Human civilization is the fruit of collective labor. There is a version that our ancestors Cro-Magnons ousted and then ate the Neanderthals only because they were inveterate individualists. They did not know how to communicate and combine efforts. As a result, they "died out", that is, they went to barbecue.
But it’s not easy to make a whole team out of individual people. For this, there are specialized social mechanisms. At school we were told about slavery and serfdom. And they explained that they were replaced by methods of economic coercion to work together for someone else's good. And today all this is in the past, the era of complete freedom of expression has come. Where does the groaning about the intolerable office slavery that is stuffed with social networks come from? And why is only office work, all other human activities free from it?
Nothing of the kind, slavery actually exists in the truest sense of the word. And not somewhere in hot countries, but next to us in Europe and Russia. It is a well-established business with its own labor market, logistics, distribution channels and security. Thousands of emigrants cross the borders every day, dissolve in the human sea and some of them evaporate without a trace. They are hired to work in some wilderness, where they are exploited to the fullest until they are completely exhausted. But they are not crying, but quite prosperous townspeople. Why?
"Slaves should be bought cheaper, squeezed out of them all, and then thrown into a landfill." This is how the ancient Roman patrician Mark Sidonius Falx teaches. In fact, the book How to Control Slaves was not written by him, but by our contemporary Jerry Toner, professor of ancient philology at the University of Cambridge. In his youth, he worked for 10 years as an investment fund manager and managed assets of up to $ 15 billion. Hence his knowledge of the realities of modern business and the atmosphere prevailing in offices.
It is enough to replace the word “slave” with “employee” while reading in your mind, as clear associations with our time appear. This is the reason for the unusually strong reaction to the book among recruiters and middle and senior managers. They were frightened by the truth expressed in their eyes about real relationships in a close-knit team of like-minded people.
Carrot and stick
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Let's not be so pessimistic. Still, Chekhov was right, only overcoming our own slave psychology are we able to find happiness. And this state is very weakly associated with money, social status or a beautiful figure. Only personal inner freedom, no one can ever take away from you.
PS For me personally, Toner's work is a shining example of storytelling. Endless interesting stories are skillfully interwoven with recommendations on team management, its motivation, the rules of conduct for the leader and even joint holidays. It is possible that Toner's work will enter the golden fund of English literature as an evil pamphlet on modern society, similar to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.