Yes, I know that the bourgeoisie is bad, that capitalism makes them bad, that they cannot function without exploiting the proletariat, that every last one of them would exterminate the planet before surrendering a single penny for something other than treats or investment that they couldn't claim as tax-deductible, etc., etc.
But I've had a new job for the last few months and my new boss was pretty nice and paid relatively well, sometimes even more than they owed me, long story short. But things have gotten busier at work lately and the boss has shown themself to be ridiculously moody and even threatened to fire me today due to a miscommunication. I wasn't completely innocent here, I did make a mistake, but it was a new situation that I wasn't really prepared for (and none of the customers knew it happened, no one was in danger, it wasn't a huge deal, it was an aesthetic thing basically).
Anyway, I was just kind of shocked at how this seemingly nice person instantly transformed into a demon who even threatened to fire me! I shouldn't have been shocked, I had been telling myself during these last few months not to trust my boss or get too comfortable—we spend an hour or two together each day, just chatting, and they were pleasant 99% of the time. They had also somehow managed to lose their phone just before we started working today, they were pissed about that before they found my mistake and took it out on me. Half my job at this place is being their therapist. A month or two of friendly underpaid therapy for my boss to just explode over an aesthetic issue and threaten my daily bread.
I don't know, it's just remarkable how material circumstances make a person into who they are. (Everyone is three missed meals away from rioting.) When I was a teenager my friends and I would go to a restaurant owned by my friend's dad because the food was awesome and free. All the waitresses there were nice of course (since they were serving the boss's kid) and we all tipped them proportionally as if we were actually paying for the food. One waitress from that place inherited a hotel in the area, and I found myself working for her when I had a different job, and she ended up complaining about my work to my bosses—not because I messed anything up or made any mistakes, but because I went through everything too quickly. She had always been nice, she was also polite when we interacted at her hotel, but when I said goodbye, she didn't mention that she had an issue with my performance—she waited to complain to my bosses, basically. Which of course got me in trouble with them and necessitated a meeting. I was doing annual maintenance work on some of her machinery, and she's also the only customer in the area who has that kind of annual maintenance work done twice a year, so there usually isn't even that much to do there. I saw that her hotel has some negative reviews and it looks pretty crummy and old-fashioned, so I'm always praying for it to go bankrupt when I drive past. (I've thought of leaving a negative review there but these fuckers will actually sue you if they find out that you were the one who did it!) I live in a touristy area so you really have to fuck up in order for that to happen, but it's not impossible.
I also have a little executive experience from when I was running a political campaign many years ago. Using some money I got from the state (I was running a "clean" campaign with no large donations, just a lot of small ones), I hired a couple of field workers for a month or two basically and learned a number of important things. The first was "nobody wants to work anymore" is really "bosses don't pay enough to attract workers" (no one answered my job ads until I increased the wages I was advertising; this is why these fuckers don't have wages advertised in their job posts 90% of the time, they are fully conscious of the fact that their jobs pay far too little and that if anyone knew what they were paying, no one would apply, literally not a single person).
The second thing I learned was a horror I felt at the obvious visible desperation of the workers, how they have virtually no recourse if you screw them. You might not notice that visible desperation until you're on the other side of the table, or you may not know just how obvious it is. Yes, workers can sue you if you steal their wages (for instance), but how many actually have the time and money to do that? And they'll all be blacklisted even if they beat you in a lawsuit. If you're a petite bourgeois, your workers are almost 100% at your mercy. It was sickening for me. And there are people walking around out there who pull this shit every day—they're our fucking bosses! And if they have a problem with it, it's not enough of an issue for them to stop being bourgeois.
I'm just using hexbear as a kind of therapy journal and for some commiseration I guess. It's also making me wonder if there's something "wrong" with me, if I just can't do anything right, etc., etc.
So have you had a boss who wasn't a total scumbag? Someone who was fair, reasonable, and trustworthy, even when issues arose? And let's limit this to the private sector: I worked for 8+ years as a government employee and never had any major issues (and was also never fired).
