkers were miserable and it was treated like the norm around my location. The health insurance is too expensive for part time staff (which is most of their staff) and don’t even get me started on the way regional wants the warehouses run. OHSA needs to visit every Indigo warehouse cause the list of safety issues that the company “can’t afford to fix” is long and its all neglected because of corporate greed. And don’t even get me started on their union busting tactics…
2. Amazing coworkers, horrible pay, hours, and little room for growth CER (Current Employee) – Alberta – 28 August 2024 When you first start at Indigo, it’s a job you’ll love. Over time, you start to realize just how little this company cares for you. Pay is awful, and you’ll be lucky if you get 15-20 hours a week. If you need a job to survive, this is not the job for you, but it’s great if you’re a student or still living at home. Raises are few and far between, and aren’t generally based on how good you are at your job. Expectations are often unrealistic, and the amount of effort and work you put in are almost never rewarded. Leaders will often micromanage you on things like plum plus and pwp to score quick coaching points. The best thing about this job are the coworkers. Haven’t worked with anyone (other than leadership) that I disliked. Coworkers and books are the highlight.

#1

1. Avoid Indigo. Operations Associate (Former Employee) – Woodbridge, ON – 22 October 2024 Just don’t do it unless you’re in desperate need of a job. Expect to be worked to the bone, for minimum wage. Expect zero to no direction but an expectation that you know what’s going on. I love books, but honestly with a company so poorly run this disappointed and makes me hardly ever to want to support Indigo again. This location is very tightly knit, that if you don’t fit in, it’s easy to feel like garbage there. Management is very unsupportive, and clearly has favourites. General manager called me by the wrong name multiple times. Training was non-existent the day I was hired I was thrown on the floor to help and told a bunch of terms, and feedback is management just pointing out but not helping correct the solution. Not sure if because the management there has no idea how to be supportive management, or it’s just the location. Telling someone to “move with purpose” (because I wasn’t the only one the general manager said that to) or go faster, isn’t a supportive environment, and it isn’t acceptable. I can understand why this location is unionized. Pros The Discount. Cons Abosutley everything.
2. Decent starting job but it’s not worth staying in the long haul Customer Experience Representative (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 16 October 2024 Very easy job as you are mostly tailoring the store to whatever the Managers prefer to showcase. Benefits are pretty decent after you qualify for it, though that takes a while. Lots of e-Learning before you start. The seasonal holiday can be very stressful especially when the Managers and Leads do not give a helping hand and instead hide in their office all day sitting in their comfortable chairs. Some Managers will micro-manage you to the point of making you feel insignificant and moronic that you aren’t following their direction for a minimum wage job. The pay is a joke for the amount of work you put in in comparison to the people on salary. Definitely clique vibes too because you are working mostly with young adults who still treat the workplace like it’s high school and ostracized you if you don’t play by their rules. No support from Management whenever you get a busy rush as they only schedule very little people on duty while they disappear from the sales floor. They also only consider a promotion if you live and breathe Indigo standards as they prioritize the ones they get along with the most. Pros Benefits are pretty decent, You’ll gain lots of self-confidence, after learning to deal with some of the toughest clientele, during stressful periods Cons Pay is terrible for the amount of work you put in, They will try to make it up with treats and coffee, Management likes to hide from actual problems in the workplace, they are more concerned about promoting their friends, than they are about promoting people with experience

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. 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. In addition to the general issue of how to begin to focus on those workers who are most likely to be organizable for radical change, the particular issue of linking up such organizational efforts to opposition to those who support the Israeli military could have been addressed (for a brief reference to that issue, see Idealization of the Rule of Law Once Again: The Case of Indigo CEO Heather Reisman and Activists Against Israel’s Palestinian Genocide). Social movements that fail to link up issues to workers and their exploitation and oppression will likely remain ineffective or, at best, result in social reforms that fail to provide a cumulative effect that questions the class power of employers.