Workers reject bad bosses while desiring to be treated as human beings

Evidence

Additional information from the study on individual areas of the relationship to the factory included, for example, the fact that nearly three-quarters of those questioned considered themselves adequately informed about events in the factory. Three-quarters also considered the behaviour of their immediate boss correct; for most of those questioned, bosses further up the ladder belonged to a different world. The Institute’s assistants concluded from the group discussions that workers `do not reject their bosses as such, but they do reject bad bosses. Criticism therefore at the same time offers an image of a good boss in outline: he should above all be impartial, he should acknowledge good work, maintain good manners, and try to keep up a certain amount of personal contact.’ Complaints repeatedly expressed during the group discussions about being rushed, about overtime and Sunday working, about the supremacy of production requirements, of targets, of machinery, cumulated together into the expression of a desire to be treated as a human being and not just as a worker. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2071

Categorization

• QUESTION: The contrast between the distant upper bosses and the immediate boss — ‘belonged to a different world’ — is a striking data point worth verifying against other surveys of the period.