Posted by bluedog on November 14, 2002, at 0:59:48
In reply to Re: Disagree but don't want to cause a rift, posted by Miller on November 13, 2002, at 11:29:15
Miller
Don't worry, your not going to cause any rift.
What you have caused is a good discussion.I have to say that I disagree with what you have to say and agree with what IsoM has to say in his last post.
Consider for a moment what many people would consider the absolute extreme of a stressful
workplace.Consider the plight of the slaves in the South in American history. You could probably point to a very high level of depression within the slave populations.
Could you in all honesty say that you don't think that the slaves incidence of depression (along with other stress relates physical illness) was not caused by their working conditions? I know that the slave masters certainly would not have considered that they in any way contributed to a slave who suffered from depression. I am almost certain that they would have had the following explanations for a slave suffering from depression.
1. A depressed slave is very costly to the slave master because the slaves productivity would obviously decline.
2. A depressed slave is only putting it on to attract sympathy or to avoid working hard. This is because slaves were viewed as inherently lazy. How could the fact that the slaves had a lazy nature posibbly be attributed to the slave masters? They considered it to be a genetic failing of the slaves.
3. Slaves were also considered genetically weak and defective at approximately the same level of development as monkeys and apes. Of course it was this genetic weakness that caused the any depression in a slave and certainly was not the fault of the slave masters who felt secure in the knowledge that they were genetically superior to their slaves.
The above of course is an example of the most extreme working conditions that you could possibly find, and no workplace in any of the developed countries can operate like that under law. However you have to consider the attitude of some employers (the fast food industry comes to mind) and I'm sure that these employers look with a certain fondness to the conditions that the slave masters were allowed to impose.If you disagree that some employers would like to impose such conditions on their employees you only need look at the disgraceful behaviour of companies like NIKE who move production off-shore to third world "sweatshops".
Basically, the attitude of some CEO's and employers and their greed and profit at all costs view of the world (so that they will get their million dollar bonuses at the end of the year) can definitely lead to working conditions that actually CAUSE depression.
Just my humble opinion
poster:bluedog
thread:32168
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20021106/msgs/32250.html