Shit To Quit #1 and #2
Small business owners as sacred cows; The proverbial "we"
People (OK, one person…OK, me) keep saying “It’S cAlLeD bIg QuIt EnErGy! WhAt ExAcTlY aRe YoU qUiTtInG?!?”
Here’s a series of shit we should quit* to enjoy a post-work, joyful existence.
(*A lot of this shit is shit I haven’t quit. Lay off. Recognition is the first step.)
#1 Small business owners as sacred cows
I understand that proliferating small businesses is better for society than concentrating economic power in a few large corporations, so I’m on board for supporting small businesses overall. But deifying small business owners (without any sort of corresponding reverence for small business employees, by the way)? Not for it.
First, is working under a petty little dictator THAT much better than working inside a large corporate machinery? You could argue that it’s worse: at least employees at large corporations have an HR department pretending to protect them from the whims of their supervisor. There’s a reason why restaurants have the rep of being some of the worst work environments out there.
But that aside, sacred-cow small businesses serve as the perfect front to justify rules and legislation that mostly benefit hideously oppressive and gargantuan corporations. “Raising the minimum wage will drive this small business owner out of business! We can’t do it!” For some reason, it’s blasphemy to respond with “I don’t care if you’re some scrappy bootstrap story…if you can’t pay a living wage, you don’t deserve to have employees.”
You don’t get a pass on exploiting people just because you’re not a faceless corporation. It’s nice that you have a face, don’t get me wrong. But faces can be punchable and loathsome, and right now I see such a face, one lusting for growth and selling out and getting rich off the back of other people. Miss me with that.
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#2 The proverbial “We”
As in using “we/us” to make blanket assumptions about our audience or, worse, all of society. For example, “We all grew up loving the Ninja Turtles.” I mean, I did. But all of us? Really? Or, “The 90s as we all fondly remember them.” Beside the fact that a sizable portion of BQE readers were born after 2000, I’m gonna put this out there: I didn’t particularly enjoy the 90s. I’d much rather live today.
I’m guilty of using the proverbial “we” a lot. It’s a hard habit to quit (I introduced this series as shit “we” should quit). And I get that it gives a warm and fuzzy feeling of unity, of “us” all being on the same team. But it can be insidious when people write thought-pieces and use the proverbial “we” to establish their experience or view to be a universal given, above any debate.
This sounds nitpicky, and overall it is. But it’s good to watch out for throwaway expressions that “normalize” or “universalize” attitudes and points of view that are decidedly NOT universal or normal. Such as, “We all want a good job that gives us purpose.” Bitch, not me! I get my purpose from play and leisure just fine, thank you.
This has been today’s installment of “Shit to Quit.” If you have shit you think people should quit, shoot me a note and we’ll try to get everyone to quit that shit.
I will try to think of Shit We Need to Quit.