Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

The activities that were not considered to belong to the core business, such as maintenance of buildings, had
been spun off into a separate company who took charge for their services. The idea was probably that they
would be more effective by having clear goals to work against (i.e. making money). My experience of both
procure work from the organization and to work in it was, unfortunately, that it was very expensive to use it.
It led to that some of the staff in the parent company chosed to do, for example, minor renovations
themselves, or to outsource tasks to external actors. Which in turn contributed to the maintenance staff at
times had too little to do and the mood among the staff was quite poor.
In most jobs, the staff some form of power over the other party. A craftsman, can choose to do the work
more or less good or even to not do it at all. Anyone who is in a store may choose not to help a customer in
need. In both cases, the staff can penalize the customers they do not like and favor those they do like. Those
customers who do not feel well treated is then usually able to go to a another craftsman or shop. They then
have no legal means to force the customer to buy their services/products. This is different from authorities,
where customers usually can not choose to go to a competitor, if he felt unfairly treated. And they have some
powers to force "the customers" to do some things. If the customer still does not obey, they have some
leverage. The clearest example exercising authority,is the police and it is the authority that has the greatest
power to force others.
There are also a lot of other organizations exercising public authority, some of these are even private, like
security companies, or government owned companies such as Systembolaget (alcohol shops) and
Bilprovningen (mandatory car testing), or local governments such as social services or local environment
inspectors.
During my time at Systembolaget the exercise of authority primarily was seen in that we were:
- Not allowed to pretend that we've seen a customer in the store before. This meant that even though some
of them came ito the store several times a day (which happened) and bought the same things (which also
happened), it was not allowed to take any notice of it.
- Had the right to check the age the customer before they were allowed to buy anything and the staff had
strict orders not to sell to someone whose age seemed hesitant.
- Not allowed to sell alcohol on credit.
- Did not have as our primary goal to sell as much as possible. The main goal was instead that the checkout
would sue in the end of the work day.
I think that the exercise of authority clearly enriched the work, made it a little more exciting and it meant
that I was more important than in other stores where I have worked.
In addition, I have exercised authority in some government agencies (Probation/jail administration, Work
Environment Authority/Inspectorate, the National Courts Administration and at a college) and in a number
of municipal activities (teacher and bridge operator).
192