The Arbitrary Whim of Some Jerk Manager

Stomach hurt? Headaches? Nervous twitches appearing in odd places? Regular nightmares about work? You’ve caught it! STRESS!! The effects of stress can be quite far-reaching. Among the more fearsome results are heart disease, nervous system disorders, assorted inexplicable physical malfunctions, sometimes even dramatic pain.

This is from a leaflet circulated in the 1980s by a group called the “Nasty Secretaries Liberation Front” (and naturally, I want to find out far, far more about them).

The text of the leaflet was transcribed and uploaded to libcom.org (“a resource for everyone fighting to improve their lives, communities and working conditions.”)

Everything about it is remarkable, correct, and ahead of its time:

When you “get” stress, have you caught something? Or is it more accurate to say that we are all caught by situations which force us to put up with ridiculous and humiliating demands, as often as not simply to fulfil the arbitrary whim of some jerk manager?

Stress is not a result of individual failings. It is the result of an irrational and inhumane society. The solution to stress will not be found in any special seminar, or in any special meditation or exercise techniques (though it is true that some such techniques help some people temporarily cope with some results of stress). Stress is such a fundamental part of contemporary society that it will take a deliberate restructuring of the social order to reduce it in any real sense.

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