There's no doubt coronavirus has exacerbated damaging workplace practices. Labour MP Jess Phillips explains why we must all speak up and protect ourselves before it's way too late
Within my book Truth to Power, I use the stories of brilliant campaigners who took on governments and multinational companies to inspire people. I want us all to speak up about the bullshit in our lives. A global pandemic is now controlling our government, our working lives and our social lives. The world looks dramatically different, but the need to speak up when things are wrong is greater than ever – if we’re going to protect ourselves in a post-pandemic workplace.
Workplaces can be empowering when we work together as a team, pushing together for a common goal and ensuring all those who put in the effort are rewarded. Alas, workplaces can also be where the same old faces always rise to the top. Where no matter how hard you work, if you are a certain age, sex, race or have a disability you will always be considered a risk.
The COVID-19 crisis and a crashing economy is exacerbating bad workplace practice that could leak into the post-pandemic workplace. I’ve already heard of businesses using the pandemic as an excuse to restructure. Alarmingly, a woman in my constituency told me how her company had only furloughed female employees. I believe as unemployment rises, and the risk of job losses increases, people will feel the pressure to remain silent on unsafe work practices, unfair decisions or unreasonable demands. People will be literally too scared of losing their jobs to speak up.
We cannot let a pandemic be used to open the door to crappy bosses and bad stuff in the post-pandemic workplace. So how can you speak up and what should you do?
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First of all, never try and do this stuff on your own. If you can team up with colleagues and agree to advocate for each other, that’s a brilliant first step. Bad bosses will always try to divide and conquer, so create a team. Speaking up for someone else’s benefit is always easier than doing it for yourself. So if you have been working perfectly fine at home and want more flexible hours and arrangements going forward, speak to some of your colleagues about it. Come together to speak up for what suits you all.
There is always strength in numbers, so if you can then join a union. Or link up with a campaign. If you believe all the pregnant women at work are being screwed over, join Pregnant then Screwed. If it’s disability discrimination you are seeing, then Disability Right UK can help. There will be others in your position, so look for a campaign and join it to make a difference.
It’s also really important to learn your rights. Look over your workplace policies and remember there are laws in place to protect you. Read the mission statements and policies of your employer. Make them live by the lovely words they often write in their glossy annual reports. For instance, I’ve come across companies with amazing PR suggesting they’re all about progress and equality. In reality they’re absolutely terrible to their staff.
Challenge your company on who they say they are. Speaking up is nerve-racking and risky. But saying nothing and living with crap in a job that’s making you unhappy, or unable to manage childcare, or physically unsafe is scarier.
In Parliament we were told for years that moving to online systems, or allowing people to access from home would essentially end democracy as we know it. Guess what? When we had to do it, the sky did not fall in.
If you don’t ask you don’t get. If you want something different, I’m afraid you’ll have to speak up. Of course, slagging off your boss behind their back is fun, but it never changed the world.
*Truth to Power: 7 Ways to Call Time on BS by Jess Phillips MP is out now*
The post Jess Phillips: 'Equality in a post-pandemic workplace is not a certainty' appeared first on Marie Claire.
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