Comment by xg15
5 months ago
Yes, in principle nothing has changed since at least Fordian times - back then we had factory workers on one side and owners, managers and engineers on the other side, with the intermediate role perhaps being the foreman or something similar.
I still think there is some difference in kind, not just degree: A human operational exec at least has to engage with the workers personally, witness the conditions they are working in, is exposed to complaints, etc. Even the most uncaring foreman is therefore forced into a position where he is subjected to accountability. He also has personal contact with the upper layer and can pass on that accountability to his higher-ups.
In contrast, a software layer is physically unable to hear complaints and to pass them back up the chain. Because it's not a human, it cannot take accountability itself - however, it can still give higher-ups plausible deniability about "not having known" about problems. (A knock-on effect is also that it will prevent workers from even attempting to communicate the problem, because no one wants to talk to a wall)
Therefore it creates an accountability sink where there was none in the old structure.
(None in theory at least, of course there were enough other ways to be shielded from accountability even before computers)
My experience: only the good operational execs engage personally, and only for specific reasons of gathering feedback and improving the overall system.
You’d be surprised how often decisions are made without ever seeing people at work, or communicating with them in a meaningful way. There are managers who do engage first hand, but they are not real decision makers, and just relay the report on situation and context upstream / execute on decisions of others. Relay of accurate first hand information from workers to execs almost never happens.
As one of the neighbor threads accurately highlighted: this is by design, both on customer side and on worker’s side. Customers get vouchers, workers get retainers, among both there is a calculated percentage of people facing what they see as “accountability sink”, what is in reality a machine intentionally designed that way.