I'll Let You Sleep by The Hotel Pool, Brother

Some thoughts from our Editor-in-Chief on the class friction and humiliation rituals brought about by wage slavery.. and what he's decided to do about it.

One of the worst parts about wage slavery is how it pits working class people against each other. Whether it's the customer who felt that the cost of the goods where too high, deciding to leave a complaint that only ends up getting the workers reprimanded. Why do I have to take the hourly temperature of the coffee? Because you said the coffee was cold after it was put out for an hour. Why did you say the coffee was cold? Because the room was too expensive and you're strapped for cash, and you're hoping that if you leave a negative review, you'll get a discount next time, or credit for your room. But in reality, all you ended up doing was creating more work and a write-up for the labor.

What's even worse is when you have to play the property police. Because ultimately, if you're working at a business, you've been deputized by the police department to enforce that private property. Homeless man needs to come in. We have bathrooms in the lobby. I have to turn him away. I can't offer him one of the bananas in the back. I can't offer him the kindness of letting him use the restroom. I have to inform him that I will lose my job if he doesn't leave, and I will have to call the police if he doesn't leave. Me, the person who fundamentally disagrees with the concept of the police, now deputized by them.

This is intentional. That's part of how the wage relation system maintains itself. But I'll let you sleep by the pool. How could I not? How could you stay in this place for four days, run out of money, be here with your wife and your six-year-old son, have nowhere to go, and me deny you that humanity? I cannot. I simply cannot. I'll tell you where the cameras are. I'll tell you that you shouldn't interact with me while you're here. I will tell you that if you stay by the pool, there's no cameras in the corner, take you that power nap. Because suddenly you couldn't pay, now you have to be dehumanized. And I have to do the dehumanization so I can maintain a paycheck that ultimately doesn't even make me enough to cover the cost of rent. Therefore, putting me in the exact same precarity you, my brother, my working class comrade, now face.

Could I be fired for telling him this information? Could I be fired for extending this hand of humanity? Could I be fired for letting the homeless guy use the bathroom? Could I be fired for giving him a banana on the way out, knowing that homie might not have food? Homie might not have ends. Homie is still a human being. Homie is still the homie, regardless.

To me, this relation is one of the worst parts about working in a customer-facing role. It's one of the worst parts about working in general. I shouldn't have to deny my humanity, doubly so, one, when I clock in to be exploited, and two, when I act as the exploiter, enforcing the private property rights of a business owner that does not pay me enough to live, while also simultaneously telling me that I should be grateful for the opportunity to be what is ultimately a serf, a wage slave.

So yes, my friend, I will let you sleep by the pool. Because the cost of sacrificing my humanity may very well be greater than the cost of my rent.