Do you find it as charming as I do when some leisure-class corporate chieftain whines that America’s working stiffs are a bunch of slackers?
We’re hearing that now from Wall Street plutocrats, grumping that employees no longer have that old nose-to-the-grindstone, “yes-boss” work ethic of old-school capitalism that has created such fabulous wealth. Of course, “wealth for whom” and “work for what?” are at the root of today’s questioning of the old culture and structure of work. But the grumpers don’t want to hear that, so they simply carp that America has “gone soft.”
The latest high-flying scolder is Steven Rattner, the Wall Street huckster who was fined $6 million in 2010 for running a kickback scheme and banned from investment banking for two years. But now he’s back in the financial hustle, feeling free to chastise you for what he sees as your lack of hustle on the job.
In particular, Steve is peeved at you work-from-home people, asserting with no actual evidence you’re not really working. He claims it will inevitably lead to “a lower standard of living” – a standard he measures strictly in money, not quality of life. Indeed, he says that your life should be work – pointing with envy to China’s “996” system, a grinding ethic of expecting people to work from 9am to 9pm 6 days a week. Then Rattner offers a grand solution to dissuade work-from-home arrangements: Housing. Why, he asks, have a big majority of European workers already returned to their offices? Simple, he says – most people there live in small apartments and houses, making stay-at-home work less comfortable. Voila! Put America’s workers in tiny houses and office space will fill up.
See – life is simple if you view it from the heights of Wall Street. Thank you, Steve. Now go away.
Enjoyed this post? Please consider sharing with friends and on social media!
Steve Rattner Explains Your Life’s Purpose For You