People are reduced to objects whether addressed as employees or consumers

Evidence

As employees, men are reminded of the rational organization and urged to fit in like sensible people. As customers, the freedom of choice, the charm of novelty, is demonstrated to them on the screen or in the press by means of the human and personal anecdote. In either case they remain objects. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the overarching thesis that enlightenment’s rationality subjects humans to instrumental control — a theme the reader is tracking across the book. — connects to: Industrial society reduces individuals to interchangeable species beings through conformist working conditions; Industry frames everyone under the dual roles of customer and employee; Predetermined needs reduce the consumer to the eternal object of the industry — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 110 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideology masks class by fragmenting people into individuals bound as consumers and citizens #expands (0.85)
• Culture consumed as consumer goods manipulates people rather than liberating them. #expands (0.82)
• Being subordinate to a thing reduces a person psychologically to a thing #expands (0.80)