This post is by someone who previously worked at the transit authority I work at, who used her deep understanding of power structures gained from a community organizing background to make positive...
This post is by someone who previously worked at the transit authority I work at, who used her deep understanding of power structures gained from a community organizing background to make positive changes, and whom I really respect.
I’m sharing her writing in this more general space because it touches on a handful of interesting changes to how companies/organizations are structured and source their talent in both the private and public sectors, and the impacts of those changes.
If there is a better place for this than ~misc, I apologize. It didn’t seem to fit neatly in any of the other groups.
As in the example at Apple, outsourcing meant that, along with any lower wages or benefits, workers in the outsourced positions likely have a limited career pathway with the private employer. Previously, an employee could have worked as a customer service agent during a long career at the MBTA, but today, being a T Ambassador [a contracted customer assistance worker stationed at transit stops] is less likely to be a stepping stone in a career than a short stint in a string of low-wage jobs.
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I suspect that the desire to have ‘professional’ managers is, at least in part, to create an experience barrier between executives and workers under the theory that someone who worked their way up would be less inclined to cut costs in ways that impact the people following behind them. Regardless of the motivation, the impact is a limit on the upward career mobility of the workforce and decrease in the incentives to invest in their professional development. In transit agencies like the MBTA this increases the demographic divide between the frontline workforce, which is predominantly people of color, and management, which is significantly white.
This post is by someone who previously worked at the transit authority I work at, who used her deep understanding of power structures gained from a community organizing background to make positive changes, and whom I really respect.
I’m sharing her writing in this more general space because it touches on a handful of interesting changes to how companies/organizations are structured and source their talent in both the private and public sectors, and the impacts of those changes.
If there is a better place for this than ~misc, I apologize. It didn’t seem to fit neatly in any of the other groups.
…