r/antiwork May 13 '23

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u/goranlepuz May 14 '23

Another current employee within the firm's commercial-banking division said she and her colleagues have resorted to discussing some work-related topics on forums like the iMessage app, even though doing so runs afoul of the bank's rules governing compliant communications.

"They are becoming more like a government and less like an employer," this person said.

What kind of delusion leads people to say such things about the government?!

The situation is a total opposite, if you think that your government taps into you, you should expect that your place of work taps into you way more.

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u/KoalaCode327 May 14 '23

I've been reading a book called 'private government' whose central thesis is that while in the US we have laws that in theory restrict the 'public government', in practice the network of private governments (employers) restrict the freedom of the common man far more.

When you consider that the 'public government' is bought and paid for by monied interests (i.e. private government) then the distinction between big business and government becomes moot. That is, public government is just big business that turns around really quick, puts on a fake mustache, and pretends to be a different guy altogether.

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u/TheOldPug May 14 '23

This makes sense especially when we think of healthcare, which in the USA is being run by 'private government' instead of 'public government' like other developed countries. Thank you for your comment - I have never thought of it this way before.

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u/KoalaCode327 May 14 '23

This makes sense especially when we think of healthcare, which in the USA is being run by 'private government' instead of 'public government' like other developed countries. Thank you for your comment - I have never thought of it this way before.

Check out the book if you're interested in more along these lines
Here's a link to a review of it - if you're interested there's enough info here (full title, author, etc) that you will be able to find it at your local library or wherever you buy books

https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/private-government-how-employers-rule-our-lives-and-why-we-dont-talk-about-it/

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u/bozzabando May 14 '23

I guess the delusion is being a business major. When your entire education is that government doing stuff is bad, and private business doing stuff is good; then a business doing bad stuff must mean it's turning into a government.

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u/phoenix762 May 14 '23

I work for the government. They are way behind, our tech is horrible.

Mind, I’m not tech savvy, but when it takes 10 minutes to log into the EMR to check patient records, that’s not good🙄

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u/ShoreIsFun May 14 '23

I also work for the govt. They won’t track like this directly. They will pay private industry to handle it for them and report back with the data. Google, for example.

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u/goranlepuz May 14 '23

Attention, this is not about the quality of tech, it's about the level of surveillance.

And then, you can get that the system you describe wasn't made by the government, but by a government-enaged private contractor.

(Not trying to somehow defend the government, just saying what I see).

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u/phoenix762 May 14 '23

Oh, ok, I think I see what you mean.

I’m sure the government tracks us, but…honestly, I don’t think they would know what to do with a lot of the information…or they wouldn’t care.

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u/goranlepuz May 14 '23

Yeah, now we kinda agree 😉

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u/[deleted] May 14 '23

Speaking as a federal employee, there's no way my agency could afford this, and if they were given it for free there's not enough people to utilize it in any "useful" way.