Are you a consumer or a citizen?
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What do we lose when we are just consumers, passive vessels who spend and receive, and not citizens, not active participants in the muscular work of co-creating our reality?
I complain about social media vociferously, but it’s the owners, the algorithm generators that I despise. Some content creators are so smart it brings me joy. I was just listening to a video series done by Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) on 10/17 where she talks about DEI in universities in response to articles in the New York Times.
Among the festival of brilliant observations, I was struck by her remarks that universities are treating students as consumers rather than citizens. Consumers want nicer gym facilities and better dorms, amenities that attract them to one college over another the way a car brand might prioritize heated seats. (My analogy, not Dr. McMillan Cottom’s). If universities treated students as citizens, they would be focused on their “flourishing,” their growth and inherent rights. The car company that prioritizes safety and makes sure their air bags are going to work might be better for the drivers but less visible in a brand context.
If we are consumers, Dr. McMillan Cottom says, when we don’t like something, we want to see the manager. She describes a situation where a student experiences racism and, in the consumer mindset, goes to see an administrator working in DEI and finds that person, in spite of their title, can’t help them, and is frustrated.
What is the difference between a citizen mindset and a consumer mindset for employees at work?
The citizen expects to have a role, to have their voice heard because they are an active and respected part of the system. Ideally, citizens accept responsibilities and duties, to think of the good of the larger team, to understand the impact of the organization’s choices on the community, the earth.
It can be difficult to be a citizen. For American citizens, half of us will be disturbed by the outcome of the coming Presidential election. Ideally, we won’t flee, or take up arms, but we will recommit to the hard work of electing officials who share our beliefs and advocate for policies that are good for the country.
Consumers consume. They have grown up with the notion that brands want them, will compete for them and entertain them. When a consumer invests in buying a brand or supporting content, they expect to be pleased, catered to, soothed or comforted. In a world of infinite choice and options, if they don’t like what they get they can move onto the next brand who is eagerly courting them.
This mindset frustrates people who are searching for relationships because at the slightest sign of trouble, consumers on dating apps will just swipe, leave, ghost, seduced by the idea that there are hundreds of people available right now on the device in their pocket. A consumer mindset might drive an employee that experiences something negative to complain to the manager, to go to the boss and say I don’t like this, or I don’t want to do this hard thing. Swipe. Fix this. The customer is never wrong. Right?
A citizen mindset might prompt an employee to consider solutions. To look at ways the system or process in question might be changed. They might be more likely to understand that they are co-creating the culture, they have a small but important part to play in the work at hand.
Are companies treating employees like consumers or citizens?
I would argue that we are all consumerized in this morass of capitalism run amok. Shown sparkly, evocative surface amenities with little focus paid to our flourishing or well-being as humans.
The mass layoffs, the reckless disregard for the human consequences of draconian return to office policies, the lack of parental leave – all of these signal an employer mindset that the people who do the work for them are cogs in a machine, fungible, replaceable. They will lure them in, use them up, and then discard them, because there are more available. Because it’s untrammeled capitalism, there is no concern for the earth, the environment, the community, the marginalized or future generations.
What would a citizen mindset be from an employer’s point of view? Well, having never worked at such a place, I would have to imagine it. But I imagine it would take seriously its responsibilities to the people who work for them as human beings, to focus on their flourishing, or, at the very least, to honor their dignity and worth.
Companies in other countries who provide a year of maternity leave are considering the dignity of the women who work for them. Employers who provide safe working environments, access to bathrooms and breaks and air conditioning and heat, who don’t demand that their employees show up and work in a hurricane are treating their employees as humans who deserve basic respect.
A company with a citizen mindset would treat their employees as intelligent adults and not infantilize them, involving them in governance and giving them real input, as well as the right to organize for their protection.
My guess is that it would be a virtuous cycle. Treated like that, the employees would feel more invested in the success of the organization, and they would be more willing to do the hard work of navigating change and conflict. With the level of psychological safety this treatment would invite, they would be more innovative, more creative, more engaged.
Of course, such an approach would be scorned by most corporate leaders as impractical, too expensive, not conducive to maximizing profit. I imagine there are plenty of employees who prefer to abdicate the responsibility to participate fully and have a “strong man” figure take the reins. Plenty of people work for the rebarbative Elon Musk and, presumably, some of them think he’s good at what he does.
Consumers want the full meal deal, all the trimmings, they expect their purchase or choice to fully represent what they want, who they are and who they aspire to be. Citizens understand that we live in an imperfect world and that sometimes the person you vote for isn’t the perfect candidate but the one most qualified at a particular time and place to lead.
What do you think? Tell me in the comments what your reaction is to this. Because I keep thinking about what we are losing by being told we are just consumers, only passive vessels who spend and receive, and not citizens, not active participants in the muscular work of co-creating our reality. What does this mean in our work, our families, our communities, our government?