DEMOCRACY HOPE
DIGNITY FREEDOM
SPIRIT JUSTICE
SUSTAINABILITY OPENNESS
SOUL POWER
PEOPLE HUMANITY
Employment (Ref: i1201)
Throughout the rich Western democracies we work to some sort of standard
hours for a standard sort of number of years and then we die. There is already tremendous pressure for change. We do not need to work as
much as we do. Many people thrive on hard work and should be allowed to do it as they wish. Many also wish for shorter more flexible working
so that they can give priority to other aspects of their lives as they see fit. There are many people who would work longer hours if they had
more fulfilling jobs and many more who would rather work less because they do not like their jobs or because they do loathsome jobs in the
first place. We are hidebound by habits we do not need and that do not serve our own needs. We must stop hitting our heads against the
brick wall not because it lessens the pain but because the pain is unnecessary in the first place.
- Adopt tax and employment policies so that artificial hindrances are removed. There are plenty that are genuinely needed.
Identify and cater for these. Reward those who do society's nastiest dirty work with the least constraints.
- Change the custom, ie the habit, that says aspects of working conditions and styles must be prescribed. They needn't be.
The need is for work to be produced. Take away the assumption that an employer automatically dictates whether you can have a pot-plant on your
desk or have to wear a tie to work. Permit employers to set these constraints but remove the assumption that they do it by right.
- Freely and with abandon adopt practices such as buying and selling leave, sabbaticals, flexitime, part-time, job-sharing,
home-working. Mix and match all these. Remove tax and bureaucratic obstacles to these practices so that they are all equal matters of personal
preference, nothing to do with government.
- Adopt the presumption that governance of what goes on in an employer's premises is between the employer and
employee (but with 'Politics of Meaning' principles so we do not regress entirely to our old ways) and when necessary arbitrated by some independent body,
a court that represents neither the employer nor the employee, not a trade union for example.
- Commuting is a terrible burden on the environment and on people because of the stress and energy and time and
money tied up in it. At the same time everyone must be free to live wherever they wish without being dictated to by an employer. There are good
reasons why it has become so ubiquitous. The main ones are specialisation of employment and property prices. But try to reverse the trend by making
the true cost of the practice more visible. Make employers contribute a sort of 'commuting VAT'. Employers need to pay for the privilege of employing
people who commute long distances (publicly accounting for the details somewhere, perhaps company annual reports). Make employers pay half the
cost of the daily commute. This would discourage hiring distant people in the first place, encourage the employer to encourage the employee to move
closer to work and encourage multi-skilling so that unncessary specialisation is discouraged. The social benefits of this are less commuting and lower
energy use. Aim ultimately to raise the ability of everyone to do as many different jobs as possible while at the same time making the jobs themselves
less specialised. A redistribution of skill and requirements not wealth.
- Instead of raising pay to counteract a skill shortage and get people from ever further away, change job requirements to
more closely approach those available in the labour pool nearby.
- Further encourage 'efficient' employment by giving tax breaks to employers who provide employees with public transport season tickets,
but not a cash alternative. (Doh! I'm proposing that we need only two kinds of tax, so employers wouldn't pay any on which they could be given a break!)
QUESTIONS (Ref: i1299) (Contact us)
- What do you dislike about this page?
- How can it be improved?
- After looking at this page do you think you understand what the page is for?
