A request for time off from work is not a ‘request,’ it is a notification of absence. There are several reasons for this, but first, why are we so entrenched in the idea that the employer holds all the cards?
Why Do We Call It A ‘Request?’
Most of us are known as what many call wage slaves. This means that we rely on an income by an employer to make ends meet. The term is often used in Marxist ideologies, having most likely been introduced, as Thomas Falk suggests, “in 1836, when Lowell Mill girls protested against the degradation of the emerging factory system.” However, I don’t particularly think it is fair to compare wage labor with slavery, in particular. First, we have chosen to take on this particular employment. Slavery indicates that we were brought into it, even by force if necessary. Further, the racial connotations of slavery is not something I would particularly classify as qualifying for seeking and maintaining employment. I would suggest it is more an indentured servitude; we have been coerced into this situation in order to survive and try to make a better life for ourselves.
Granting this, we see the employer as the master. They hold the power and we don’t. This leads to an inherent problem, as Michael Foucault points out in “The History of Sexuality,” “Where there is power, there is resistance.” He expands on this by saying:
“If power were never anything but repressive, if it never did anything but to say no, do you really think one would be brought to obey it? What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn’t only weigh on us as a force that says no, but it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression.”
-Michael Foucault, “Power/Knowledge”
The point here is that in the case of employment, “indentured wage servants” are repressed. In the case of “requesting” time off, it is a matter of that repression that the employer has forced upon us, which we have mostly accepted due to some benefit we receive.
Up until now.
What Is Employment?
To eventually make my point, we need to delve into the ontology of employment. This philosophical term simply means that we are going to discuss what employment actually is. The boring thing to do here is to look in a dictionary, which would define it as “the condition of having paid work.” This doesn’t give us a whole lot to work with. Instead, I want to take what we normally think of as employment, and exploit instances where we separate the term into different meanings.
The first interpretation is what we are all familiar with: we are “employed” by an “employer” to work for them, in return we get some benefit in the form of payment. The second is when we, ourselves, employ someone to do some work for us. I employ a contractor to fix my plumbing, for example, and I bet you do too.
The thing is, though, these two are not so different. We are forming a contract, formal or informal, to do some task with compensation. So why is it, then, that when we employ a plumber, we give them all the respect in the world for their expertise — they tell us when they will be around, they tell us how much it will be, they set everything — yet, we turn around and give all our respect to our employer? Surely, respect is a good attribute to have, but in regards to control, both those who we employ and those who employ us, are the ones in charge. We are the expert laborers, we ought to be the ones to say how much our work is worth, and when we are going to do it.
Making the Change
This may be the most post-modern article I have written, and for that, I may get some flak. However, to push the envelope even further, it is important to note why this is being approached this way. We know the state of the situation. The point is not to describe it, but to change it. As put best by the ever-idolized Marx:
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world differently, what matters is to change it.”
-Marx, Engels, Werke, “Theses on Feuerbach”
We are the sellers in the situation of regular employment, and the employer is the purchaser. Surely, we need to “sell” ourselves in the same way any salesperson would. This does not mean, however, that we are unlike an independent contractor who sets our own hours, pay, and whatever else we need or want from the situation. This includes time off. For any reason at all whatsoever. Of course, the employer may decide that your services are no longer worth purchasing, but we do that with plumbers: “Oh, you won't be available for the next 4 weeks?” Guess I’ll go somewhere else. That was the plumber's choice, they did not need your approval for the time off.
I’ll add here that it is silly to have time off approved because when time is requested off, it is for a reason. Imagine taking time off for a death in the family. Surely, you protest, management would approve this request. Why would they approve it? You need it off. Okay, so what makes that any different from a dentist appointment, or goodness forbid: a mental health day or vacation! When we request time off, it’s always because we need it. No, I don’t need you to affirm the fact that I am burnt out. I am informing you that I am not going to be there these days; your job is to figure out how to organize and prepare for that.
What Employers Should Note
It’s all nice and well to make the argument that I am making, but to leave it there would change nothing. The employer still holds all the cards, since we need to work to survive.
Some have argued that big companies now run the country. However, they still fear the government coming in and busting up their fun, this is why they would try to control it in the first place. In this way, they may not be kings, but could be seen as lords — the owners of the available labor to be worked, which we as their servants work on. Just as lords owned the land that peasants worked on to survive. In this way, they are statesmen to some degree.
“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils — no, nor the human race, as I believe — and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.”
-Plato, “The Republic”
In other words, one of the best ways employers can actually make a difference in the world is by becoming philosophers. If we take a look at management, for example, none of them are trained philosophers. They make the rules, and we follow them. No if’s and’s or but’s. If we don’t, we will quickly be introduced to the door.
This simply will not do.
Bring this article up to your manager, and they are sure to laugh at you, or give a threatening glare. I should know, I approached my manager this way. I was told that my time off request was not seen or approved, and that I need to check if it was in the future. I told him I don’t think I should need to. Instead of, as a philosopher would, ask why I think that, he looked up and just said “what?” with a menacing glare. After repeating, he laughed and said “we will talk about it later.” Needless to say, I did not get to represent my position — more repression. In other words, he was saying “I make the rules, and you follow them. If you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
I only had the courage to do this much with the anticipation of another job on the horizon.
This cannot continue. We are independent contractors — we set our rules. Employers can choose to engage in our contracts or not, we can negotiate, and come to a settlement depending on what we value. Just don’t undervalue yourself to the point that you give away all the power and benefit of your labor.
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