The headlines about work this week have been hard to ignore.

Not just because they’re shocking but because they’re starting to feel familiar.

I keep catching myself reading these stories and thinking, that’s extreme…

and then immediately wondering if it actually is.

Because if you strip away the headlines and the dramatic moments, what’s underneath them doesn’t feel all that different from what a lot of people are dealing with every day.

The pressure. The constant push to do more. The feeling that no matter how much you get done, it’s never quite enough, yet still your paycheck isn’t covering basic needs. 

It just doesn’t usually make the news.

Which brings me back to the question I can’t seem to shake.

When did companies stop treating employees like humans?

And the more I think about it, I’m not sure they ever really did.

If you go back to the Industrial Revolution, worker treatment was awful. Long hours, unsafe conditions, kids working in factories, and wages that often circled right back to the employer through company stores. We like to think we’ve moved far beyond that.

And in some ways, we have.

Events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire forced change. Workers pushed back and laws were put in place. Protections started to exist.

For a while, it looked like things had leveled out. People stayed with companies for years. There were pensions. There was this general sense that if you showed up and did your job, the company would take care of you.

But even that wasn’t really about taking care of people.

It was about stability. About keeping things predictable. About making sure the system kept running

And then, that shifted too.

Not in a way that made headlines at the time. Just gradually enough that it became normal before anyone really questioned it.

People stopped being long-term investments and started being something that could be adjusted when needed.

You can see it in how routine layoffs became. How little loyalty actually matters now. How the expectation quietly turned into constantly proving your value.

Now everything is tracked and measured.

Which sounds fine until you’re the one trying to live inside it.

Because what that turns into, most days, is the feeling that you’re never quite caught up. There’s always something else you should be doing. Something you missed. Something you could have done better or faster. And we’re doing it all…working more, pushing harder, and we still cant afford to live.

Not comfortably or securely. And in many cases, not even basically.

So it’s not just that the expectations keep increasing. It’s that the payoff isn’t keeping up with them.

And when you hit a wall, or your brain just refuses to cooperate, or your body starts pushing back it’s really easy to assume the problem is you.

But that assumption is wrong. 

Lately, it’s getting harder to ignore what’s happening around all of this.

You’ve probably seen some of the headlines. The Kimberly-Clark warehouse fire where a worker reportedly said, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.”  I think anyone who is working and struggling to make ends meet relates to that. 

Add to that, stories like the one where an employee collapsed at an Amazon warehouse and coworkers not only weren’t allowed to perform CPR, they were forced to continue working around the body. Echoes of the industrial age? For sure. 

The easy response is for us to call those situations extreme.

And they are. But they didn’t come out of nowhere. I don’t think we’re looking at isolated incidents anymore. I think we’re seeing what happens when people hit a limit.

Most change doesn’t start with something dramatic. It starts earlier than that, and it’s usually quieter. Before that man ever considered torching that warehouse, I guarantee there were signs that his employer was pushing him and his coworkers to a breaking point. 

So what does this have to do with you and me?  I don’t work a warehouse job, and chances are you don’t either. We probably haven’t dealt with the extremes that they have. 

But that doesn’t mean we aren’t affected by being treated as less than human. And it’s not just employees. Sometimes small businesspeople, particularly one person shows, get treated that way by clients too. And owning your own business doesn’t automatically mean you’re making the money needed to survive.

Especially in an economy like we are in at the moment. And small micro businesses often don’t have the ability to simply raise prices for clients.  Why?  Well, there’s the fear of losing those clients and thus worsening the problem. 

The truth is the system didn’t suddenly change, it was built this way; and I think more and more people are starting to see that more clearly.  And once you do, it’s hard to go back to pretending that it makes sense. 

I believe we are entering an important new season when it comes to work. I feel we are reaching a point that when work stops working, we are no longer going to assume that we are the problem. I believe we are at the point where we are ready to demand change. And we will insist that those changes revolve around a focus on us as humans, not a means to the biggest profit. 

I certainly don’t have all the answers…but I think we’re asking better questions.

Just something to think about,

If this is hitting a little close to home, you’re not alone.

I’ve put together a page with resources and ways to start shifting your work so it actually fits your life a little better. You can check that out here:

https://clericaladvantage.com/shift-support/

And if you’re at the point where you’re really starting to question what kind of work actually works for you, this might help too:

https://clericaladvantage.com/work-that-loves-you-back/