Freedom - What Does it Mean in the Work Context

Freedom, Work and Organization

Freedom

`Freedom means many things to many people. Do we mean by freedom, a freedom from – freedom from drudgery, from monotony, from the stupidity of manual work, freedom from the irrational authority of a boss or foreman, freedom from exploitation? Or, on the other hand, do we mean freedom to – freedom to participate actively in the work process or freedom to enjoy work?’

Fromm contends that our everyday, commonsense conception of freedom is a negative one

Eric Fromm, `Freedom in the Work Situation’ in M. Harrington and P. Jacobs, eds, Labor in a Free Society, University of California Press, 1960, p. 1

The story was an apparently true one concerning a certain butler who had travelled with his employer to India and served there for many years maintaining amongst the native staff the same high standards he had commanded in England. One afternoon, evidently, this butler had entered the dining room to make sure all was well for dinner, when he noticed a tiger languishing beneath the dining table. The butler had left the dining room quietly, taking care to close the doors behind him, and proceeded calmly to the drawing room where his employer was taking tea with a number of visitors. There he attracted his employer’s attention with a polite cough, then whispered in the latter’s ear: ‘I’m very sorry, sir, but there appears to be a tiger in the dining room. Perhaps you will permit the twelve-bores to be used?’

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, page 36

‘Perfectly fine, thank you, sir,’ had come the reply. ‘Dinner will be served at the usual time and I am pleased to say there will be no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that time.’

And according to legend, a few minutes later, the employer and his guests heard three gun shots. When the butler reappeared in the drawing room some time afterwards to refresh the teapots, the employer had inquired if all was well.

This last phrase — ‘no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that time’ — my father would repeat with a laugh and shake his head admiringly.

What did `my father’ find so admirable about this butler? (The Laugh also suggests that the story was a source of joy)

Did the actions of the butler express freedom or enslavement?

What kind of power did the butler exercise?

One way to think of Fromm’s distinction between `freedom from’ and `freedom to’ is in terms of

Forms of protection that secure a degree of freedom from fears and constraints (the having mode)

Forms of engagement that facilitate our freedom to face fears and constraints (the being mode)

Freedom to exercise various freedoms `of’ (e.g. speech, assembly, etc)

`Because I can lose what I have, I am necessarily constantly worried that I shall lose what I have. I am afraid of thieves, of economic changes, of revolutions, of sickness, of death, and I am afraid of love, of freedom, of growth, of change, of the unknown…I become defensive, hard, suspicious, lonely, driven by the need to have more in order to be better protected’

E. Fromm, To Have or To Be, p.111, original emphasis

`Freedom to’ is unconstrained by such neuroses

Freedom is ascribed to individuals in a way that holds them solely or sovereignly responsible for their actions resulting in guilt and punishment

The existence of protections for certain freedoms (e.g. freedom to sell labour, freedom to vote) serves to legitimise dominant institutions that inhibit `freedom to’.

e.g. the idea of `freedom of choice’ justifies both rampant consumptionism and limited range of alternatives provided by oligopolistic competition.

Fromm’s conception of freedom to is founded upon a philosophy of (radical, as contrasted with liberal) humanism.

Humanism assumes the possibility of developing or fulfilling an integrated, autonomous self. It is a radical formulation of individual sovereignty

`The growing person is forced to give up most )f his or her autonomous, genuine desires and interests, and us or her own will, and to adopt a will and desires and feelings that are not autonomous but superimposed by the social patterns of thought and feeling’. To Have or to Be, p. 84, emphasis added

`It must be clearly understood, though, that freedom is not
laissez-faire and arbitrariness. Human beings have a specific structure — like any other species — and can grow only in terms of this structure’. To Have or to Be, p. 85, emphasis added

Freedom does not mean freedom from all guiding principles. It means the freedom to grow according to the laws of the structure of human existence (autonomous restrictions). It means obedience to the laws that govern optimal human development. To Have or to Be, p. 85, emphasis added

 

Posthumanists have questioned the assumption of an essential structure and the associated idea of radical sovereignty (autonomy) that accompanies compliance with the laws of the structure

Posthumanists have argued for a `de-centred subject’ that lacks any `essential structure’.

`Freedom’ for poststructuralists involves demystifying the myths of sovereignty in theory and in practice.

The poststructuralist understanding is similar to the Fromm’s idea of `being’. But it abandons the idea that human beings can be both`free’ and retain the myth/sense of being autonomous, sovereign subjects who are in control of the (emancipatory) process.

Ego climber – continually striving to get ego one up on life. Conquest. Accumulation.

Humanist selfless climber – rejoices in difference to ego climber. Regards self as fundamentally different to, and better than, ego climber (more integrated, enlightened,etc). Appreciation. Self satisfaction. Struggle to become centred/integrated

Posthumanist selfless climber – acknowledges continuities with ego climber. Residues of myth of sovereignty/freedom remain. Compassion. Wisdom. Acceptance of de-centredness

`There have been a number of misconceptions regarding meditation. Some people regard it as a trancelike state of mind. Others think of it in terms of training, in the sense of mental gymnastics. But meditation is neither of these, although it does involve dealing with neurotic states of mind. The neurotic state of mind is not difficult or impossible to deal with. It has energy, speed and a certain Pattern. The practice of meditation involves letting be—trying to go with the pattern, trying to go with the energy and the speed. In this way we learn how to deal with these factors, how to relate with them, not in the sense of causing them to mature in the way we would like, but in the sense of knowing them for what they are and working with their pattern’.

C. Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, 1973, p9, emphasis added

 

`Freedom’ is a contested concept

Different conceptions of freedom em-power and legitimise different practices and institutions

Fromm’s concept of `freedom to’ is helpful for recognising and criticising dominant concept of freedom as `freedom from’

Humanist idea of `freedom from’ can be criticised for its ego-centred idea of freedom = autonomy/autonomy even though it is a radical one.

Posthumanist idea of `freedom to’ is consistent with the (meditation) practice of `letting be’.

Freedom

Absence of constraint; antithesis of compulsion; absence of responsibility

Opportunity for employer and employee to negotiate/refuse terms and conditions

Economic (e.g. market), Political (e.g. democratic) and Cultural (e.g. life-style)

Work

Different from but often equated with paid employment

Creative activity – role of imagination and inspiration

Issues of ownership and control re. Institutional media of work

Organization

Both `freedom’ and `work’ are socially defined (e.g. freedom `to’ v freedom `from’) and organized (e.g. hierarchical v democratic)

Social organization is the medium of the practices identified as `work’ and `freedom’

Work organization is a `species’ of social organization

Explore Freedom, Work, Organization through idea of `vocation’

What Does Freedom Mean (in the Work Context)?

`Freedom means many things to many people. Do we mean by freedom, a freedom from – freedom from drudgery, from monotony, from the stupidity of manual work, freedom from the irrational authority of a boss or foreman, freedom from exploitation?

Or, on the other hand, do we mean freedom to – freedom to participate actively in the work process or freedom to enjoy work?’

Fromm contends that our everyday, commonsense conception of freedom tends to be a negative one (i.e `freedom from’ )that urges marginal reforms rather than radical change (i.e to facilitate `freedom to’).

Eric Fromm, `Freedom in the Work Situation’ in M. Harrington and P. Jacobs, eds, Labor in a Free Society, University of California Press, 1960, p. 1

Where does the idea of `vocation’ fit in with this?

Dictionary definition : 1. `A regular occupation or profession; especially one for which one is specially suited or qualified. 2. An urge or predisposition to undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; a calling. [Middle English vocacioun divine call to a religious life]

Freedom

Liberty

Openness

Choice

Constraint

Tyranny

Closure

Compulsion

One way to think of freedom is in terms of Fromm’s distinction between `freedom from’ and `freedom to’. We can consider this distinction in terms of

Forms of protection that secure a degree of freedom from fears and constraints (the `having’ mode)

e.g. freedom from tyranny, poverty, etc. Freedom that negates the (threat of the) Other.

Forms of engagement that facilitate our freedom to face fears and constraints (the `being’ mode)

e.g. freedom to move beyond the present. Freedom that affirms the (possibilities of the) Other

Again, where do ideas of `vocation’ fit in with this?

Freedom From

`Not to move forward, to stay where we are, to regress, in other words to rely on what we have, is very tempting, for what we have, we know; we can hold on to it, feel secure in it’ (Fromm, Having and Being, p. 110)

Lacks of vocation?

Freedom To

`The anxiety and insecurity engendered by the danger of losing what one has are absent in the being mode. If I am what I am and not what I have, nobody can deprive me of or threaten my security and my sense of identity. My centre is within myself; my capacity for being and expressing my essential powers is part of my character structure and depends on me’ (Having and Being, p.112)

Has a vocation?

Vic : `I’ve never skied, I’ve never surfed. I’ve never learned to play a musical instrument…I could go on and on’. He had been about to say, I’ve never slept with a woman other than my wife, but thought better of it

Robyn : `There’s still time’.

Vic : `No, it’s too late. All I’m good for is work. It’s the only thing I’m any good at.’

Robyn : `Well, that’s something. To have a job you like and be good at it’.

Vic : `Yes, it’s something’, he agreed, thinking that in the small hours it didn’t seem enough; but again he didn’t say that aloud either.’

D. Lodge, Nice Work, p. 255

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig (pp23 et seq) recounts his experience of taking his bike to be repaired at a workshop (`because I thought [the problem] wasn’t important enough to justify getting into myself).

Careless Work : Mechanics did work that compounded the problem and failed to reassemble the engine correctly but without identifying the sheared pin in the oil-delivery system that had prevented oil reaching the engine at high speeds, resulting in it seizing.

Conditions of Work : The radio was on, they were in a hurry (piece-rates) :

Thoughtless and Detached Work : `You really can’t think hard about what you’re doing and listen to the radio at the same time. Maybe they didn’t see their job as having anything to do with hard thought…At 5pm or whenever their eight hours were in, you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job…their own selves were outside of it, detached, removed. They were involved in it but not in such a way as to care’, p. 25-6, emphases added

Dignity : `the factor that distinguishes [the great butlers] from those butlers who are merely extremely competent is most closely captured by this word "dignity"’ Remains of the Day, p. 33

Inhabiting the Role : `The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmost; they will not be shaken out by external events…he will discard [the role] only when he wills to do so, and this will invariably be when he is entirely alone. It is, as I say, a matter of "dignity"’ (ibid : 43)

Learning the Role : Stevens disagreed with the contention that butlers who act in a dignified manner are born rather than made, challenging the claim that dignity is like a `woman’s beauty’ – as something that is like a fluke of nature. `While I would accept that the majority of butlers may well discover ultimately that they do not have the capacity for it, I believe strongly that this "dignity" is something that one can meaningfully strive for throughout one’s career’ (ibid : 33)

In what sense does `security’, `identity’, `character structure’ belong to me ?

How is the sense of `me’ constructed except through relations of inter-dependence with participants in the social and natural worlds?

Is there any `centre’ or `essential power(s)’ other than life itself?

The Mythology of Humanism – Fromm appeals to humanism/humanistic ethics founded upon the sovereignty of human reason as a defence against authoritarianism

Ethics
Modern/Humanist v Postmodern/Posthumanist

Modernist/Humanist

(Fromm)

`the mature, productive, rational person will choose a system which permits him to be mature, productive and rational. The person who has been blocked in his development must revert to primitive and irrational systems which in turn prolong and increase his dependence and irrationality’ (E. Fromm, Man for Himself, p. 49

 

Postmodern/Posthumanist

(Bauman)

`[morality] precedes the emergence of the socially administered context inside which the terms in which justifications and excuses are couched appear and make sense…there is no self before the moral self, morality being the ultimate, non-determined presence’ Z. Bauman, Postmodern Ethics, p. 13. See also H.Willmott, `Towards a New Ethics : The Contribution of Poststructuralism and Posthumanism’ in M. Parker, Ethics and Organizations, London : Sage, 2000

`The story was an apparently true one concerning a certain butler who had travelled with his employer to India and served there for many years maintaining amongst the native staff the same high standards he had commanded in England. One afternoon, evidently, this butler had entered the dining room to make sure all was well for dinner, when he noticed a tiger languishing beneath the dining table. The butler had left the dining room quietly, taking care to close the doors behind him, and proceeded calmly to the drawing room where his employer was taking tea with a number of visitors. There he attracted his employer’s attention with a polite cough, then whispered in the latter’s ear: ‘I’m very sorry, sir, but there appears to be a tiger in the dining room. Perhaps you will permit the twelve-bores to be used?…’

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, page 36

‘Perfectly fine, thank you, sir,’ had come the reply. ‘Dinner will be served at the usual time and I am pleased to say there will be no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that time.’

And according to legend, a few minutes later, the employer and his guests heard three gun shots. When the butler reappeared in the drawing room some time afterwards to refresh the teapots, the employer had inquired if all was well.

This last phrase — ‘no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that time’ — my father would repeat with a laugh and shake his head admiringly.

Fears and Freedoms

Does it make sense to differentiate between (i)forms of work and/or (ii) people in terms of vocational/non-vocational?

If this can make sense, is a vocation willed? Is it the product of choice or of destiny?

How do we understand `vocation’ in terms of the WIS key concepts?

Does it makes sense to talk about any of the following as being in/having a `vocation’ : Robyn in Nice Work, Stevens in The Remains of the Day, Tomas in Unbearable Lightness of Being, Reverend Bacon in The Bonfire of the Vanities?

Max Weber discusses science as a vocation :

Passionate Devotion :`whoever lacks the capacity…to come up to the idea that the fate of his soul depends upon whether or not he makes the correct conjecture at this passage of this manuscript may as well stay away from science. He will never have what one may call the "personal experience" of science’…nothing is worthy of man as man unless he can pursue it with passionate devotion’ `Science as a Vocation’ in Gerth and Mills, From Max Weber, p. 135

Inspiration : `ideas come when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks. Yet ideas would certainly not come to mind had we not brooded at our desks and searched for answers with passionate devotion’ (ibid : 136)

Imagination : `[The scientist] may be an excellent worker and yet never have had any valuable idea of his own. It is a grave error to believe that this is so only in science, and that things for instance in a business office are different from the laboratory. A merchant or a big industrialist without `business imagination’, that is, without ideas or ideal intuitions, will for all his life remain a man who would better have remained a clerk or a technical official. He will never be truly creative in organization’ (ibid : 136)

Destiny/ Gifts : `whether we have scientific inspiration depends upon destinies that are hidden from us, and besides upon "gifts"’ (ibid : 136)

What is the equivalent for the occupations pursued by Robyn, Stevens, Tomas and Bacon, and how closely do they approximate it?

What evidence, or the lack of it, would you cite to support the idea that these characters `have’ vocations?

What implications does the idea of vocation have for conceptions of freedom and choice?

`an inner devotion to the task, and that alone, should lift the (vocational) scientist to the height and dignity of the subject he pretends to serve’ (Weber, ibid, p.137)

Kundera identifies Tomas’s "ess muss sein" with his profession, not his love (ULB, p.191).

Unlike Tomas’ discovery of Teresa which had come about as a series of coincidences, he had discovered medicine from `a deep inner desire’ (ibid, 191)

The nature of vocation?`Insofar as it is possible to divide people into categories, the surest criterion is the deep-seated desires that orient them to one or another lifelong activity. Every Frenchman is different. But all actors the world over are similar. An actor is someone who in early childhood consents to exhibit himself for the rest of his life to an anonymous public. Without that basic consent, which has nothing to do with talent, which goes deeper than talent, non one can become an actor’ (ibid : 193)

Sequence of events

Tomas is a dedicated brain surgeon

Tomas notes how

- the architects of the `criminal regimes’ of Eastern Europe were not criminals but, rather, `enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise’ ULB, p. 176

- in order to defend the road, many people were executed

When it became clear that paradise was not being found, they were redefined as murderers.

When held responsible for their `crimes’, the architects and supporters of the regime said that they were `true believers’ and were fundamentally innocent

Issue was then construed in terms of whether they were genuinely blinded by their believe in `paradise’ or were `merely making believe’ in an expedient manner

Sequence of events

6. Tomas came to the view that only a minority of Communists had been aware of atrocities,etc.

7. But Tomas asked himself whether someone is innocent who does not know, the inference being that people have a responsibility to inform themselves : `Isn’t his "I didn’t know! I was a believer! At the very root of his irreparable guilt?’

8. Tomas did not understand how they could bear the sight of what they had done as a consequence of their (moral) failure to find out. He believed that they should atone for their ignorance by (metaphorically) putting out their own eyes

9. So, in contrast to most people who were preoccupied with the question of whether they knew or not (and were therefore guilty or not), Tomas suggested in a newspaper article, published as a letter to the editor, that they bore some guilt irrespective of whether they knew that atrocities were being committed.

Sequence of events

10. Tomas’s article was cut substantially by the editor `making it too schematic and aggressive’ (ibid : 178)

11. Tomas’ letter added to expressions of dissent voiced during Dubcek’s brief tenure in the Spring of 1968, leading to demands by the unrepentant Communists for Russia to restore order - `the Russians decided that free speech was inadmissible in their gubernia, and in a single night they occupied Tomas’ country

12. When Tomas returned from Zurich to Prague, he was asked by the chief surgeon to retract his newspaper article

13. Tomas agreed that the (shortened) article did not matter much to him (partly because it failed to convey his views) but refused to retract it.

`There were two things in the balance : his honour (which consisted in his refusing to retract what he had said) and what he had come to call the meaning of his life (his work in medicine and research).’ (ibid, p. 179)

Sequence of events

14. Tomas decides not to retract because he would be ashamed of doing so. He also resented the expectation of his colleagues that he would sign – something that he regarded as lacking in integrity and personal honesty

15. Tomas came to believe that everyone also wanted him to retract either because it would make them feel better about their own acts of cowardice or because it would make people who had refused to compromise more heroic and superior.

16. As he refused to retract, he was forced to leave the hospital

17. Initially he worked in inferior medical positions, dispensing prescriptions and acting more as a civil servant than a doctor

18. Then he was visited by a plausible man from the Minister of the Interior who flattered him and succeeded in obtaining information from Tomas about the circumstances of the publication of his article. In a clumsy effort to conceal the identity of an editor, Tomas inadvertently and farcically betrays another editor.

`When you sit face to face with someone who is pleasant, respectful, and polite, you have a hard time reminding yourself that nothing he says is true, that nothing is sincere. Maintaining nonbelief (constantly, systematically, without the slightest vacillation) requires a tremendous effort…’

Sequence of events

19. Tomas is asked to sign a statement that goes well beyond a retraction to implicate an editor in a charge of counterrevolution by using his article

20 Tomas refuses to sign it or any modified version of it but gained a bit of time by indicating that he might be willing to do so

21. The next day Tomas resigns from the clinic

`The very next day he resigned from the clinic, assuming (correctly) that after he had descended voluntarily to the lowest rung of the social ladder ( a descent being made by thousands of other intellectuals in other fields at the time), the police would have no more hold over him and he would cease to interest them. Once he had reached the lowest rung on the ladder, they would no longer be able to publish a statement in his name, for the simple reason that no one would accept it as genuine’ (ibid, p.192).

22. Tomas became a window cleaner. The "ess muss sein" of being a surgeon was vanquished. Kundera suggests that such inner compulsions are the weightiest of all, and therefore provokes the greatest resistance : `Internal imperatives are all the more powerful and therefore all the more of an inducement to revolt’ (ibid : 196)

 

Sequence of events

23. Initially shocked by the result of his decision, Tomas came to regard himself on a long holiday, `doing things he didn’t care a damn about, and enjoying it. Now he understood what made people (people he always pitied) happy when they took a job without feeling the compulsion of an internal "Ess muss sein!" and forgot it the moment they left for home every evening’ (ibid : 197)

[Compare with Robyn in Nice Work who says `I never stop working. If I’m n ot working here [at the University], I’m working at home. This isn’t a factory, you know. We don’t clock in and out. (page 334).]

24. Tomas roamed the streets of Prague feeling ten years younger and enjoyed the salesgirls calling him `doctor’.

`Each workday, he had sixteen hours to himself, an unexpected field of freedom. And from Tomas’s early youth that had meant women’ (ibid : 198)

`It was a desire not for pleasure (the pleasure came as an extra, a bonus) but for possession of the world (slitting open the outstretched body of the world with his scalpel) that sent him in pursuit of women’ (ibid : 200)

`Only in sexuality does the millionth part dissimilarity become precious, because, not accessible to the public, it must be conquered…sexuality seems still to be a strongbox hiding the mystery of a woman’s "I"’ (ibid : 200)

Exploration of ideas about `freedom’ and `work’ through idea of vocation

Examination and critique of humanism and associated conceptions of decision-making and ethics

Consideration of the relevance of `vocation’ for understanding work experience. Comparisons of Vic, Stevens and Tomas

`Vocation’ combines elements of `freedom to’ and `freedom from’. `Freedom from’ personally meaningless work and `freedom to’ pursue a distinctive career. This is seen to have negative as well as positive aspects, as illustrated by Tomas’ descent from brain surgeon (weight) to window cleaner (lightness).

What parallels may be plausibly drawn between Tomas’s position in relation to the Communist regime of and corporate managers’ (e.g Vic’s) relation to their employer?

`the criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced that they had discovered the only road to paradise’ ULB, p.176

Freedom and Society