Organize your workplace

This resource discusses why workplace organizing works, the foundations of organizing, and steps you can take to start organizing effectively to get the workplace changes you want.

Why organizing works #

Organizing at your workplace is effective. Why? Because businesses need workers for their survival.

Only you, the workers, actually get things done for the business. You make the goods. You deliver the services. You produce value for the organization. Bosses, managers, and shareholders don’t produce value. They just extract the value created by you, the worker.

Without workers, nothing gets done. No goods get made. No service is delivered. Without goods or services, there’s no profit. And without profit, the business collapses.

That means that you and your coworkers can be immensely powerful… if you stick together and organize!

Organize, and you can win the workplace changes you want.

Organizing foundations #

Find your drive #

What would you want to change about your work? Why do you want it? Know your reasons. Know you deserve it, and that you’re worth it. Get motivated.

Your reasons for organizing will sustain you through any hard times.

Connect with coworkers #

Meet up socially with your coworkers. Hold informal coffee chats, set up a memes channel, do games nights and recipe swaps. This way you build networks, relationships, and trust for a foundation from which to organize.

Form a planning team #

Find a couple of coworkers who also want to organize. Check that they have the time and energy to do so. You’re the planning team now!

Select a regular time outside work to meet up with your planning team. This builds solidarity and gives time to strategize together.

Take action #

Do you want to get results from your organizing? Then take strategic steps. Here’s a roadmap you can use to begin to organize effectively in your workplace.

Step 1: Map your workplace #

Map out everyone in your workplace (except bosses and managers) in a list or spreadsheet. If your company has an organizational chart, then you can use that as a basis.

For each person, list:

• Name
• Job title
• Department or team
• Topics that matter to them, both at work and personally
• Are they already on board with organizing?
• Sentiment towards unions
• Whether they’re a leader (see: Step 2)
• Who they could bring on board
• Last time contacted
• Contact details

Update the map every week.

💡 Keep your workplace map strictly inside your planning team! If the map leaks out, management is likely going to use it to sabotage your efforts.

Step 2: Identify leaders #

Identify the people that others listen to. This could be for any reason at all—maybe they’re respected for their work, but maybe they’ve just got great memes in the company Slack. Whatever the reason, these are the people you want on board. Recruit them (if you can), they’ll recruit others.

Step 3: Talk with more coworkers #

Talk with more of your coworkers about what frustrates them. Do they want more flexibility? Higher pay? Better safety standards? Three colleagues sitting in a room together complaining about management are halfway there.

Getting coworkers fired up is mostly listening and asking some questions here and there. Once people have identified some problems, ask how they’d change the situation.

💡 Take all conversations about organizing off of work computers and channels as soon as possible—for example company email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. Work channels may sometimes be monitored, and devices that you got from work could contain tracking software.

Once you’ve got more of your coworkers on board, you can start with actions and campaigns to build toward getting the workplace changes you want.

Tips for talking about organizing #

• Always address the person you’re talking with directly as you, or you and your coworkers. Avoid terms such as ‘we’, ‘us’, or ‘I’, because it removes the person you’re speaking with from the picture. You and your coworkers can organize together for better work conditions at your workplace.
• Weird one: be kind, but don’t say ’thank you’ to your coworker for the fact that they’re organizing. Your coworker is not doing you a favour. You and your coworkers are together standing up to get the workplace changes you want.

Join today #

Would you like to get started organizing at your workplace? Empower yourself by becoming a workplace organizer with the support from the Tech Workers Coalition!

Thanks to United Tech and Allied Workers and Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee for helpful resources.