Potemkin Companies

~ Clarissa

Everybody is making fun of Potemkin companies in Europe but they are a great idea. Long-term unemployed need serious rehabilitation if they are to be integrated into the workplace. The need for rehabilitation begins after 6 months of unemployment and increases if the jobless stretch is extended.

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Published by Clarissa

12 thoughts on “Potemkin Companies”

  1. I’m thinking this is less re-training for employment than an experiment in replacements for traditional employment.

    Clearly the end of scarcity (along with other ongoing and coming disruptions) will require major restructuring of life organization for the hundreds of millions in the post industrial world who will be shut out of traditional employment.

    This seems to be a better option than guaranteed income or paying people to play video games.

    It’s nice to see that the powers that be are doing some planning about the post-labor state.

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    1. // This seems to be a better option than guaranteed income or paying people to play video games.

      What does “this” mean? Working part-time, temporary, minimum-wage jobs for one’s entire life? Is my description what you meant by “shut out of traditional employment”? Because if “this” means ‘working’ at Potemkin companies for life, I don’t see how it’s better than “paying people to play video games.”

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      2. ” Working part-time, temporary, minimum-wage jobs for one’s entire life?”

        • The first step is to integrate people into the workplace. After that, they will choose what kind of career to have or if to have one. It’s not like you can force anybody to become a doctor, a company owner, a computer programmer, or a literary critic.

        “Because if “this” means ‘working’ at Potemkin companies for life, I don’t see how it’s better than “paying people to play video games.””

        • Socialized people are always healthier and happier than unsocialized people. And obviously there is a world of difference for their children. How is one supposed to learn to go out and be employed if one never sees anybody doing that? Where is this model going to come from?

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    2. “This seems to be a better option than guaranteed income or paying people to play video games.”

      • Anything is better than this horrible horrible idea of “guaranteed income.”

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  2. See, links like this is why I think Alain Touraine is talking out of his ass. The move toward part time and temp jobs is not worker driven nor is it generationally driven. Theoretically, with a post scarcity environment and the increasing use of robots and computers to get rid of routine jobs and to make processes more efficient, we should see a labor force like the Jetsons (the dude works maybe one hour twice a week and supports a wife, two children and a dog). But that’s not happening. Look at these workers in a Potemkin company simulating work so they don’t go bonkers. They land jobs that are temporary & pay significantly less than their prior jobs. Look at all these women who take a substantial hit in income when they come back after they leave the workforce temporarily after having a kid.

    The link in Thursday’s linkaround is from a guy who speaks at IIMs and made a lot of money in consulting, so he could afford the drop in the income and rates. He is an elite in his country so he had extended family to fall back on if worse came to worse. Such people make a very small portion of the labor market and thus do not affect demand for most jobs.

    They should have these companies here since they can’t jail everyone or turn them into prison guards. I think, though the stigma will just transfer to Potemkin companies if they become more common, thus negating much of the psychological benefits.

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    1. Presumably sooner or later they Potemkin aspect will be concealed from most ’employees’. It can’t be that hard, create a few web pages about a company headquartered in another country or state and open up ‘branch offices’.

      A fair amount of bureaucratic and/or office work has always been Potemkin in nature (mine surely was but it paid the bills so I didn’t broadcast how useless it mostly was, I thought at the time everyone realized that and was kind of surprised when I found out how seriously some took it).

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      1. “A fair amount of bureaucratic and/or office work has always been Potemkin in nature.”

        • Especially in governmental entities it absolutely is and nobody is even trying to conceal it. We are going to be supporting these people one way or another but at least if they are in an actual workplace, they are socialized, they feel useful, their children get a chance to get integrated into society. It’s got to be done. But of course there is nothing enjoyable about it.

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    2. “Theoretically, with a post scarcity environment and the increasing use of robots and computers to get rid of routine jobs and to make processes more efficient, we should see a labor force like the Jetsons (the dude works maybe one hour twice a week and supports a wife, two children and a dog).”

      • A job that would support this number of people requires continuity, a constant professional and intellectual growth, and a very efficient relationship with one’s work environment. People who work one hour a week are incapable of any of these things. So I have no idea where this fantasy comes from. It is unrealistic in its every aspect. You can’t, for instance, free up one neurosurgeon, professor, lawyer, etc. by splitting his or her work among 50 different people. It’s got to be one very busy and maybe even overworked person.

      “Look at these workers in a Potemkin company simulating work so they don’t go bonkers. They land jobs that are temporary & pay significantly less than their prior jobs. Look at all these women who take a substantial hit in income when they come back after they leave the workforce temporarily after having a kid.”

      • And?

      “I think, though the stigma will just transfer to Potemkin companies if they become more common, thus negating much of the psychological benefits.”

      • What stigma? I am yet to see any stigma attached to people who need this sort of reintegration into the workplace. Just this year I had to battle my colleagues who wanted to hire a person who is 50 and has never worked an actual job. They refused to believe that this person would be impossible to integrate into the workplace.

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      1. “So you worked for Zephyr Holdings? Are the stories true? Were the top managers really as crazy as everyone seems to believe?”

        Actually, it might be seen as evidence that you can take nearly any kind of crap from nearly any kind of person …

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  3. Of course, some companies are more Potemkin than others — some companies may simply be an interesting study that’s being conducted by elite corporate masters.

    I’m reminded of Zephyr Holdings from Max Barry’s “Company” …

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_(novel)

    It’s a hilariously dark novel about all sorts of corporate fads, but the darkness becomes strange when the main protagonist discovers that he’s actually working for a company within a company, and that Zephyr Holdings is in fact a corporation-sized experiment.

    [consults with the Secret Squirrels to determine who stole that one doughnut, and is surprised when they tell me to stop asking trick questions …] 🙂

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