Whatever Happened to Alienation?

By Humphrey McQueen

The push to shorten the working week has led many in the labour movement and on the left to disregard questions of fulfilment and meaning at work.

Now that new modes of production are changing the miseries and splendours of wage labour, McQueen argues that a re-assessment of its meaning in our lives is long overdue.

Flexibility became the watchword in the 1990s. Skills were made flexible, satisfaction was guaranteed for employees and bosses, hours would be flexible to suit family, leisure and bosses. So many clichés, so much more time!! Instead, as even Mark Wooden was forced to concede recently, hours increased and flexibility makes only the bosses smile.

Reducing hours does not mean an easier job, as technological change can lead to extreme intensification of the effort required. The argument has been limited to making workers happier at home so they are more productive at work, rather than about how to make work itself more meaningful and pleasant. To address such issues requires a consideration of the labour process, a commitment to industrial democracy and a drive for better wages and conditions from unions. These cannot be left behind in the globalising era. Control over time and effort are goals for unions today, as much as they ever have been in the drives for the eight hour day, the 40 hour week or the 35 hour week.

(Arena Magazine; December 2002- January 2003)