I am looking for advice or maybe just encouragement if it can be spared.
Sometimes when I’m with friends or family and a political issue or something work-culture related, I cannot help but try and persuade people to think about how to improve our working conditions.
I live in a medium city in the Midwest US surrounded by a very rural area. Friends and people my age are generally open to some forms of progress on societal issues I guess, and yet when I try to talk about more freedom in the work place it’s just met with incredulity.
I am simply asking friends if they could imagine a situation where employees would get some say or power in their company in the decisions that affect the employees most like benefits, wages, work schedules.
They think the idea is somewhat admirable but completely unattainable. I kindly reminded them of the thousands of worker co-ops, for example in part of Italy where worker cooperatives are almost half of all companies and they successfully employ thousands of employees who enjoy better wages and benefits than non cooperative workers.
I think they are in a mix of a scarcity mindset and stockholm syndrome. One friend simply pointed out that his current job treats him better than his former job, even though I know his current boss has been at times cruel, even withholding a promotion that was promised to him. Yet he said something like “if people don’t like their current job why don’t the work for someone else?” Okay, great. That is not at all a solution for a lot of workplace shit that people deal with.
I guess I am just really discouraged about the lack of imagination towards a better working world. Where is the desire for something even remotely better among my friends ? I was honestly let down that they ridiculed the idea of any sort of democracy or increased worker sovereignty in the workplace. Has me feeling like this shit is never gonna get better. Any advice to deal with this?
Edit: grammar