The Stakhanov Effect and the elimination of small business

Very few Russian miners merit an obituary in the New York Times. Aleksei Stakhanov was an exception; when he died in 1977, the Times dedicated an article to his life and achievements, something most DEI managers can only dream of.

(More about Stakhanov in a moment.)

Wind down in the comfort of your office building

Good news for employees of Deutsche Bank in London — the company is building new “reset and recovery pods” to provide support for those with neurological conditions such as autism as well as women who may be “struggling with menopause or perimenopause symptoms.”

Each private, single-occupier booth will feature a reclinable chair as well as cooling and lighting controls. But that's not all — Deutsche Bank is actually constructing an entire “wellness suite” complete with a mindfulness space, a prayer room (multifaith, naturally), and GP clinics.

Not to be outdone, Shoosmiths, a British law firm, is also about to open its own “wellness rooms” for menopausal women, also featuring cooling and lighting controls but with the added perk of beds. 

Alex Bishop, head of the firm's Birmingham office, told media that the impetus came from “menopausal women” themselves, who kept telling him how they would “really like a space that I could have a lie down after lunch, because I tend to get a headache, I tend to get really light sensitive.”

That got us thinking in a completely different way from perhaps the more obvious diversity and inclusion needs.

Shoosmiths is now planning to introduce these so-called wellness rooms in all its offices as part of planned refurbishments.  

Freemarket at work

Shoosmiths and Deutsche Bank are large companies with thousands of employees. They can easily afford to install “reset and recovery pods,” mindfulness rooms, and the like. In the competitive environment of finance and law firms seeking the best talent to staff their offices, Shoosmiths and Deutsche Bank have gone the extra mile in catering to a subsection of their workforces, offering incentives that may woo potential employees while helping to retain current ones.

What are smaller businesses to do if they too want to attract quality staff? In a totally free market, they can offer benefits that large corporations lack, which we can sum up as “the personal touch.” (The cynically-minded might add that mental health breaks in private pods are only necessary for those working in a cut-throat environment.)

The problems only start when government decides to intervene and mandate companies of any size to provide what once were perquisites — and smaller businesses can't afford to keep up. 

Don't worry, Big Brother is looking after you

Providing a certain level of accommodation for women going through menopause is now legally required in the UK. New guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission stresses that companies could be in breach of discrimination laws if they do not supply such women with fans on their desks, allow them to come in late if they slept badly the night before, and permit them to work from home on hot days.

But of course regulating “consideration” for one's workforce is not restricted to worrying about women of a certain age.

At a recent conference, for example, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta called for private companies to use a more “democratic process” to advance “social equities," a scheme which, if mandated, could bankrupt lower revenue competitors. 

Tim Carney of the American Enterprise Institute notes thatmany big businesses employ similar tactics, and details Facebooks's plans to do so:

[Zuckerberg] is calling for a mandate that platforms impose some sort of artificial intelligence to weed out misinformation or hate speech. Facebook can afford that, but Zuckerberg's smaller competitors [such as Rumble or Parler] would struggle to pay the thousands of content moderators and the expensive artificial intelligence that Congress may require.

Regulation doesn't just kill businesses. It keeps new businesses from ever entering.

Meanwhile, in the public sector…

Not everyone is waiting for government guidance to implement their own supportive measures for employees going through tough moments. One town council in Norfolk, England, has come up with a novel idea for catering to “psychiatric emergencies” that occur during council meetings — councilors will be able to hold up a card and get permission to leave if their mental health feels under threat.

The new measure was prompted by an incident when Mr. Barrett, a member of the local Green party, experienced a “serious dissociative flashback” during a 45-second speech by another council member, and later explained that his attack was triggered by the lack of a “perceived means of escape.”

It is difficult for me to leave a meeting as I feel that I need to give a reason or an excuse, which can sometimes be difficult to explain. This [new measure] will make the town council a more inclusive environment and offers a means of escape if it is needed.

Barrett apparently is autistic and also suffers from ADHD and PTSD. He returned to the meeting after a 20-minute time-out. Reports of the incident did not elaborate on what he did during those 20 minutes, but the council now plans to set aside a special room where mentally afflicted councilors will be given water (presumably to drink) as well as advice on “grounding techniques” such as breathing exercises.

The local council in Norfolk can probably afford to employ someone to be on-call in case a troubled councilor suddenly needs help doing breathing exercises — the public purse is only too open for such DEI initiatives.

And now for something completely different (perhaps)

Trigger warnings are being slapped on all over the place lately, it seems, but this most recent example deserves attention for its originality.

The Lilian Baylis Studio theater in London has warned those attending its performances of “Out” that during the play, performers will be eating.

The performance contains sounds of people eating so those with misophonia might find some parts uncomfortable.

What’s more, the play will also feature oranges, so those inquiring about ticket sales are told in advance that the performance may not be suitable for those with citrus allergies.

“Out” is described as a musical event which “defiantly challenges homophobia and transphobia” and aims to “reimagine, reclaim and celebrate aspects of Caribbean culture from a queer perspective.”

Bravely embracing personal, political and cultural dissonance, this work smashes through our violent colonial histories to reimagine, reclaim and celebrate our delicious queer future.

(No trigger warnings have been issued for those who may find the “queer” agenda discomfiting or offensive.)

Theater-goers, being of a certain class of people willing and able to purchase expensive tickets, are likely just as willing to subsidize some new “woke” scheme that makes them feel even more virtuous. However, smaller regional theaters which present more affordable options for the plebs will find all the demands for woke “sensitivity” compliance far more onerous and perhaps even prohibitive.

So, how does Stakhanov fit in?

Aleksei Stakhanov was 29 years old when, in 1935, he set a record of mining 102 tons of coal in five hours and 45 minutes, which was an incredible 14-times his quota.

According to the Moscow Times, following this feat other workers “aimed to exceed their quotas and proudly become ‘Stakhanovites.’ Worker productivity and organization improved and ... the movement spread to other industries, including automobile, shoe, and textile manufacturing; timber; railroads; and agriculture.”

Stalin himself was actually more circumspect about the launch of what became known as the Stakhanov movement. According to NYT, the Soviet leader noted that not everyone was altogether enthusiastic:

The Stakhanov movement is striking in that it started spontaneously and developed to a certain extent contrary to the will of the management of Soviet enterprises. Stakhanov had to defend his movement not only against certain responsible officials but against fellow workers who slandered his “novelty.”

Indeed, across the USSR workers lived in terror of their “norms” being upped after a patriotic Stakhanovite in their factory proved it was possible to produce more.

In the USSR, people were too fearful for their lives to rise up against a movement that threatened to grind them into the dust. 

In today’s West, can the same also be said?