Getting a bit older now I have started to have a realization go so deep it's in the bones.
There is a culture of “Impossible Standards” in workplaces.
I have worked in hospitality, I have worked in labor/trades, and I have worked in sales/management.
There is impossible speeds, impossible goals, and so forth always set.
I wondered why until I got into management. It is to keep you nervous about your job and to burn you out and then replace you. You produce more when you are nervous and or can be stressed to work beyond your natural speeds and reality.
This is especially evident in the lower income fields.
They want to take absolutely everything they can from you and then discard you or have you quit when you are no longer able to keep going.
This is why bargaining power is so incredibly important.
Immigration, foreign workers, etc. etc. are beyond important.
Xenophobia, racism, general prejudice means you are a complete moron in 2023.
That being said these realities alongside others are used to make sure there is very little bargaining power.
The only thing you have to bargain with is your labor. That basic truth gets muddied and complicated by various outside media but that is all you have as a bargaining chip.
End of the day we are going to have to get this message out there.
We can have all the “mental health” outside speakers come in trying to prove a company cares but everyone is usually to afraid to say what is actually going on and if they do nothing really changes. I've seen it everywhere.
The realities of the situation have to come out for things to actually get addressed and change actually has to happen.
You don't have bargaining power unless you have something someone actually needs. Remember that, all the fancy words and ideas doesn't change that reality.