When the Work-Slave Wants to Become the Boss

Stuff you probably haven't had to grapple with before. You have heard it before, people complaining about the lack of value in their employer. What do they do? they say. What good are they? Maybe you have asked these questions about your own employer, or employers in general. The answer - apart from any specific management, technical or specialist skills they might possess - lies in the original master-slave and master-servant relationships. These are what the employer-employee roles are legally based on. This master-servant division is based on a belief that the former knows and has the skills to create and drive the work required, while the latter carries out the work required. This division of roles relates to attributes or character or class or mental facility or education or evolution - according to its origin in the past when servants and slaves were a normal part of the workforce, and when master-servant relationships reflected principles and beliefs about superior and inferior humans. This hierarchical attitude to human capacity is also the basis of our other major relationships: the parent-child and the student-teacher relationships. What your boss does for you The original master-slave arrangement assumed that the slave or servant did not possess an inherent desire to do what the master wanted of them, and so force had to be applied to ensure the work was carried out. The master fulfilled the roles of motivator, discipliner, direction-setter and the creator and maintainer of focus. Similarly, children, needing to be taught many things including socially acceptable behavior and school lessons, also needed the parent and teacher to perform these roles of motivator, discipliner, direction-setter and the creator and maintainer of focus. Your limitations Now, let me clarify a vital point here. Employees, along with children, need to motivate themselves to perform their individual required tasks. They need to say, 'I will write that report now', or, 'I will wash those pots now', or 'I will teach that class now'. Yet behind these acts of self-motivation there is the primary motivator: their employer keeping task expectation up, continuing to provide the job, and continuing to provide the pay-check. Do not confuse secondary task motivation with primary motivation. Primary motivation becomes easier to see when you imagine taking the employer out of the equation.