Marxism and Profits

I was struck by a part of Jean Lave's article, Situating Learning in Communities of Practice. We have several communities of practice within our safety training organization, and we sponsor several in the form of committees and other organizations. These communities not only move our industry forward in terms of safety and skills training capabilities, but also help establish best practices and other communications mechanisms that help transfer knowledge within the community, to other communities, and across the industry.

In her article, Lave states that some of the problems with learning in the modern world revolve around "Marxist social theory concerning the alienated condition of contemporary life" (p. 65). She continues to write that "In this late period of capitalism, widespread deep knowledgeability appears to be in short supply, especially in those settings that make the most self-conscious and vociferous demands for complex knowledgeable skill" (p. 65), and "to commoditize labor, knowledge, and participation in communities of practice is to diminish possibilities for the sustained development of identities of mastery " (p 65). Principally, her contention through these statements implies that commoditizing labor leads to less mastery within practices.

Having never studied Marx's social theory concerning alienation, it was interesting to go down this rabbit hole and determine just exactly lead Lave to contend this. Coming from a contracting world as I do, I've seen this in practice not just in theory. There were numerous times that I was told not to provide appropriate or in-depth safety and skills training because of the cost of the training, the hit that the location would take to their bottom line, and the decrease in their overall margin for the month. One of the reasons I was so excited to move to a non-profit training organization is that the focus in on training and not on profit.

All that being said, I visited a potential member/client the other day. This client was in the midst of building one of the newest and most financially well-appointed training centers I had ever seen from a small to mid-size contractor. I've helped create training centers for major international contracting organizations, but this was the first time I had seen so much being invested by a small to mid-tier contracting group. Their thoughts are that by having the training center they can sell the fact that they are more advanced and can do more than their competition.

Secondly, any injury or fatality in the contracting world of industrial services undermines the ability to retain and gain new work. A safety record that shows that an organization is less safe than their competitors or than the average would find it very hard to earn much new work, especially without lowering their prices. By having a new and modern training center, they can help ensure that they keep their safety incidents low enough to continue to secure new work.

The concern now in our industry, with the COVID 19 pandemic bringing turbulence to the normally scheduled work in refineries, is that contractors will batten down the hatches and circle the wagons. Meaning they will invest even less in safety and skills training and instead focus on operations and maximizing profits.

• How do other industries balance the scales between making enough to keep the organization profitable and stable, while also ensuring that the employees careers are invested in and that they continue to grow in their crafts?
• Other than non-profits that exist to provide training, what are some of the best ways to encourage organizations to provide safety and skills training and invest in their workers?

It's a tricky tight-rope that I had to walk for over a decade and I never found the right mix. Over the course of time it only got worse as innovation came about and our employee's jobs became more and more at risk due to automation and robotics, but I look forward to hearing what other industries are doing.