Introduction: Workers' Choices, Company Policies, and Loyalties

Extract

The history of industrial paternalism is full of paradoxes. Although depictions of the entrepreneur as provider and guiding spirit for numerous families gathered under his wing are readily associated with the cultural legacy of preindustrial life, companies have frequently introduced employee benefits in conjunction with innovations in technology and work relations. Imagery and practices featuring the personal solicitude of a familiar boss have been articulated by huge enterprises with elaborate managerial hierarchies. While trade unionists have routinely denounced company welfare plans as “A pocket full of tricks/To soothe the weary worker/When he groans and kicks,” more than one employer has echoed the lament: “Everything we give them for nothing makes them a bit lazier, and a little harder to deal with, and more prone to find fault.”