Unabridged Audiobook
While reading this book, I was intrigued, engaged, surprised, and even shocked. It describes the evolution of employee-employer relations since 1930 on an example of several large enterprises. It\'s not only about what has happened. It is about the reasons and the dynamic of the changes across the multiple dimensions of the environment. I learned that in the beginning the interdependence between employer and employees prevailed. Employees have had long-term, even lifetime employment and security. Wages allowed for a good life, and the surplus enabled the entire cities and areas to grow and flourish. However, the technology innovations, changes in society, wars, or the rise of shareholder capitalism increased tensions to which companies responded. Sadly, in many small steps they dismantled job security, and layoffs became the new norm. Medical insurance was cut or canceled, and pensions were outsourced to the government or abolished. With the assistance of the government or its ill tax and other policies, jobs were transferred abroad. Entire industries disappeared. \r\n\r\nI did not know about some historical events – dirty strategies to eliminate women from the labor market after WWII, obstructions to employ minorities, gaining competitive advantage or price reduction through elimination of the medical insurance, pension funds, etc. I learned about the role of unions and why management even today fears unionization at their premise. \r\n\r\nI am from an agile managerial movement. All agile strongly depends on trust, so relationships among employees and employers are essential for any organization in the knowledge and creative economy. I ask myself how can we enable the trust in the corporation, which has a long legacy of wrongdoing against its employees. \r\n\r\nI will include this book in my Agile Recruiter workshop as recommended reading. I will also highly recommend it to anyone in HR or in charge of human capital retention. The book is engaging. It took me some time to adjust to the voice of the narrator.\r\n
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