Looking Forward. By Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

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  2.Participatory Workplaces

 

Advertising is one of many wasteful sectors of the U.S. economy that can be  greatly reduced. In 1988 $118 billion  was spent on advertising in the U.S.  (Philip Morris, Procter and Gamble, and GM combined for nearly $4 billion of it). In the top 20 we also find Pepsi,  McDonald's, Ford, Anheuser -Busch,  Nabisco, Kellogg, General Mills,  Eastman Kodak, and Pillsbury. The  100 largest advertisers combined  accounted for approximately $28  billion. Only a modest percentage of  this would be required to finance the entire qualitative information apparatus  of a participatory economy, with the rest of the savings going to improve the  quality of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure and to another all the burdens of work condemns both classes to spiritual sterility.

-Lewis Mumford

 

 

Leadership

 

Notice that nothing in what we have described precludes exercising leadership. Production coordinators on particular books will exert influence over team members regarding quality and pace of work necessary to get the books completed. Finance -department decisions will be authoritative regarding budgeting. People working in personnel will exert leadership over disputes about job assignments. Editorial decisions will determine what is published.

 

Similarly, not having an editor -in -chief does not mean there will be no editor with final responsibility for particular titles. Rejecting a fixed hierarchy does not imply rejecting discipline, monitoring, evaluation, and accountable leadership. Moreover, even as in capitalist companies, the ultimate sanction of dismissal will still exist, but with crucial differences. Beyond the democratic decision making process, at Northstart the threat of dismissal will not endanger the employee's survival. Other employment opportunities will be offered, and basic consumption needs are in any event, guaranteed. Nor would unemployment have any affect on the consumption opportunities of one's children or spouse. Moreover, dismissal would have to be ratified by the individual's council coworkers and then, if appealed, by higher councils as well. But to understand these finer points we need to describe actual workdays in production firms. So here is an average week at Northstart.

 

Larry's Workweek

 

On Wednesday Larry sorts mail for a few hours. He does this one morning every tenth week. On Wednesday next week, for two hours he will help with general cleanup. The following Wednesday Larry will work the front desk. Next month Larry has a different rotation, but he always has rote tasks assigned on Wednesday morning.

 

Of course, should Larry want to trade responsibilities for a certain Wednesday, to attend his child's school play or tennis tournament, for example, this would be fine. Larry's rote work is evaluated by other Northstart members responsible for intervening if unscheduled task switching interrupts orderly functions.

 

The council for producing drama books has six work teams and Larry's does production on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons. Although many employees prefer working on only one production project at a time, Larry happens to like doing a variety of different tasks simultaneously, so he's currently working on one drama as typesetter, one as designer, and a third as proofreader. The design and proofing are done in teams of three, and Larry is team leader for the former.

 

On alternate Monday afternoons, Larry's editorial council meets first in teams for an hour and then as a whole for two more hours to address concerns about possible new titles, complaints, and suggestions. Each week Larry also reads his share of submissions. Each title that Larry reads is also read by another member of the team and, after they give a summary report, if they both agree to reject, the submission is returned to its author unless some other member wishes to hold on to the title. If they both want others to read it, the book is held. If they disagree, a team vote decides whether to reject the title or approve it for more serious evaluation.

 

Each week, Larry also works on his allotment of manuscripts that have passed initial evaluation. Which manuscripts he reads depends partly on his preferences and partly on how much time he and other members have for new assignments. Ultimately, books are accepted or rejected after everyone is ready to vote. Majority rules with serious attention to strong feelings of minorities.

 

Once accepted, each title goes to a particular team member, who becomes its editor. Larry has responsibility for editorial work on three titles.

 

On the Mondays that Larry doesn't have editorial meetings he sometimes attends the biweekly Northstart policy meeting as a representative of his editorial/production council. Each of the three editorial/production councils, the four business area councils , and any major policy work teams that happen to be functioning at the moment send representatives. Representatives serve for six meetings each year, with rotation staggered so that each council always has a representative who has attended at least the four previous meetings. At these sessions, personnel representatives report on problems, sometimes asking for help with interpersonal conflicts, and the general progress of the press's efforts is discussed and evaluated. On the Tuesday following policy meetings, editorial and business councils meet for an hour to hear reports. Special teams discuss reports whenever they can arrange time.

 

The rest of Larry's work is concerned with promotion, where he is currently helping produce a new catalog, working with potential authors, and soliciting new plays. He schedules this into his work Week, along with cleaning his own office, updating his own files, and impromptu rote tasks shared with others.

 

Details of Northstart's arrangement seem sensible to Larry and his workmates but may not appeal to other publishing houses. Different workplaces could adopt longer or shorter timelines and adapt other practices as well. While basic principles must be respected, how they are implemented changes from workplace to workplace due to different conditions and from time to time in each workplace as preferences change.

 

To continue, Larry is gay and meets every eighth Thursday with other gay workers to discuss the character of editorial and business decisions and the changing patterns of daily work in light of the particular needs, tastes, and values of gay employees. Suggestions are often brought back to work teams and councils and sometimes to the whole Northstart collective. If these caucuses feel threatened by proposals otherwise supported by majorities of workers at Northstart, they may bring their complaints to outside councils.