How to manage slaves: advice of an ancient top manager Bashny.Net

There is no such big difference between the management of slaves and subordinates, according to Cambridge teacher Jerry Toner, who prepared an ancient Roman directory on human resources.

In his book How to Manage Slaves, he writes on behalf of the Roman patrician Marcus Sidonius Falx: an aristocrat tells how to choose the right slaves and take everything from them.







From the authorSome Western readers react nervously to this book, saying that owning slaves and managing subordinates are completely different things.. Generally speaking, they are right. But if we look more deeply, we will find a lot in common between the two different situations. This is an inconvenient truth, but it never ceases to be true: both ancient slave owners and today’s corporations strive to make the most of their human resources. As much as we seek to disguise the harsh realities of wage labor with the lush rhetoric of mutual cooperation and friendship in the conditions of “working in the same team”, it will be useful to listen to the straightforward and honest statements of the ancient Romans.

I expect the readership to appreciate the qualities of Mark Sidonius Fulks. He is a resolute administrator who lacks the weaknesses of today’s Western leaders. He understands well what needs to be done so that his subordinates respect him, how to maintain order in the house and household. If you have to deal with someone harshly to achieve these goals, well, this is a severe necessity of life.

Don't get carried away with team buildingDo not buy too many slaves from the same environment or the same nationality. While it may seem tempting at first glance to have workers who are able to collaborate and easily find common ground with each other (because they speak the same language), this can be very problematic later on. At best, they will encourage each other to rest, sit and chat, steal something, at worst they will start arguing and reasoning, opposing, conspiring to either escape or even kill you.

Pay attention to character, not just skillsPay attention to the nature of the slave you intend to buy. Does it not seem to you indecisive and weak-willed, or, on the contrary, reckless and audacious? The most suitable for the work are those who are neither extremely downtrodden nor too bold: with both of them you then bathe. Those who are too quiet and cloaked are unlikely to be able to show activity and perseverance in work, and those who do not have brakes and show their talent are difficult to manage.

Avoid slaves who are constantly in a state of sadness and longing. Being a slave is not the most enviable share, and those prone to depression will only aggravate it.

Remember that there are things you can do yourself.Beware of showing off and bragging. There is nothing more vulgar than a social parvenu that uses a whole host of useless slaves, engaged in all sorts of stupidities, just to demonstrate their exorbitant wealth. A wealthy freedman I knew held a slave whose function was to remind the master of the names of the people he received.

Make slaves love you.Many of the novice slave owners fall into the trap of thinking that you can do with one whip. Those of us whose families have held slaves for generations know that such treatment exhausts and exhausts slaves, ending in their complete unsuitability for further use. If you resort to violence beyond your reasonable responsibilities, you will end up making your wards self-contained and uncontrollable. Such slaves are not slaves, but the torments of hell. Cruelty is a double-edged sword, and most painfully it strikes not the slave, but the master.

Hard work must be rewarded. It is very demoralizing for good slaves to see that they are doing all the hard work and have to split the food in half with those who have slouched. It is also important that each slave has a clearly defined long-term goal.

Organization of work is importantEvery slave must have clear responsibilities. This creates a clear system of accountability and provides hard work, because slaves know that if some part of the work is not done, a well-defined worker will answer for it.

You have to break up slaves into groups of ten (groups of this size are the easiest to observe). Larger associations create problems for overseers. These groups should be distributed throughout the estate, and the work should be organized in such a way that the workers do not remain alone or in pairs: they cannot be followed if they are so scattered. Another problem with large groups is that people don’t feel personal responsibility: it dissolves into the mass of workers. A team of the right size makes them compete with each other, and also identifies those who work through their sleeves.

Pay attention to the education of bossesI'm teaching my new managers the following things that I think will help them become more moral. I forbid them to use slaves for any other purpose than that of their master. Otherwise, you may find that the new leaders use their position to force the slaves to carry out their personal tasks, while the slaves must work for the benefit of the estate as a whole.

Managers should not eat separately from subordinates; they should eat the same food as workers. Nothing irritates a weary slave so much as the contemplation of a workmaster consuming tasty and luxurious food, when the slave himself receives only the usual meager ration.

Rest with the slaves.What kind of participation you take in the festivities depends on you. I have a friend, a creepy nerd and a learned cracker, so he retires to a quiet room in the midst of a celebration to avoid hearing the noise of a house party.

He says that he finds it delightful to sit out of Saturnalia there, to wait for everyone to go crazy (everyone else in the house is gripped by a merry riot, from everywhere you can hear the joyful cries of the celebrating people). He argues that this is best: he does not interfere with their fun and does not limit them in anything. Besides, they don't distract him from his studies. You idiot! No, I think it's better to share their attitude with people. You will be surprised how much the attitude of slaves towards you changes if you take part in the holiday. Personally, I get drunk, scream, play games and throw dice, get naked, perform erotic dances, and sometimes even – with my face smeared with soot – throw my head in cold water. The home loves it.

What is important is to prevent it from continuing the day after the holiday. I advise you to adopt the strictest expression in the morning. It’s time to put in the shoes of a slacker—perhaps someone who’s been too carried away by the benefits of the freedom provided by the holiday and somehow hurt you. However, once things are normal, it is helpful to remain friendly with your slaves—as much as possible, of course, within the limits required to maintain authority and respect.

Do not become a slave of your slaves.There are a number of things your slaves can do to win small victories over you in everyday life. It is with such petty disobedience that you have to meet constantly.

They will lie to you about how much food they ate, or they will lie about small things, saying that something is worth ten sesterces when it is actually worth eight. They will pretend to be sick so they don’t work, making such moans that you’ll be worried if they’ll survive at all, and they’ll just put on a show to get rid of difficult tasks.

They will stand in the kitchen by the stove to sweat, and then show you these drops of sweat as a sign of severe fever. And if you believe that lie, soon every job will take twice as long as it actually takes. That's how slaves work.

They are constantly testing you, looking at what and where to grab. And you will have to continually curtail your power until it is completely eaten up by slaves who will treat you with increasing contempt.

Don’t think that this is none of your business.Today, no one claims, like Fulkes, that slavery is acceptable or justifiable. But before we congratulate ourselves on how far we have come, we must recognize the tragic fact that while slavery is illegal in all parts of the world, it is still widespread. According to the NGO Free the Slaves, today 27 million people are forced to work under the threat of violence, without wages and without hope of salvation. There are more slaves in the world today than there were in the Roman Empire at any time. published

P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness – together we change the world!

Source: secretmag.ru/articles/2015/07/10/slaves/?utm_source=livejournal&utm_content=secretmag&utm_medium=100_200&utm_campaign=cross_promo