March 18, 2025 • 55 mins
Workplace horror stories are nothing new—history is filled with bosses whose greed, cruelty, and disregard for human life led to some of the darkest chapters in labor history. In this episode of Bad Boss Detox, we take a sobering look at four of the worst offenders, whose actions sparked protests, strikes, and, in some cases, tragic loss of life.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire—where locked doors and unsafe conditions caused an unbelievable tragedy. Then they tried it again.
Henry Clay Frick—the ruthless steel magnate who crushed strikes with deadly force.
George Pullman—the railroad tycoon who built a town to control his workers, then bled them dry.
The Match Girl s' Rebellion—where young women stood up to the factory that poisoned them for profit.
These aren’t just bad bosses; they’re reminders of why labor protections exist today. Join us as we examine their stories, the lives affected, and the workers who fought back against impossible odds.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Isaac Harris & Max Blanck: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
death, tragic fire
Henry Clay Frick: The Homestead Steel Strike
gun violence
George Pullman: Pullman, Illinois
slavery, dehumanization of workers, high control group
William Bryant & Francis May: The Match Girls' Rebellion
child abuse, neglect, illness, cancer
Looking Back: The Gilded Age Sucked
Email MadLibs
Listener Story Time!
Vocabulary Word of the Week
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ivy (00:05):
Welcome to Bad Boss Detox, a podcast about moving forward
after surviving a toxic boss,because therapy is expensive,
but this podcast is free Yay.
In this episode, we're going totalk about some of the worst
bosses in history.
We're going to share somestories and put some things in
perspective, so stay tuned.
Katie (00:26):
Well, welcome back everybody.
Hi Ivy, how are you?
Hey Katie, I'm great.
How are you?
I'm great.
What did you do this week?
Ivy (00:35):
I went to New York City.
What, yes, I went to New YorkCity.
I went and saw the Outsiders onBroadway I'm wearing my Do it
For Johnny t-shirt Ate a lot ofcheesecake, hung out with some
dear, dear friends and walkedaround a lot Central Park people
(00:56):
watching.
Got to meet the SquirrelWhisperer Ooh.
Katie (01:01):
I love that.
Oh, that's great.
I'm glad you had a good trip.
Yeah, it was great, except forthe Delta it's always, except
for Delta.
What did I do this week?
What?
Ivy (01:11):
did you do this week, Katie ?
Katie (01:12):
You know it's a blur.
I worked a lot so I've beenhelping my friend who took my
old job.
At the school where I used towork, the theater teacher that
replaced me designed lights andstuff for her show that's coming
up.
That day that I went, the kidsshowed up for their rehearsal
about 10 minutes early, so itkind of overlapped with when I
(01:33):
was there and it did not takefive minutes before I had a
migraine because the kids werescreaming and running around and
I was just triggered.
What age Triggered they age?
I was triggered.
They're middle school, Okay.
Ivy (01:47):
Yeah.
Katie (01:47):
Yeah, I was shocked.
Like as soon as they walked in,I was like I got to go.
I can't do this.
Not your thing anymore, not myproblem.
It's not my circus, I'm not theringmaster anymore, I'm not
responsible for making them allsit down and be quiet and
(02:10):
responsible for making them allsit down and be quiet, and so I
was just like I'm going to leavebefore I yell at a child that
isn't my job to yell at, and myheadache was like fine by the
time I got home.
It was.
It came on so fast, it was likemy body rejecting the
experience.
Ivy (02:16):
It was not a headache, it was a warning.
It was, it was a get out.
There's my spirit guides withlike red flags.
Katie (02:26):
They're like girl, get out.
Yeah, let's talk about some badbosses from history.
Dear friends, listeners, mysweet summer children, this has
all the trigger warnings.
This stuff that we're going totalk about involves some death,
some abuse, some reallyupsetting shit.
So please check the show notesfor specific trigger warnings
(02:50):
and times.
But if you ever get the chanceto like go relive your life in
the 1800s, don't, yeah, justdon't.
Ivy (03:01):
How about don't Except for the fashion?
Katie (03:08):
You know, I really do look good in those outfits,
though, yeah yeah, yeah, lovesome vintage clothes, don't love
some vintage attitudes.
Yeah, really.
You know, when I was in HelloDolly, the costumer wanted to
put me ina walking suit with abustle and I was like, girl, I
don't need a bustle, I'm alreadybustling.
I got my own bustle.
(03:29):
My bustle comes preloaded.
Ivy (03:33):
So we've picked out four of the worst bosses in history
from the 1800s early 1900s.
Katie's going to do a couple,I'm going to do a couple.
We're going to talk about themore obscure ones, ones that
maybe you haven't heard of.
I had never heard of any ofthese, except I heard of one of
(03:55):
mine on the Big Bang Theory,because Sheldon likes trains.
Katie (04:00):
Oh, I had never heard of any of these people either, and
I asked my history buff husbandtoo, and he was like I've never
knew any of that stuff.
Ivy (04:09):
OK, so my first one is the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory.
It was started by Isaac Harrisand Max Blanc.
Isaac and Max were the ownersof the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory.
They came to the United Statesfrom Russia as immigrants and
(04:32):
they were eventually known asthe Shirtwaist Kings Harris
being a tailor and Blanc being agarment contractor.
And first things first, what inthe hell is a shirtwaist?
A shirtwaist is a blouse.
Simply put, it started whensomeone decided that a woman's
dress could be made into twopieces a blouse tapered at the
waist and a skirt so they cancharge us twice.
(04:54):
Yeah, exactly.
So these old chaps decided ashirtwaist wouldn't confuse
anyone, right?
The pair became quite wealthyand opened more factories in new
york, new jersey andpennsylvania.
And when I say quite wealthyand opened more factories in New
York, New Jersey andPennsylvania.
And when I say quite wealthy, Imean quite greedy.
And they took on a very lavishlifestyle, eventually even being
(05:15):
chauffeured to their factories.
Isaac and Max thought if theyjust hired mostly women and
girls, some as young as 14, itwould be easy to mistreat them
because they're just women,Right?
Many of them were also Jewishimmigrants, also Italian
immigrants.
The working conditions for thewomen were horrible, to say the
(05:39):
least.
While the men were off gettingrich on the backs of these young
women, girls.
They were forced to work 12 to14-hour days with no breaks.
Their pay was shitty around $6a week.
In today's dollars that wouldbe around $200 a week, but at 12
to 14 hours a day that would bepretty crappy.
(06:15):
And they were watched throughouttheir shifts by a foreman who
also searched them every nightbefore they left, to make sure
they were not stealing, which isan important part of this story
.
What would they be stealing?
Shirts, shirt waists, just thewaist of the shirt.
So these two bad bosses refusedto adhere to agreements with
the newly formed garment workersunion at all.
They wanted no part, just nounions.
Our girls are our girls and youcan't tell us what to do with
(06:39):
them.
But the worst part is theylocked the secondary factory
doors from the outside.
So why they're being searchedfor stealing is beyond me, since
they can't get out beforethey're searched by their
foreman.
So the workers could not leaveto take a break and they could
not steal anything.
(06:59):
So when the women finally hadenough, in November of 1909,
they decided to go on strike.
But this offended their greedybosses, of course.
So Isaac and Max hiredpolicemen and thugs to see a
(07:23):
decline in their million-dollarprofits.
So they agreed to somewhatshorter hours and a little bit
better pay, but they stillrefused the union.
Just over a year later, on March25, 1911, a fire started on the
10th floor.
Isaac and Max couldn't bebothered to alert anyone or even
(07:45):
yell fire.
They just climbed out therooftop across to another
building to safety, while theemployees left in the building
were none the wiser.
Of the 200 employees left inthe building now, remember many
of them were 14-year-old girls.
Of the 200 people left in thebuilding, now, remember many of
them were 14-year-old girls.
Of the 200 people left in thebuilding, 146 died in the fire.
(08:12):
Holy shit, uh-huh.
They either died from the fireitself, the smoke, or jumping
from the building.
Now I want to say here I didn'tadd this in my notes, but I
found that there was a young manstudying in the building across
the street and he saw the fireand gathered some friends and
(08:35):
some ladders and rescued somepeople with the ladders, and I
wish that I had jotted his namedown to give him some credit.
All this happened because thetwo were still locking the exits
to prevent employees fromstealing from them.
Immediately after the fire,harris and Blanc began damage
(08:56):
control because what do theycare?
Right, beginning an extensiveadvertising campaign and calling
reporters for interviews toboast that they had taken all
the right precautions.
But on April 11th they wereboth arrested for manslaughter
and I didn't note this eitherbut only seven counts, 146
(09:18):
people.
I feel like there should be atleast 146 counts of manslaughter
.
But it was a different time.
The entire trial was centeredaround that locked door and,
despite the outrage and over 100witnesses, they were acquitted
and they had to be hidden awayfrom the angry mobs of families
(09:38):
of the 146 dead factory workers.
So while the angry familymembers were waiting by their
limo to, you know, kick theirass, rough them up a little bit,
like they did their daughters.
This pair of incredibly badbosses snuck off to the subway.
Then they filed an insuranceclaim, got $60,000, which in
(10:02):
money today is $2,250,000.
So they basically profited $400per victim, oh my God.
And when they later settledwith the families, they only
gave each family about a week'sworth of wages and we talked
earlier about that.
(10:23):
A week's worth of wages, and wetalked earlier about that.
So each family got around $200.
So they still profited from thedeaths of all of these people
that they caused because theywere greedy fuckers.
Katie (10:36):
They were so worried about people stealing, stealing.
Ivy (10:38):
I mean, if you're being searched before you can walk out
of the building, why do we alsoneed to lock the secondary
entrance, like I read somewherethat there were women just
beating on that door.
They didn't even realize that.
You know that they were.
I think they all knew they werelocked in because somebody.
I read somewhere too that thatwas their biggest complaint.
(11:01):
Was they lock us in.
Biggest complaint was they lockus in?
Yeah, so later they were finedagain.
They went back into business.
They reopened the TriangleShirtwaist Factory, but they
never regained their originalprofits.
So they tried to open anothercompany, but they were later
(11:21):
fined $20.
They had a $20 fine.
I want you to guess what theywere fined for.
Can you guess what?
They were later fined $20.
They had a $20 fine.
I want you to guess what theywere fined for.
Can you guess what they werefined for?
Katie (11:31):
Not paying to use the subway Locking the door again.
Ivy (11:36):
They locked the door from the outside again.
They killed 146 people and thefine for trying to do it again
was $20.
Y'all?
Katie (11:48):
what.
Ivy (11:49):
I'm so upset.
They got busted for sewing fakelabels into garments that said
that the garments were madeunder sound conditions.
Katie (11:59):
I'm sorry for laughing, but like they got fined for
sewing labels in that said theywere made safely, Fake labels.
Ivy (12:07):
They were fake labels that claimed that the garments had
been made under sound conditions.
So the two finally they brokeup.
They went their separate waysafter that because they could
never get back to the same way.
I think one of them openedanother shirt waste company
somewhere else and the other onedid something completely
(12:28):
different.
So that's the story of IsaacHarris and Max Blanc.
And a not so fun fact aboutthis fire is, up until 9-11, it
had been the worst fire in NewYork history.
Katie (12:47):
Wow, well, that was certainly horrifying.
What do you got, Katie?
Okay, well, you know, I'vealways been a person who's
pretty pro-unions, but this isan example of a story about a
union who really could have madesome better choices.
When we were looking at thelist of worst bosses in history,
(13:09):
this one came up with possiblythe best nickname of all time.
His name is Henry Clay Frick,and the nickname that he was
bestowed by his employees wasHarry Cockbag.
Was bestowed by his employeeswas Harry Cockbag, which I love
and is such a beautiful, I meanchef's kiss.
(13:31):
What's his real name?
What's his real first name?
His real name is Henry, henry.
Okay, his middle name is Clayand his last name is Frick,
which I'm like.
Why'd you go with Harry?
Ivy (13:42):
Cockbag.
When Frick was right there.
Frick was right there.
That's what I'm thinking too,but also Harry Cockbag is
probably my favorite new thingto say.
Katie (13:52):
Today I learned Um, yeah, so you've heard of Andrew
Carnegie, right?
Um, another giant asshole, butthis is like the lesser known uh
, giant asshole piece ofCarnegie steel.
So this guy, henry Clay Frick,was a steel tycoon in the 1800s.
He was responsible fordeveloping a lot of these things
(14:15):
called coke ovens, which is notcocaine, but it is like the
fucking worst thing ever.
So apparently, one of thecomponents to make steel is
known as coke c-o-k-e, and inorder to make it they have,
there has to be this chemicalprocess taking place in these
huge ovens, which burned hugeamounts of toxic chemicals and
(14:36):
put all kinds of terribleemissions into the air, and
basically they are not in useanymore.
There's only like 12 of themleft in the world, which is too
many if you ask me, but still so.
This guy was in charge of makingthese huge ovens, which made a
ton of people sick.
He did a lot of messed up stuff, super obsessed with his wealth
(14:57):
and very self-centered.
One of the things that listedthat he did was he decided he
wanted a private fishing lakefor himself and his fishing bros
.
So he bought a lake inpennsylvania, but the dam to the
lake was leaking and since hewas so cheap, he put off fixing
it until it cracked and itflooded an entire town and
(15:18):
killed 2 000 people.
Oh my god, yeah, um, but that'slike unrelated to him being a
boss.
What a hairy cock bag.
Just a bag full of cocks.
Yeah, so that wasn't evenrelated to him being a bad boss,
but I think that that kind ofdemonstrates his character.
On the other hand, he actuallywas a very wealthy person and
(15:39):
was a patron of the arts.
So there's a huge artcollection.
In several of his giantmansions he was responsible for
buying and supporting theseartists and preserving their
work.
So like I'll give him 1% creditfor that, because that stuff is
cool.
However, there is no amount ofgood karma that can make up for
this shit.
(15:59):
So there's this union called theAmalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers.
It was one of the strongestunions in the steel industry and
it represents skilled laborersat Carnegie Steel's Homestead
Works.
So this particular factory wascalled Homestead Works.
Their union contract was set toexpire on July 1st 1892.
And rather than actuallynegotiate with the union, andrew
(16:21):
Carnegie, who had a history ofpublicly supporting unions like
he, would say that he waspro-unions but privately he was
very anti-unions.
He left labor relations in thehands of his ruthless plant
manager, henry K Frick.
So he was like I'm out, I'mgoing to let you handle this.
Frick decided he was going tobreak this union, so he cut
(16:43):
wages by 20 percent.
He refused to negotiate withthe Amalgamated Association and
he set a take it or leave itdeadline for the new contract.
So he cut their wages by 20percent and was like you can
take it or you just walk.
He decided that, since theworkers were pretty pissed off
about that, he was just going tolock them out of the factory.
(17:04):
So he locked workers out onJune 29th, which was two days
before the contract was supposedto expire, barring union
members from entering the mill.
And he built a 12-foot highfence around the mill, topped
with barbed wire andhigh-powered water cannons, so
the workers dubbed it Fort Frick.
At that time he brought in somestrike breakers to replace the
(17:28):
locked out workers, knowing thatthis would escalate tensions.
So he was just like I fuckingdare you.
The steel workers decided tostrike because they were already
working in this super toxicplace for barely any money.
But Frick hired 300 armedPinkerton detectives, which is a
private security force infamousfor suppressing labor strikes.
(17:48):
Yeah, we know about thePinkertons.
And so the Pinkertons arrivedon barges they were sneaking up
the river Before dawn on July6th.
They were intending to breakthe strike, but the strikers at
that point were armed withrifles and homemade weapons and
they physically started battlingthese guys.
So gunfire erupted and after anhours-long battle, several
(18:12):
people had died.
There were at least sevenworkers and three Pinkertons who
were killed.
So this is what I meant aboutlike this union kind of made
some wrong choices here, likeyou guys could have just not
started shooting people, but youdid.
After this brutal fight, thepinkerton surrendered and the
angry strikers beat them as theywere marched out of town, which
, like fuck the pinkertons.
(18:32):
But this is not the way tonegotiate.
You know, none of this is theway to to go.
This is this is the way to notdo it.
Okay, yeah, eventually thenational guard was called in
with the military protecting themill.
Then frick resumed production,brought in some scabs and was
like all right, let's just let'sgo.
The strike was totallyunsuccessful because people got
(18:56):
shot and it escalated Right, andso, without the plant or the
public support, the power ofthis union totally collapsed.
The strike officially ended inNovember of 1892, which is a
long, pretty long strike fromlike July to November.
Wow yeah, the union was crushed.
Workers returned to the plantwith lower wages, longer hours
(19:18):
and lost union representation.
So Frick's plan totally worked.
What a waste, oh my God.
Except for there was anunrelated dude.
Alexander Berkman attempted toassassinate Henry Clay Frick.
He shot him twice and stabbedhim, but Harry Cockbag survived,
good grief.
(19:39):
He was shot and stabbed but hesurvived.
Ivy (19:42):
Shot twice and stabbed.
Katie (19:44):
Yeah, is this guy like a fucking vampire?
I don't know.
The attack totally backfired,turning public opinion against
the strikers.
Ivy (19:52):
Yeah.
Katie (19:53):
And so, as a result of this homestead strike, it was
considered a huge setback forstill unionization for decades,
reinforcing the power ofindustrialists like Carnegie and
Frick.
Don't be a hairy cock bag, Justyou know.
If you're going to be a cockbag, at least do some manscaping
.
Ivy (20:15):
So George Pullman is next and, like I said, I mentioned
Sheldon on Big Bang Theory,mentioned the Pullman, one of
the Pullman coaches, on anepisode of Big Bang Theory and I
said hey, I'm researching thatguy.
George Pullman was anindustrialist in the mid-1800s.
(20:37):
He invented the railroadsleeper car, also known as the
palace car, which is fitting,since he seemed to fancy himself
.
A king Sounds familiar.
So he always thought thereshould be a more luxurious way
to travel.
So he designed the sleeper carafter the packet boats that he
knew from the Erie Canal and Icould only find like little old
(21:00):
timey pictures of packet boats,but they look like, you know,
they have little passenger roomsin them.
So he did that.
And after President Lincoln wasassassinated, George arranged
for one of his fancy sleepercars to transport the
president's body and also thefamily of the president.
(21:21):
So this created a great demandfor his luxury cars.
It kind of put him on the map,so to speak.
Katie (21:28):
So he capitalized on the assassination.
Ivy (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah of course he did so.
Pretty soon he became and this,might you know, the first part
of this sentence I'm going tosay right now sounds hunky-dory,
but then the rest of it getspretty gross so he became the
biggest employer ofAfrican-Americans post-Civil War
.
Katie (21:49):
Sounds great right, that's nice.
Yeah, how could this go wrong?
Ivy (21:53):
Well, here you go.
Because he thought formerslaves had the finger quotes
here.
Right kind of training to servebusinessmen.
Oh God yeah.
The job of Pullman portersbecame highly respected, though,
in Black communities.
Everyone really respected thePullman porters apparently just
(22:14):
the Black communities, becauseall the porters were called
George.
Because I learned that it wascommon among slave owners to not
bother to know anyone's givenname, but just call them the
name of their owner.
Yeah, it's a dehumanizationthing there was a movie called
10,000 Black Men Called George,and it was about George
(22:35):
Pullman's trains and all thesepeople that worked for him.
He also hired Black women, ofcourse, to be the housekeepers
on the trains.
So he was right on top of that.
Housekeepers on the trains sohe was, you know, right on top
of that.
Most were not paid an actualwage, they actually just relied
on tips, and there was ahumorist at the time that would
tip them all $100 and call themby their names.
(22:57):
So they always wanted to be onhis train.
So by 1875, he had bought outall the other train companies,
most of the other traincompanies and transportation
companies.
He had over $100,000 worth ofpatents and around 700 cars in
operation, along with hundredsof thousands of dollars in the
(23:19):
bank, and I did more of mylittle math on how much that
would be.
So $100,000 in 1872 isequivalent to today's
$2,586,926.23.
Katie (23:35):
That is some specific and impressive math, hey, thanks.
Ivy (23:39):
Google did it.
Pullman decided that he neededto own a whole town to house his
employees.
Like he didn't want them justliving wherever they wanted to
live, he wanted them to live inPullman, illinois.
So he bought 4,000 acres for$800,000.
You can do that math by goingback to the $2,586,932.23.
(24:06):
Just south of Chicago he hadthe entire town built from the
ground up Houses, apartmentbuildings, shopping centers,
theaters, parks, a church, alibrary all for his new factory
employees, along with the newfactory and a hotel called Hotel
Florence, named after George'sdaughter.
(24:27):
Fun fact in the 1930s HotelFlorence was one of the most
popular brothels in the citySlay.
At first everyone thoughtGeorge was the bee's knees.
They thought you know country,air fine, new buildings and
amenities wonderful, not so much.
It all went straight to hishead and he became the world's
worst HOA.
President.
Oh, they're already bad.
(24:47):
Oh, my God, I.
So much.
It all went straight to hishead and he became the world's
worst HOA president.
Oh, they're already bad.
Oh my God, I would never.
He prohibited independentnewspapers, public speeches,
town meetings and opendiscussion.
Katie (24:58):
Yeah, no one's allowed to talk about their feelings ever.
Ivy (25:02):
No open discussion for you, ever no open discussion for you
.
The church remained emptybecause no denomination that he
approved of wanted to pay therent he was asking and no one
else was allowed.
So he had an empty church.
He hired inspectors to bargeinto the homes of his employees
who lived in his town to inspectfor cleanliness and whatever
(25:26):
else he felt like inspecting forthat day.
And if he was displeased by anytenant they would be given 10
days to get out and they wouldbe fired.
And then he invented Pullmanmoney.
So they were no longer paidwith actual money, they were
paid with Pullman money whichcould only be spent in Pullman
(25:49):
Cool.
No alcohol was allowed anywherebut at the Florence Hotel,
strictly prohibited anywhereelse.
And remember you got dudesbusting into your house to see
if there's dust on the furniture, if you've got a beer, you're
in trouble.
So by 1893, 1894, the GreatDepression had begun and the
demand for the cars started towane.
(26:10):
So Pullman thought I need tostart making.
You know I need to make, stillmake all this money.
So I'm going to pay my peopleless.
I'm not going to lower theirrent because they still had to
pay rent to live in the house orthe prices of anything in the
company town.
Live in the house or the pricesof anything in the company town
(26:32):
.
Some workers were making $9.07for two weeks.
I didn't do any math on thatone.
They were making $9.07 for twoweeks of work and their rent was
$9.
So they had $0.07 left to feedtheir family.
Oh yeah, finally, the workershad had enough and on May 12,
1894, they went on strike.
There's a lot of striking today.
The American Railway Unionleader, whose name was Eugene
(26:53):
Debs he led the rebellionPullman was given five days to
respond, but he flat out refused.
So what did George do instead?
He locked up his house and hisbusiness and he left town.
What Bye-bye?
So you know, with all thisunion, a lot of unions started
(27:13):
in the era that we're talkingabout today.
And a lot of things, like OSHA,the story I told before OSHA
came to be after the fire that Ispoke about in my first story.
So soon after all the Pullmancars were cut from the trains,
folks got fired, entire raillines were shut down, resulting
(27:35):
in a blockade of the federalmail, which was really the only
thing anyone cared about was themail getting through.
So that was another giant mess.
Debs tried to keep the peace,but ultimately riots broke out
amongst the workers and somehowPullman convinced the president
of the United States, who wasGrover Cleveland at the time, to
(27:56):
send in the freaking army tosubdue the strikers.
What I don't understand is, inthese times, how the military
keeps coming in to mess withthese people.
Katie (28:07):
Yeah, they called the National Guard because it was.
I mean, I guess people werefreaking out.
They had to have somebody calmthem down, but like it's just
going to escalate it.
Ivy (28:16):
Well, Grover called in the Army to subdue the striking
workers, which resulted in manyinjuries and about 34 deaths.
That number is different in thedifferent articles, so I'm not
positive on that number.
The courts ultimately sidedwith the railway owners and not
the workers, and Eugene Debs wasthrown in jail for contempt of
court.
Katie (28:36):
It's almost like if you have money, you can just hire a
really good lawyer and get outof anything.
Ivy (28:41):
Yeah, it's almost like if you have money, you're the only
ones who matter.
Yeah, Finally, the state ofIllinois did file a suit against
Pullman and his town wasultimately annexed to Chicago.
And a little side note on thisone Around the same time that he
was sending the troops in tomurder the laborers, President
Cleveland also signed into lawthe new holidays to celebrate
(29:04):
laborers.
Labor Day came to be while hewas murdering strikers.
Katie (29:10):
Wow.
Ivy (29:11):
Nice try, Grover.
And here's a little limerickpoem, whatever you want to call
it.
That was from the PullmanMuseum.
So I guess these train cars, Imean they're still in use,
because Big Bang Theory, butanyway.
Katie (29:23):
Yeah, I get it.
Trains are cool, Like notsaying they're not.
Ivy (29:26):
We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman
shops, taught in the Pullmanschool, catechized in the
Pullman church, and when we diewe shall go to the Pullman hell.
Katie (29:40):
That is chilling, wow, wow.
Ivy (29:44):
Can you imagine living in a town where you can own?
It's like Monopoly.
You can only use the money andhe pays you in this fake
currency, so you can't evenleave.
Katie (29:57):
You're stuck there.
This is the bad place.
I can't imagine how completelypowerless and stuck those poor
people felt.
Ivy (30:06):
I know and, like I said in the beginning, they thought this
is great, a brand new house.
This is built just for me.
Katie (30:14):
I get my work Initially, I could see why it would be
tempting, you know yeah.
Ivy (30:19):
Yeah, it seems almost cozy and then it's like the hammer
comes down.
Yeah, wow, what a dick yeah.
Katie (30:32):
Wow, what a dick, Mm-hmm.
I wanted to do this story lastbecause I actually, as I dug
into the research of it, I foundit really inspiring, which was
sort of rare considering some ofthe stuff that went down in
this time period.
So this is the story of Bryantand May Match Company and the
Match Girls Rebellion.
(30:52):
A little bit of backgroundWilliam Bryant and Francis May
established the Match Company inLondon in 1843.
So all of this takes place inLondon the same time period as
the other stuff was going on inAmerica.
In London, the same time periodas the other stuff was going on
in America In the 1850s and 60s, they became one of the leading
(31:14):
match manufacturers in Britainand they specialized in white
phosphorus matches which werecheap but highly toxic Cheap to
make, cheap to buy, both Cheapto make, cheap to buy, but toxic
chemicals involved.
So during the 1870s and 1880sthere started to be reports
emerging about really horrificworking conditions at the Bryant
and May factory, which was inBow, East London.
(31:35):
The workers endured really longhours, up to 14 hours a day,
terrible pay, so their wageswere between four to eight
shillings a week, which was theequivalent of about 15 to 30
British pounds or about 18 to 40dollars.
Now they were paid onproductivity, not by the hour,
(31:56):
so it depended on how many boxesof matches they were able to
produce.
Much like the TriangleShirtwaist Company that you
mentioned before, they almostexclusively hired young girls,
and we're talking like betweenthe ages of six to like 18,
early 20s.
Yeah, and some of them were notemployed in the factory but
(32:18):
they were employed in theirhomes.
So there were people that wouldtake these match supplies home
and make matches on theirkitchen table in their house.
Ivy (32:26):
Oh wow, Work from home in the 1800s Interesting.
Katie (32:29):
Work from home yes, but not in a great way, as we'll
find out.
So this pay was barely enoughto survive, especially given the
cost of food and rent andeverything On top of their
terrible pay, the Bryant and Maymatch girls were subject to
fines deducted from their wages.
(32:49):
They were fined for being late,for dropping a match, they were
fined for talking and forhaving dirty workbenches and
dirty feet.
Like they were judged on theircleanliness, even though they
were working in this factory.
That was like 100 years old atthat point.
Ivy (33:06):
So take your shoes off and show me your feet.
Katie (33:10):
That sounds real weird and I don't need I have
questions.
But yeah, you know the worst,the worst thing of all.
They had all these fines, theyhad terrible conditions, but
they were using white phosphorus.
Now there's two kinds ofphosphorus red phosphorus and
white phosphorus and the redphosphorus is safer to work with
.
I don't have a lot ofinformation about exactly how
(33:30):
toxic it is, but the whitephosphorus is extremely
dangerous to work with and thesegirls were forced to eat lunch
at the same workbenches wherethey had this toxic chemical all
over them all day.
And this exposure to thischemical caused a condition
known as Fossey jaw whichbasically doctors can tell now
(33:52):
was a cancer.
At the time they, you know,weren't really aware that cancer
was a thing, but this was aknown problem.
So it was named Fossey jawbecause they knew that it was
coming from working with thiswhite phosphorus.
Charles Dickens wrote about itin an essay in 1852.
So that was like 30, some yearsbefore all of this came to a
(34:15):
head.
It's really disturbing what hesaid about it and I'm going to
read it to you.
But we may decide to cut thisout, but basically this
condition, cut this out, butbasically this condition, fosse
jaw was osteonecrosis.
So osteo meaning bones, andnecrosis meaning dead flesh,
(34:36):
death of the flesh, prettygnarly, yeah.
So I'm going to describe thisto you.
This is the quote from CharlesDickens' essay.
Annie Brown is 20 years of age,of pale and scrupulous aspect.
She went to work at the Luciferfactory when she was nine years
old and after she had workedfor about four years the
(34:57):
complaint began like a toothache.
Her teeth had all been soundbefore that time.
She was occupied in the lids onthe boxes.
She could smell the phosphorusat first but soon grew used to
it.
At night she could see that herclothes were glowing on the
chair where she had put them.
Her hands and arms were glowingalso.
On uncovering her face weperceived that her lower jaw is
(35:20):
almost entirely wanting.
At the side of her mouth thereare two or three large holes.
The jaw was removed at theinfirmary seven years ago.
So this young woman had her jawremoved because of this
condition and also she wasglowing.
Ivy (35:38):
Yeah.
Katie (35:40):
It's like really, really upsetting, and I can't believe
that it took so long for anybodyto do anything about this.
Because girls didn't matter?
Because, yeah, because theywere treated as little worker,
bee, soldier, slaves.
Their well-being they were poor, their well-being didn't matter
(36:01):
, oh yeah, they didn't matter,they die, they just get more
poor little girls to come Dime adozen.
That's right, sickening and veryupsetting.
But so anyway, in 1888, therewas a journalist and a social
reformer named Annie Besant.
She published an article calledWhite Slavery in London, which
(36:22):
is a very incendiary title, inher newspaper, the Link, which
was exposing these terribleconditions at Bryant and May.
At that time that the articlecame out, there had already been
a boycott started against thismatch company.
So people were starting torealize around that time here's
a quote from her article whocares if they die, provided only
(36:42):
that the Bryant and Mayshareholders get their 23
percent.
And Bryant and May got reallyticked off.
They flipped out.
They decided to force theworkers to sign statements
denying these allegations,saying nope, we lied, everything
was fine.
The match girls refused andthey wrote letters to Annie
Besant saying you spoke up forus and we weren't going back on
(37:06):
you.
Besson, saying you spoke up forus and we weren't going back on
you, no-transcript.
So July 5th 1888, 1,400 matchgirls walk out on strike
demanding better wages to endthe unfair fines and safer
(37:27):
working conditions, like, as yousaid before, just demanding the
right to stay alive, becausethis osteonecrosis that they
were subject to was a deathsentence and they had no
treatment for that at that time.
It was like if you got it, youwere done.
July 6th the day after that,the Match Girls formed a strike
committee and they gainedsupport from journalists,
(37:49):
socialists and the trade unions.
The strike starts to getnational attention.
So because they had thissupport of the trade unions,
they took their case toparliament and there was one
girl who was 15 years old,walked into the House of
Parliament and she took off herscarf and she was bald.
And that's when they were likefuck this, here's the good part.
(38:10):
July 16th, 10 days later, bryantand May agree to the workers'
demands, including reinstatingthe fired workers, ending their
unfair fines and improving wages.
The Match Girls strike is asuccess and becomes one of the
first victories in industriallabor organizing in Britain.
They did this without violence.
(38:30):
All they did was go to someoneand say this is what's happening
to us.
They just used their voices.
They didn't need weapons, theydidn't need violence, they
didn't need to involve theNational Guard.
Ivy (38:40):
I was just going to say the queen didn't have to send in
the, whatever they are overthere like, like we did over
here, send in the, send in thetroops and beat up these girls.
Katie (38:51):
Right, they were already beaten up enough.
Needless to say, that sparkedsome serious outrage, but 10
days later, bryant and Mayagreed to all of the workers'
demands, which was reallyshocking to me, that they were
just like all right, yes, Well,they knew their greed was coming
to an end.
They knew they were cooked.
Yeah, basically, theyreinstated fired workers, they
(39:13):
ended their unfair fines andthey improved the wages.
So this strike was a massivesuccess.
And not only that, but thisreally gives new meaning to the
word strike when you think aboutstriking.
A match like that was reallypoignant to me.
A mob of 1,400 teenage girlsdescending on the streets of
London, walking in protest andactually making a difference,
(39:38):
and not just a difference intheir lives, because this the
next year in 1889, the Londondock workers decided to go on
strike as well and fight fortheir fair wages and better
conditions.
They also won.
Ivy (39:52):
So the teenage girls led the charge.
Katie (39:55):
Yes, these little boss bitches walked out on their job
where they were barely earningenough, like this is not enough
money to feed anyone, really,but it could have been with
these families, could have beenthe difference between eating
and not eating.
So, yeah, their bravery andtheir willingness to speak out
about what was happening to themand tell the truth, they
(40:17):
inspired these burly bigass dockworker men to do the same thing
, and they also won.
So this is considered a hugemoment in workers' rights and
unionism in England, which Ihadn't heard anything about this
because I didn't learn this inschool.
Ivy (40:38):
No, I didn't learn about this in school either, and I'm
curious maybe you know this howdid they come up with the idea
to strike Like what?
Katie (40:46):
I found some more quotes Like so one of the girls said
when they were asked how theygot this idea, one of the girls
said well, it just went likeTinder.
One girl began and the restsaid yes, yeah, so we all went
Excellent.
Ivy (41:00):
I wonder if we have the match girls to thank for all the
walkouts we did in high school.
Katie (41:04):
Probably indirectly Following pressure.
In 1891, bryant and Mayswitched from white phosphorus
to the safer red phosphorus intheir matches.
Good for them.
In 1901, the British governmentbanned the use of white
phosphorus in match production.
Even better, but the factoryclosed in 1979.
And now that building is somenice apartments, cool.
Ivy (41:27):
I understand it.
Love a factory transformed intoapartments.
We love a factory.
Katie (41:32):
Yeah, a nice little rebrand, love that.
So, in short, these young,underpaid and overlooked little
match girls did not just changetheir own lives, they changed
labor history.
And if that's not the ultimatebad boss detox, then I don't
know what is?
Ivy (41:48):
I love it.
I love these girls.
Katie (41:50):
Slay, if you are also as inspired as I was, there are
several websites you can lookinto, but one of them is
matchgirls1888.org.
There you can donate to helpbuild a memorial.
Oh good, I went to see LittleMermaid last night, the show
that I helped do the lightingfor, and Ursula had a quote from
(42:11):
that show and I was like girlyes.
She said sometimes a youngwoman doesn't know the power of
her voice until it's taken away.
Ivy (42:18):
Yep, I feel that yeah.
Katie (42:21):
So if you're in a toxic workplace, you are not powerless
.
These girls had no rights, nolegal protections, no money and,
at least initially, they didn'thave a union backing.
And they still won.
Secondly, bad bosses hate badPR.
Bryant and May were only forcedto cave when the public turned
(42:41):
against them.
Right, all it takes is oneperson speaking up.
If Annie Besant hadn't writtenthat article, the strike might
never have happened.
Yep.
Ivy (42:51):
Another girl.
Katie (42:53):
Another young woman.
Yeah, it's easy to look atthese stories from the Gilded
Age and whatever and think, likeGod, why I should really get
over it when my toxic boss saysthings to me that are not okay.
Or you know, I'm treatedunfairly at my work.
You know, maybe I should reallyjust suck it up because I'm not
over here.
You know, being forced to usetheir currency and live in a
(43:16):
town that they erected, or anyof these things that these
bosses did.
Ivy (43:19):
Or having the cleanliness of my feet inspected by my boss.
Katie (43:23):
Yeah, I'm allowed to go to the bathroom at my job.
Yeah, you know, my point issaying like it's not a
competition of suffering here.
You know Right, this is notabout like you're only allowed
to quit if your job is just asbad as all of those people.
Like we should be looking tothese situations and learning
from history so that it doesn'trepeat itself.
Yeah, like I said, if a13-year-old girl can stand up to
(43:45):
their boss, so can you.
Absolutely so can you.
Little baby boss bitches, lovethem.
Ivy (43:53):
I can't even believe how young people working on
machinery and mangled hands,yeah Ugh.
Katie (44:03):
Ugh, it's very upsetting to hear about, but I think it's
important because we arecurrently about to let stuff
like this start happening again,I'm afraid.
Ivy (44:14):
Well, and the things that we're talking about today are
the things that led to betterworking conditions for everyone.
Katie (44:22):
Yeah, except for Homestead Steel.
They fucked up.
Ivy (44:26):
Everyone is a strong word.
Better working conditions.
It led to laws.
It led to child labor laws.
Eventually, yeah, it just, itled to things.
So you know, yeah.
Katie (44:41):
And if you are in a working environment that is
anti-union, that's a red flag.
Ivy (44:47):
Do we even have unions here ?
Katie (44:50):
We are a right to work state, which means that you
cannot be forced to join theunion, which I guess is fair.
But, like a right to work, lawin our state prohibits employers
from discriminating againstemployees based on their union
membership.
It also prevents employers fromrequiring employees to join a
union as a condition ofemployment, which sounds fine,
(45:12):
but it's really kind of not.
It's basically like weakeningthe union, you know, because if
you are required to join theunion in order to have that job,
that makes the union stronger.
Ivy (45:22):
Why would you not want to join the union?
Katie (45:25):
I don't know.
Yeah, I really don't know.
When I was a teacher, I waspart of the teacher's union and
I got a lot of my other fellowteachers to join because, as I
mentioned in the first episode,we worked in a county where the
parents were very litigious.
The union provided some legalrepresentation for us if we were
(45:46):
to get ourselves into a lawsuit, so that was like enough reason
, but they didn't really.
They don't have a lot ofnegotiating power in a state
like this.
Yeah Well, that was really darkand scary and awful.
I loved it.
Let's not go back to the GildedAge?
No Like some people seem toreally want to do, and if our
(46:07):
listeners would like to look upsome more about these historical
dirtbags, feel free.
There's a lot more to learnthat we couldn't fit into our
descriptions.
Oh yeah, for sure.
I was fascinated with the MatchGirl Rebellion.
I want a t-shirt that says I'ma match girl.
Ivy (46:23):
I mean, I want to learn to be a musician so I can name my
band Match Girl Rebellion.
Katie (46:28):
That's so tight.
I don't know, man, it's givenGirl Scouts in a great way.
I love it.
Let's move on to something alittle bit lighter, because I
need it.
Let's do some bad boss email,mad libs, awesome.
This is so silly.
I'm telling you now Okay, so Ineed from you a noun Hairy cock
(46:52):
bag Okay, and I need anadjective Incredible, another
adjective, shitty Okay, and averb.
Ivy (47:04):
Eating.
Katie (47:04):
Okay, all right.
So I just got this email frommy boss.
I need you to kind of like helpme interpret it.
Okay.
So it says I just reviewed yourcock bag and it's completely
incredible.
How could you miss such shittyerrors?
Fix it by the end of the day orbe prepared to eat your job
security.
Nice, I just reviewed your cock.
Ivy (47:28):
You know I'm always nervous when people review my cock bag.
I'm always like, oh shit, Isn'tthat like a HIPAA violation?
What are they going to think ofmy cock bag?
Katie (47:40):
It's way too hairy.
Which brings us to my favoritelistener story time.
Yeah, we need like a theme forlistener story time.
Ivy (47:54):
This listener had a experience with her boss and a
printer.
So she said the boss was havinga rough time getting the
printer to work.
It kept jamming and stoppingworking and she would beat it on
the side and email the listenerand say I need you to get over
(48:17):
here and make this printer work.
She went over there and got theprinter to work Magic.
Nothing was wrong with theprinter.
Her boss got up and left.
A little while later yelled putthat printer on the back porch.
I want to beat it with abaseball bat.
(48:39):
So, being the good littleemployee that she was, got the
printer out of the office,carried it out to the back porch
, put the printer on the backporch and thought she doesn't
have a baseball bat.
Where's the baseball bat?
I don't know.
Went back into the office, wentback to work, heard some
(48:59):
bashing and some yelling andthen finally turned to find her
bloody boss standing in thedoorway with her hand and she
was blubbering something withher hand in the air and blood
running down her hand.
So this person got up, walkedover and said we need to get you
(49:20):
to the emergency room, yeah,and to that the boss turned
around, stomped her foot andsaid no, I'm not going.
Katie (49:32):
You know what?
You're going to your roomwithout supper.
You're grounded, you'regrounded.
Ivy (49:39):
Boss was about.
I'm holding up two fingers thisclose to losing the finger
altogether.
Jeez, Turns out she did nothave a baseball bat, so she just
decided to use her hands.
Katie (49:54):
Just physically beating this piece of office wood.
Ivy (49:56):
She physically was beating the printer and throwing it and
stomping on it, and when shepicked it up to throw it one
final time, it almost took herwhole finger off like it was a
bad gash on her finger.
Um, and then several weekslater the boss tried to get her
(50:17):
to pull the stitches out.
She didn't want, that's not myjob.
She didn't want to go back tohave the stitches removed and
said to this listener the doctorsaid you can do it.
And she tried and she failed.
Gross.
Katie (50:39):
I'm not touching anybody's nasty finger.
No, for no, no, no, no, no,that's.
That's some messed upboundaries in several ways.
Oh my God, listener, I'm soglad you survived and I'm glad
(50:59):
your boss didn't require, like,a blood transfusion, because,
let's be real, that would havebeen you.
Ivy (51:04):
Even if it wasn't the same blood type, it sounds like that
boss wouldn't have cared.
Give me your blood.
Katie (51:10):
Talk about an energy vampire.
Wow, that was a doozy.
Ivy (51:15):
All right, they'll be coming out of the woodwork.
I'm hoping.
I'm hoping to get a lot ofstories like that one Give us
your stories.
Katie (51:23):
We want to know, and it's not a competition Hard to beat
that.
Ivy (51:27):
Katie, let's do this, let's rate these stories.
Katie (51:31):
Yeah.
Ivy (51:32):
Let's rate them on a scale of one to Harry Cockbag.
Katie (51:36):
I love it.
I love it.
Okay, you know there was nomurder involved, but there was
blood there was.
Ivy (51:47):
Yeah, I'll give it three out of five Harrycock bags.
Three out of five in that bag.
Yeah, I think I'm going to gowith four out of five Harrycock
bags, just because this listenerattempted to pull stitches out
of her boss's finger.
Katie (52:01):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, that brings us to thevocabulary word of the week.
Yay, this week's vocabularyword is brought to you by red
phosphorus.
Red phosphorus, the onlycorrect phosphorus to have in
(52:21):
your life.
The best color of phosphorus thebest color of phosphorus for
any skin tone.
This week's vocabulary word ofthe week is oligarch, oligarch,
oligarch, oligarch alsopronounced oligarch, but I've
always said oligarch.
Both pronunciations are correct, despite what my husband said.
So an oligarch is one of aclass of individuals who,
(52:46):
through private acquisition ofstate assets, amassed great
wealth that is stored especiallyin foreign accounts and
properties, and who maintainclose links to the highest
government circles.
Sounds like a criminal.
Yeah, let's break that down alittle bit.
Yeah, so this is a person who'sextremely wealthy, whose wealth
(53:07):
was mostly acquired throughacquisition of state assets,
like government grants, etcetera.
A lot of that wealth is storedin foreign accounts, and an
oligarch is a person whotypically maintains very close
links to the highest governmentcircles, so they're usually
pretty buddy-buddy withpolitical leaders.
(53:28):
Yeah, indeed, I wanted to giveyou some examples of using this
word in a sentence, if I may, ohplease.
This one is a quote from theChicago Tribune from earlier
this year.
How dare oligarchs infiltrateand purge departments created
(53:52):
and authorized by pastleadership to help people?
I like it.
I like saying it.
Yeah, it makes me sound smartand fancy.
Oligarchy.
I really enjoyed learning allthat stuff, even though it was
dark and upsetting.
I know Me too.
Yeah, I feel like it'sabsolutely worth knowing, and I
was questioning why I wasn'ttaught those things in school.
Maybe it's because they didn'twant me to rise up against my
(54:13):
oppressors, or something, Idon't know.
Ivy (54:15):
Oh, yeah, well, especially, you know, because we're girls.
Katie (54:19):
Most of these involved exploiting marginalized people,
absolutely.
Thank you guys so much forlistening to our podcast this
week.
Ivy (54:28):
Hope you guys enjoyed and are not too traumatized, and I
hear that it's important to saysomething to the effect of like
us, follow us, subscribe.
Give us a five-star rating.
Katie (54:40):
Yeah, if you enjoyed this podcast, please like us, follow
us, give us a five-star rating,leave a comment and tell us
your bad boss stories.
Yes, If you would like to sharewith us a bad boss story or a
toxic workplace story of yourown, you can email us at stories
at badbossdetoxcom.
You can also go to our Facebookpage, which is called Bad Boss
(55:03):
Detox, and use our Google formthere If you like.
You can follow us on Instagram.
That account is badbossdetoxpod.
Ivy (55:11):
We're looking forward to getting to know all of you.
Katie (55:13):
Looking forward to hearing all of your crazy
stories so we can laugh about itand heal together.
Thanks so much for doing apodcast with me, Ivy.
Ivy (55:23):
Oh, katie, thank you, it was a blast.
It's so much fun.
Katie (55:27):
All right, I'm going to go take the soup out of the
crock pot.
Ivy (55:30):
All right, I'm going to go feed my husband.
Make my husband a steak.
Oh yeah, all right, bye.
Welcome to Bad Boss Detox, a podcast about moving forward
after surviving a toxic boss,because therapy is expensive,
but this podcast is free Yay.
In this episode, we're going totalk about some of the worst
bosses in history.
We're going to share somestories and put some things in
perspective, so stay tuned.
Katie (00:26):
Well, welcome back everybody.
Hi Ivy, how are you?
Hey Katie, I'm great.
How are you?
I'm great.
What did you do this week?
Ivy (00:35):
I went to New York City.
What, yes, I went to New YorkCity.
I went and saw the Outsiders onBroadway I'm wearing my Do it
For Johnny t-shirt Ate a lot ofcheesecake, hung out with some
dear, dear friends and walkedaround a lot Central Park people
(00:56):
watching.
Got to meet the SquirrelWhisperer Ooh.
Katie (01:01):
I love that.
Oh, that's great.
I'm glad you had a good trip.
Yeah, it was great, except forthe Delta it's always, except
for Delta.
What did I do this week?
What?
Ivy (01:11):
did you do this week, Katie ?
Katie (01:12):
You know it's a blur.
I worked a lot so I've beenhelping my friend who took my
old job.
At the school where I used towork, the theater teacher that
replaced me designed lights andstuff for her show that's coming
up.
That day that I went, the kidsshowed up for their rehearsal
about 10 minutes early, so itkind of overlapped with when I
(01:33):
was there and it did not takefive minutes before I had a
migraine because the kids werescreaming and running around and
I was just triggered.
What age Triggered they age?
I was triggered.
They're middle school, Okay.
Ivy (01:47):
Yeah.
Katie (01:47):
Yeah, I was shocked.
Like as soon as they walked in,I was like I got to go.
I can't do this.
Not your thing anymore, not myproblem.
It's not my circus, I'm not theringmaster anymore, I'm not
responsible for making them allsit down and be quiet and
(02:10):
responsible for making them allsit down and be quiet, and so I
was just like I'm going to leavebefore I yell at a child that
isn't my job to yell at, and myheadache was like fine by the
time I got home.
It was.
It came on so fast, it was likemy body rejecting the
experience.
Ivy (02:16):
It was not a headache, it was a warning.
It was, it was a get out.
There's my spirit guides withlike red flags.
Katie (02:26):
They're like girl, get out.
Yeah, let's talk about some badbosses from history.
Dear friends, listeners, mysweet summer children, this has
all the trigger warnings.
This stuff that we're going totalk about involves some death,
some abuse, some reallyupsetting shit.
So please check the show notesfor specific trigger warnings
(02:50):
and times.
But if you ever get the chanceto like go relive your life in
the 1800s, don't, yeah, justdon't.
Ivy (03:01):
How about don't Except for the fashion?
Katie (03:08):
You know, I really do look good in those outfits,
though, yeah yeah, yeah, lovesome vintage clothes, don't love
some vintage attitudes.
Yeah, really.
You know, when I was in HelloDolly, the costumer wanted to
put me ina walking suit with abustle and I was like, girl, I
don't need a bustle, I'm alreadybustling.
I got my own bustle.
(03:29):
My bustle comes preloaded.
Ivy (03:33):
So we've picked out four of the worst bosses in history
from the 1800s early 1900s.
Katie's going to do a couple,I'm going to do a couple.
We're going to talk about themore obscure ones, ones that
maybe you haven't heard of.
I had never heard of any ofthese, except I heard of one of
(03:55):
mine on the Big Bang Theory,because Sheldon likes trains.
Katie (04:00):
Oh, I had never heard of any of these people either, and
I asked my history buff husbandtoo, and he was like I've never
knew any of that stuff.
Ivy (04:09):
OK, so my first one is the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory.
It was started by Isaac Harrisand Max Blanc.
Isaac and Max were the ownersof the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory.
They came to the United Statesfrom Russia as immigrants and
(04:32):
they were eventually known asthe Shirtwaist Kings Harris
being a tailor and Blanc being agarment contractor.
And first things first, what inthe hell is a shirtwaist?
A shirtwaist is a blouse.
Simply put, it started whensomeone decided that a woman's
dress could be made into twopieces a blouse tapered at the
waist and a skirt so they cancharge us twice.
(04:54):
Yeah, exactly.
So these old chaps decided ashirtwaist wouldn't confuse
anyone, right?
The pair became quite wealthyand opened more factories in new
york, new jersey andpennsylvania.
And when I say quite wealthyand opened more factories in New
York, New Jersey andPennsylvania.
And when I say quite wealthy, Imean quite greedy.
And they took on a very lavishlifestyle, eventually even being
(05:15):
chauffeured to their factories.
Isaac and Max thought if theyjust hired mostly women and
girls, some as young as 14, itwould be easy to mistreat them
because they're just women,Right?
Many of them were also Jewishimmigrants, also Italian
immigrants.
The working conditions for thewomen were horrible, to say the
(05:39):
least.
While the men were off gettingrich on the backs of these young
women, girls.
They were forced to work 12 to14-hour days with no breaks.
Their pay was shitty around $6a week.
In today's dollars that wouldbe around $200 a week, but at 12
to 14 hours a day that would bepretty crappy.
(06:15):
And they were watched throughouttheir shifts by a foreman who
also searched them every nightbefore they left, to make sure
they were not stealing, which isan important part of this story
.
What would they be stealing?
Shirts, shirt waists, just thewaist of the shirt.
So these two bad bosses refusedto adhere to agreements with
the newly formed garment workersunion at all.
They wanted no part, just nounions.
Our girls are our girls and youcan't tell us what to do with
(06:39):
them.
But the worst part is theylocked the secondary factory
doors from the outside.
So why they're being searchedfor stealing is beyond me, since
they can't get out beforethey're searched by their
foreman.
So the workers could not leaveto take a break and they could
not steal anything.
(06:59):
So when the women finally hadenough, in November of 1909,
they decided to go on strike.
But this offended their greedybosses, of course.
So Isaac and Max hiredpolicemen and thugs to see a
(07:23):
decline in their million-dollarprofits.
So they agreed to somewhatshorter hours and a little bit
better pay, but they stillrefused the union.
Just over a year later, on March25, 1911, a fire started on the
10th floor.
Isaac and Max couldn't bebothered to alert anyone or even
(07:45):
yell fire.
They just climbed out therooftop across to another
building to safety, while theemployees left in the building
were none the wiser.
Of the 200 employees left inthe building now, remember many
of them were 14-year-old girls.
Of the 200 people left in thebuilding, now, remember many of
them were 14-year-old girls.
Of the 200 people left in thebuilding, 146 died in the fire.
(08:12):
Holy shit, uh-huh.
They either died from the fireitself, the smoke, or jumping
from the building.
Now I want to say here I didn'tadd this in my notes, but I
found that there was a young manstudying in the building across
the street and he saw the fireand gathered some friends and
(08:35):
some ladders and rescued somepeople with the ladders, and I
wish that I had jotted his namedown to give him some credit.
All this happened because thetwo were still locking the exits
to prevent employees fromstealing from them.
Immediately after the fire,harris and Blanc began damage
(08:56):
control because what do theycare?
Right, beginning an extensiveadvertising campaign and calling
reporters for interviews toboast that they had taken all
the right precautions.
But on April 11th they wereboth arrested for manslaughter
and I didn't note this eitherbut only seven counts, 146
(09:18):
people.
I feel like there should be atleast 146 counts of manslaughter
.
But it was a different time.
The entire trial was centeredaround that locked door and,
despite the outrage and over 100witnesses, they were acquitted
and they had to be hidden awayfrom the angry mobs of families
(09:38):
of the 146 dead factory workers.
So while the angry familymembers were waiting by their
limo to, you know, kick theirass, rough them up a little bit,
like they did their daughters.
This pair of incredibly badbosses snuck off to the subway.
Then they filed an insuranceclaim, got $60,000, which in
(10:02):
money today is $2,250,000.
So they basically profited $400per victim, oh my God.
And when they later settledwith the families, they only
gave each family about a week'sworth of wages and we talked
earlier about that.
(10:23):
A week's worth of wages, and wetalked earlier about that.
So each family got around $200.
So they still profited from thedeaths of all of these people
that they caused because theywere greedy fuckers.
Katie (10:36):
They were so worried about people stealing, stealing.
Ivy (10:38):
I mean, if you're being searched before you can walk out
of the building, why do we alsoneed to lock the secondary
entrance, like I read somewherethat there were women just
beating on that door.
They didn't even realize that.
You know that they were.
I think they all knew they werelocked in because somebody.
I read somewhere too that thatwas their biggest complaint.
(11:01):
Was they lock us in.
Biggest complaint was they lockus in?
Yeah, so later they were finedagain.
They went back into business.
They reopened the TriangleShirtwaist Factory, but they
never regained their originalprofits.
So they tried to open anothercompany, but they were later
(11:21):
fined $20.
They had a $20 fine.
I want you to guess what theywere fined for.
Can you guess what?
They were later fined $20.
They had a $20 fine.
I want you to guess what theywere fined for.
Can you guess what they werefined for?
Katie (11:31):
Not paying to use the subway Locking the door again.
Ivy (11:36):
They locked the door from the outside again.
They killed 146 people and thefine for trying to do it again
was $20.
Y'all?
Katie (11:48):
what.
Ivy (11:49):
I'm so upset.
They got busted for sewing fakelabels into garments that said
that the garments were madeunder sound conditions.
Katie (11:59):
I'm sorry for laughing, but like they got fined for
sewing labels in that said theywere made safely, Fake labels.
Ivy (12:07):
They were fake labels that claimed that the garments had
been made under sound conditions.
So the two finally they brokeup.
They went their separate waysafter that because they could
never get back to the same way.
I think one of them openedanother shirt waste company
somewhere else and the other onedid something completely
(12:28):
different.
So that's the story of IsaacHarris and Max Blanc.
And a not so fun fact aboutthis fire is, up until 9-11, it
had been the worst fire in NewYork history.
Katie (12:47):
Wow, well, that was certainly horrifying.
What do you got, Katie?
Okay, well, you know, I'vealways been a person who's
pretty pro-unions, but this isan example of a story about a
union who really could have madesome better choices.
When we were looking at thelist of worst bosses in history,
(13:09):
this one came up with possiblythe best nickname of all time.
His name is Henry Clay Frick,and the nickname that he was
bestowed by his employees wasHarry Cockbag.
Was bestowed by his employeeswas Harry Cockbag, which I love
and is such a beautiful, I meanchef's kiss.
(13:31):
What's his real name?
What's his real first name?
His real name is Henry, henry.
Okay, his middle name is Clayand his last name is Frick,
which I'm like.
Why'd you go with Harry?
Ivy (13:42):
Cockbag.
When Frick was right there.
Frick was right there.
That's what I'm thinking too,but also Harry Cockbag is
probably my favorite new thingto say.
Katie (13:52):
Today I learned Um, yeah, so you've heard of Andrew
Carnegie, right?
Um, another giant asshole, butthis is like the lesser known uh
, giant asshole piece ofCarnegie steel.
So this guy, henry Clay Frick,was a steel tycoon in the 1800s.
He was responsible fordeveloping a lot of these things
(14:15):
called coke ovens, which is notcocaine, but it is like the
fucking worst thing ever.
So apparently, one of thecomponents to make steel is
known as coke c-o-k-e, and inorder to make it they have,
there has to be this chemicalprocess taking place in these
huge ovens, which burned hugeamounts of toxic chemicals and
(14:36):
put all kinds of terribleemissions into the air, and
basically they are not in useanymore.
There's only like 12 of themleft in the world, which is too
many if you ask me, but still so.
This guy was in charge of makingthese huge ovens, which made a
ton of people sick.
He did a lot of messed up stuff, super obsessed with his wealth
(14:57):
and very self-centered.
One of the things that listedthat he did was he decided he
wanted a private fishing lakefor himself and his fishing bros
.
So he bought a lake inpennsylvania, but the dam to the
lake was leaking and since hewas so cheap, he put off fixing
it until it cracked and itflooded an entire town and
(15:18):
killed 2 000 people.
Oh my god, yeah, um, but that'slike unrelated to him being a
boss.
What a hairy cock bag.
Just a bag full of cocks.
Yeah, so that wasn't evenrelated to him being a bad boss,
but I think that that kind ofdemonstrates his character.
On the other hand, he actuallywas a very wealthy person and
(15:39):
was a patron of the arts.
So there's a huge artcollection.
In several of his giantmansions he was responsible for
buying and supporting theseartists and preserving their
work.
So like I'll give him 1% creditfor that, because that stuff is
cool.
However, there is no amount ofgood karma that can make up for
this shit.
(15:59):
So there's this union called theAmalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers.
It was one of the strongestunions in the steel industry and
it represents skilled laborersat Carnegie Steel's Homestead
Works.
So this particular factory wascalled Homestead Works.
Their union contract was set toexpire on July 1st 1892.
And rather than actuallynegotiate with the union, andrew
(16:21):
Carnegie, who had a history ofpublicly supporting unions like
he, would say that he waspro-unions but privately he was
very anti-unions.
He left labor relations in thehands of his ruthless plant
manager, henry K Frick.
So he was like I'm out, I'mgoing to let you handle this.
Frick decided he was going tobreak this union, so he cut
(16:43):
wages by 20 percent.
He refused to negotiate withthe Amalgamated Association and
he set a take it or leave itdeadline for the new contract.
So he cut their wages by 20percent and was like you can
take it or you just walk.
He decided that, since theworkers were pretty pissed off
about that, he was just going tolock them out of the factory.
(17:04):
So he locked workers out onJune 29th, which was two days
before the contract was supposedto expire, barring union
members from entering the mill.
And he built a 12-foot highfence around the mill, topped
with barbed wire andhigh-powered water cannons, so
the workers dubbed it Fort Frick.
At that time he brought in somestrike breakers to replace the
(17:28):
locked out workers, knowing thatthis would escalate tensions.
So he was just like I fuckingdare you.
The steel workers decided tostrike because they were already
working in this super toxicplace for barely any money.
But Frick hired 300 armedPinkerton detectives, which is a
private security force infamousfor suppressing labor strikes.
(17:48):
Yeah, we know about thePinkertons.
And so the Pinkertons arrivedon barges they were sneaking up
the river Before dawn on July6th.
They were intending to breakthe strike, but the strikers at
that point were armed withrifles and homemade weapons and
they physically started battlingthese guys.
So gunfire erupted and after anhours-long battle, several
(18:12):
people had died.
There were at least sevenworkers and three Pinkertons who
were killed.
So this is what I meant aboutlike this union kind of made
some wrong choices here, likeyou guys could have just not
started shooting people, but youdid.
After this brutal fight, thepinkerton surrendered and the
angry strikers beat them as theywere marched out of town, which
, like fuck the pinkertons.
(18:32):
But this is not the way tonegotiate.
You know, none of this is theway to to go.
This is this is the way to notdo it.
Okay, yeah, eventually thenational guard was called in
with the military protecting themill.
Then frick resumed production,brought in some scabs and was
like all right, let's just let'sgo.
The strike was totallyunsuccessful because people got
(18:56):
shot and it escalated Right, andso, without the plant or the
public support, the power ofthis union totally collapsed.
The strike officially ended inNovember of 1892, which is a
long, pretty long strike fromlike July to November.
Wow yeah, the union was crushed.
Workers returned to the plantwith lower wages, longer hours
(19:18):
and lost union representation.
So Frick's plan totally worked.
What a waste, oh my God.
Except for there was anunrelated dude.
Alexander Berkman attempted toassassinate Henry Clay Frick.
He shot him twice and stabbedhim, but Harry Cockbag survived,
good grief.
(19:39):
He was shot and stabbed but hesurvived.
Ivy (19:42):
Shot twice and stabbed.
Katie (19:44):
Yeah, is this guy like a fucking vampire?
I don't know.
The attack totally backfired,turning public opinion against
the strikers.
Ivy (19:52):
Yeah.
Katie (19:53):
And so, as a result of this homestead strike, it was
considered a huge setback forstill unionization for decades,
reinforcing the power ofindustrialists like Carnegie and
Frick.
Don't be a hairy cock bag, Justyou know.
If you're going to be a cockbag, at least do some manscaping
.
Ivy (20:15):
So George Pullman is next and, like I said, I mentioned
Sheldon on Big Bang Theory,mentioned the Pullman, one of
the Pullman coaches, on anepisode of Big Bang Theory and I
said hey, I'm researching thatguy.
George Pullman was anindustrialist in the mid-1800s.
(20:37):
He invented the railroadsleeper car, also known as the
palace car, which is fitting,since he seemed to fancy himself
.
A king Sounds familiar.
So he always thought thereshould be a more luxurious way
to travel.
So he designed the sleeper carafter the packet boats that he
knew from the Erie Canal and Icould only find like little old
(21:00):
timey pictures of packet boats,but they look like, you know,
they have little passenger roomsin them.
So he did that.
And after President Lincoln wasassassinated, George arranged
for one of his fancy sleepercars to transport the
president's body and also thefamily of the president.
(21:21):
So this created a great demandfor his luxury cars.
It kind of put him on the map,so to speak.
Katie (21:28):
So he capitalized on the assassination.
Ivy (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah of course he did so.
Pretty soon he became and this,might you know, the first part
of this sentence I'm going tosay right now sounds hunky-dory,
but then the rest of it getspretty gross so he became the
biggest employer ofAfrican-Americans post-Civil War
.
Katie (21:49):
Sounds great right, that's nice.
Yeah, how could this go wrong?
Ivy (21:53):
Well, here you go.
Because he thought formerslaves had the finger quotes
here.
Right kind of training to servebusinessmen.
Oh God yeah.
The job of Pullman portersbecame highly respected, though,
in Black communities.
Everyone really respected thePullman porters apparently just
(22:14):
the Black communities, becauseall the porters were called
George.
Because I learned that it wascommon among slave owners to not
bother to know anyone's givenname, but just call them the
name of their owner.
Yeah, it's a dehumanizationthing there was a movie called
10,000 Black Men Called George,and it was about George
(22:35):
Pullman's trains and all thesepeople that worked for him.
He also hired Black women, ofcourse, to be the housekeepers
on the trains.
So he was right on top of that.
Housekeepers on the trains sohe was, you know, right on top
of that.
Most were not paid an actualwage, they actually just relied
on tips, and there was ahumorist at the time that would
tip them all $100 and call themby their names.
(22:57):
So they always wanted to be onhis train.
So by 1875, he had bought outall the other train companies,
most of the other traincompanies and transportation
companies.
He had over $100,000 worth ofpatents and around 700 cars in
operation, along with hundredsof thousands of dollars in the
(23:19):
bank, and I did more of mylittle math on how much that
would be.
So $100,000 in 1872 isequivalent to today's
$2,586,926.23.
Katie (23:35):
That is some specific and impressive math, hey, thanks.
Ivy (23:39):
Google did it.
Pullman decided that he neededto own a whole town to house his
employees.
Like he didn't want them justliving wherever they wanted to
live, he wanted them to live inPullman, illinois.
So he bought 4,000 acres for$800,000.
You can do that math by goingback to the $2,586,932.23.
(24:06):
Just south of Chicago he hadthe entire town built from the
ground up Houses, apartmentbuildings, shopping centers,
theaters, parks, a church, alibrary all for his new factory
employees, along with the newfactory and a hotel called Hotel
Florence, named after George'sdaughter.
(24:27):
Fun fact in the 1930s HotelFlorence was one of the most
popular brothels in the citySlay.
At first everyone thoughtGeorge was the bee's knees.
They thought you know country,air fine, new buildings and
amenities wonderful, not so much.
It all went straight to hishead and he became the world's
worst HOA.
President.
Oh, they're already bad.
(24:47):
Oh, my God, I.
So much.
It all went straight to hishead and he became the world's
worst HOA president.
Oh, they're already bad.
Oh my God, I would never.
He prohibited independentnewspapers, public speeches,
town meetings and opendiscussion.
Katie (24:58):
Yeah, no one's allowed to talk about their feelings ever.
Ivy (25:02):
No open discussion for you, ever no open discussion for you
.
The church remained emptybecause no denomination that he
approved of wanted to pay therent he was asking and no one
else was allowed.
So he had an empty church.
He hired inspectors to bargeinto the homes of his employees
who lived in his town to inspectfor cleanliness and whatever
(25:26):
else he felt like inspecting forthat day.
And if he was displeased by anytenant they would be given 10
days to get out and they wouldbe fired.
And then he invented Pullmanmoney.
So they were no longer paidwith actual money, they were
paid with Pullman money whichcould only be spent in Pullman
(25:49):
Cool.
No alcohol was allowed anywherebut at the Florence Hotel,
strictly prohibited anywhereelse.
And remember you got dudesbusting into your house to see
if there's dust on the furniture, if you've got a beer, you're
in trouble.
So by 1893, 1894, the GreatDepression had begun and the
demand for the cars started towane.
(26:10):
So Pullman thought I need tostart making.
You know I need to make, stillmake all this money.
So I'm going to pay my peopleless.
I'm not going to lower theirrent because they still had to
pay rent to live in the house orthe prices of anything in the
company town.
Live in the house or the pricesof anything in the company town
(26:32):
.
Some workers were making $9.07for two weeks.
I didn't do any math on thatone.
They were making $9.07 for twoweeks of work and their rent was
$9.
So they had $0.07 left to feedtheir family.
Oh yeah, finally, the workershad had enough and on May 12,
1894, they went on strike.
There's a lot of striking today.
The American Railway Unionleader, whose name was Eugene
(26:53):
Debs he led the rebellionPullman was given five days to
respond, but he flat out refused.
So what did George do instead?
He locked up his house and hisbusiness and he left town.
What Bye-bye?
So you know, with all thisunion, a lot of unions started
(27:13):
in the era that we're talkingabout today.
And a lot of things, like OSHA,the story I told before OSHA
came to be after the fire that Ispoke about in my first story.
So soon after all the Pullmancars were cut from the trains,
folks got fired, entire raillines were shut down, resulting
(27:35):
in a blockade of the federalmail, which was really the only
thing anyone cared about was themail getting through.
So that was another giant mess.
Debs tried to keep the peace,but ultimately riots broke out
amongst the workers and somehowPullman convinced the president
of the United States, who wasGrover Cleveland at the time, to
(27:56):
send in the freaking army tosubdue the strikers.
What I don't understand is, inthese times, how the military
keeps coming in to mess withthese people.
Katie (28:07):
Yeah, they called the National Guard because it was.
I mean, I guess people werefreaking out.
They had to have somebody calmthem down, but like it's just
going to escalate it.
Ivy (28:16):
Well, Grover called in the Army to subdue the striking
workers, which resulted in manyinjuries and about 34 deaths.
That number is different in thedifferent articles, so I'm not
positive on that number.
The courts ultimately sidedwith the railway owners and not
the workers, and Eugene Debs wasthrown in jail for contempt of
court.
Katie (28:36):
It's almost like if you have money, you can just hire a
really good lawyer and get outof anything.
Ivy (28:41):
Yeah, it's almost like if you have money, you're the only
ones who matter.
Yeah, Finally, the state ofIllinois did file a suit against
Pullman and his town wasultimately annexed to Chicago.
And a little side note on thisone Around the same time that he
was sending the troops in tomurder the laborers, President
Cleveland also signed into lawthe new holidays to celebrate
(29:04):
laborers.
Labor Day came to be while hewas murdering strikers.
Katie (29:10):
Wow.
Ivy (29:11):
Nice try, Grover.
And here's a little limerickpoem, whatever you want to call
it.
That was from the PullmanMuseum.
So I guess these train cars, Imean they're still in use,
because Big Bang Theory, butanyway.
Katie (29:23):
Yeah, I get it.
Trains are cool, Like notsaying they're not.
Ivy (29:26):
We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman
shops, taught in the Pullmanschool, catechized in the
Pullman church, and when we diewe shall go to the Pullman hell.
Katie (29:40):
That is chilling, wow, wow.
Ivy (29:44):
Can you imagine living in a town where you can own?
It's like Monopoly.
You can only use the money andhe pays you in this fake
currency, so you can't evenleave.
Katie (29:57):
You're stuck there.
This is the bad place.
I can't imagine how completelypowerless and stuck those poor
people felt.
Ivy (30:06):
I know and, like I said in the beginning, they thought this
is great, a brand new house.
This is built just for me.
Katie (30:14):
I get my work Initially, I could see why it would be
tempting, you know yeah.
Ivy (30:19):
Yeah, it seems almost cozy and then it's like the hammer
comes down.
Yeah, wow, what a dick yeah.
Katie (30:32):
Wow, what a dick, Mm-hmm.
I wanted to do this story lastbecause I actually, as I dug
into the research of it, I foundit really inspiring, which was
sort of rare considering some ofthe stuff that went down in
this time period.
So this is the story of Bryantand May Match Company and the
Match Girls Rebellion.
(30:52):
A little bit of backgroundWilliam Bryant and Francis May
established the Match Company inLondon in 1843.
So all of this takes place inLondon the same time period as
the other stuff was going on inAmerica.
In London, the same time periodas the other stuff was going on
in America In the 1850s and 60s, they became one of the leading
(31:14):
match manufacturers in Britainand they specialized in white
phosphorus matches which werecheap but highly toxic Cheap to
make, cheap to buy, both Cheapto make, cheap to buy, but toxic
chemicals involved.
So during the 1870s and 1880sthere started to be reports
emerging about really horrificworking conditions at the Bryant
and May factory, which was inBow, East London.
(31:35):
The workers endured really longhours, up to 14 hours a day,
terrible pay, so their wageswere between four to eight
shillings a week, which was theequivalent of about 15 to 30
British pounds or about 18 to 40dollars.
Now they were paid onproductivity, not by the hour,
(31:56):
so it depended on how many boxesof matches they were able to
produce.
Much like the TriangleShirtwaist Company that you
mentioned before, they almostexclusively hired young girls,
and we're talking like betweenthe ages of six to like 18,
early 20s.
Yeah, and some of them were notemployed in the factory but
(32:18):
they were employed in theirhomes.
So there were people that wouldtake these match supplies home
and make matches on theirkitchen table in their house.
Ivy (32:26):
Oh wow, Work from home in the 1800s Interesting.
Katie (32:29):
Work from home yes, but not in a great way, as we'll
find out.
So this pay was barely enoughto survive, especially given the
cost of food and rent andeverything On top of their
terrible pay, the Bryant and Maymatch girls were subject to
fines deducted from their wages.
(32:49):
They were fined for being late,for dropping a match, they were
fined for talking and forhaving dirty workbenches and
dirty feet.
Like they were judged on theircleanliness, even though they
were working in this factory.
That was like 100 years old atthat point.
Ivy (33:06):
So take your shoes off and show me your feet.
Katie (33:10):
That sounds real weird and I don't need I have
questions.
But yeah, you know the worst,the worst thing of all.
They had all these fines, theyhad terrible conditions, but
they were using white phosphorus.
Now there's two kinds ofphosphorus red phosphorus and
white phosphorus and the redphosphorus is safer to work with
.
I don't have a lot ofinformation about exactly how
(33:30):
toxic it is, but the whitephosphorus is extremely
dangerous to work with and thesegirls were forced to eat lunch
at the same workbenches wherethey had this toxic chemical all
over them all day.
And this exposure to thischemical caused a condition
known as Fossey jaw whichbasically doctors can tell now
(33:52):
was a cancer.
At the time they, you know,weren't really aware that cancer
was a thing, but this was aknown problem.
So it was named Fossey jawbecause they knew that it was
coming from working with thiswhite phosphorus.
Charles Dickens wrote about itin an essay in 1852.
So that was like 30, some yearsbefore all of this came to a
(34:15):
head.
It's really disturbing what hesaid about it and I'm going to
read it to you.
But we may decide to cut thisout, but basically this
condition, cut this out, butbasically this condition, fosse
jaw was osteonecrosis.
So osteo meaning bones, andnecrosis meaning dead flesh,
(34:36):
death of the flesh, prettygnarly, yeah.
So I'm going to describe thisto you.
This is the quote from CharlesDickens' essay.
Annie Brown is 20 years of age,of pale and scrupulous aspect.
She went to work at the Luciferfactory when she was nine years
old and after she had workedfor about four years the
(34:57):
complaint began like a toothache.
Her teeth had all been soundbefore that time.
She was occupied in the lids onthe boxes.
She could smell the phosphorusat first but soon grew used to
it.
At night she could see that herclothes were glowing on the
chair where she had put them.
Her hands and arms were glowingalso.
On uncovering her face weperceived that her lower jaw is
(35:20):
almost entirely wanting.
At the side of her mouth thereare two or three large holes.
The jaw was removed at theinfirmary seven years ago.
So this young woman had her jawremoved because of this
condition and also she wasglowing.
Ivy (35:38):
Yeah.
Katie (35:40):
It's like really, really upsetting, and I can't believe
that it took so long for anybodyto do anything about this.
Because girls didn't matter?
Because, yeah, because theywere treated as little worker,
bee, soldier, slaves.
Their well-being they were poor, their well-being didn't matter
(36:01):
, oh yeah, they didn't matter,they die, they just get more
poor little girls to come Dime adozen.
That's right, sickening and veryupsetting.
But so anyway, in 1888, therewas a journalist and a social
reformer named Annie Besant.
She published an article calledWhite Slavery in London, which
(36:22):
is a very incendiary title, inher newspaper, the Link, which
was exposing these terribleconditions at Bryant and May.
At that time that the articlecame out, there had already been
a boycott started against thismatch company.
So people were starting torealize around that time here's
a quote from her article whocares if they die, provided only
(36:42):
that the Bryant and Mayshareholders get their 23
percent.
And Bryant and May got reallyticked off.
They flipped out.
They decided to force theworkers to sign statements
denying these allegations,saying nope, we lied, everything
was fine.
The match girls refused andthey wrote letters to Annie
Besant saying you spoke up forus and we weren't going back on
(37:06):
you.
Besson, saying you spoke up forus and we weren't going back on
you, no-transcript.
So July 5th 1888, 1,400 matchgirls walk out on strike
demanding better wages to endthe unfair fines and safer
(37:27):
working conditions, like, as yousaid before, just demanding the
right to stay alive, becausethis osteonecrosis that they
were subject to was a deathsentence and they had no
treatment for that at that time.
It was like if you got it, youwere done.
July 6th the day after that,the Match Girls formed a strike
committee and they gainedsupport from journalists,
(37:49):
socialists and the trade unions.
The strike starts to getnational attention.
So because they had thissupport of the trade unions,
they took their case toparliament and there was one
girl who was 15 years old,walked into the House of
Parliament and she took off herscarf and she was bald.
And that's when they were likefuck this, here's the good part.
(38:10):
July 16th, 10 days later, bryantand May agree to the workers'
demands, including reinstatingthe fired workers, ending their
unfair fines and improving wages.
The Match Girls strike is asuccess and becomes one of the
first victories in industriallabor organizing in Britain.
They did this without violence.
(38:30):
All they did was go to someoneand say this is what's happening
to us.
They just used their voices.
They didn't need weapons, theydidn't need violence, they
didn't need to involve theNational Guard.
Ivy (38:40):
I was just going to say the queen didn't have to send in
the, whatever they are overthere like, like we did over
here, send in the, send in thetroops and beat up these girls.
Katie (38:51):
Right, they were already beaten up enough.
Needless to say, that sparkedsome serious outrage, but 10
days later, bryant and Mayagreed to all of the workers'
demands, which was reallyshocking to me, that they were
just like all right, yes, Well,they knew their greed was coming
to an end.
They knew they were cooked.
Yeah, basically, theyreinstated fired workers, they
(39:13):
ended their unfair fines andthey improved the wages.
So this strike was a massivesuccess.
And not only that, but thisreally gives new meaning to the
word strike when you think aboutstriking.
A match like that was reallypoignant to me.
A mob of 1,400 teenage girlsdescending on the streets of
London, walking in protest andactually making a difference,
(39:38):
and not just a difference intheir lives, because this the
next year in 1889, the Londondock workers decided to go on
strike as well and fight fortheir fair wages and better
conditions.
They also won.
Ivy (39:52):
So the teenage girls led the charge.
Katie (39:55):
Yes, these little boss bitches walked out on their job
where they were barely earningenough, like this is not enough
money to feed anyone, really,but it could have been with
these families, could have beenthe difference between eating
and not eating.
So, yeah, their bravery andtheir willingness to speak out
about what was happening to themand tell the truth, they
(40:17):
inspired these burly bigass dockworker men to do the same thing
, and they also won.
So this is considered a hugemoment in workers' rights and
unionism in England, which Ihadn't heard anything about this
because I didn't learn this inschool.
Ivy (40:38):
No, I didn't learn about this in school either, and I'm
curious maybe you know this howdid they come up with the idea
to strike Like what?
Katie (40:46):
I found some more quotes Like so one of the girls said
when they were asked how theygot this idea, one of the girls
said well, it just went likeTinder.
One girl began and the restsaid yes, yeah, so we all went
Excellent.
Ivy (41:00):
I wonder if we have the match girls to thank for all the
walkouts we did in high school.
Katie (41:04):
Probably indirectly Following pressure.
In 1891, bryant and Mayswitched from white phosphorus
to the safer red phosphorus intheir matches.
Good for them.
In 1901, the British governmentbanned the use of white
phosphorus in match production.
Even better, but the factoryclosed in 1979.
And now that building is somenice apartments, cool.
Ivy (41:27):
I understand it.
Love a factory transformed intoapartments.
We love a factory.
Katie (41:32):
Yeah, a nice little rebrand, love that.
So, in short, these young,underpaid and overlooked little
match girls did not just changetheir own lives, they changed
labor history.
And if that's not the ultimatebad boss detox, then I don't
know what is?
Ivy (41:48):
I love it.
I love these girls.
Katie (41:50):
Slay, if you are also as inspired as I was, there are
several websites you can lookinto, but one of them is
matchgirls1888.org.
There you can donate to helpbuild a memorial.
Oh good, I went to see LittleMermaid last night, the show
that I helped do the lightingfor, and Ursula had a quote from
(42:11):
that show and I was like girlyes.
She said sometimes a youngwoman doesn't know the power of
her voice until it's taken away.
Ivy (42:18):
Yep, I feel that yeah.
Katie (42:21):
So if you're in a toxic workplace, you are not powerless
.
These girls had no rights, nolegal protections, no money and,
at least initially, they didn'thave a union backing.
And they still won.
Secondly, bad bosses hate badPR.
Bryant and May were only forcedto cave when the public turned
(42:41):
against them.
Right, all it takes is oneperson speaking up.
If Annie Besant hadn't writtenthat article, the strike might
never have happened.
Yep.
Ivy (42:51):
Another girl.
Katie (42:53):
Another young woman.
Yeah, it's easy to look atthese stories from the Gilded
Age and whatever and think, likeGod, why I should really get
over it when my toxic boss saysthings to me that are not okay.
Or you know, I'm treatedunfairly at my work.
You know, maybe I should reallyjust suck it up because I'm not
over here.
You know, being forced to usetheir currency and live in a
(43:16):
town that they erected, or anyof these things that these
bosses did.
Ivy (43:19):
Or having the cleanliness of my feet inspected by my boss.
Katie (43:23):
Yeah, I'm allowed to go to the bathroom at my job.
Yeah, you know, my point issaying like it's not a
competition of suffering here.
You know Right, this is notabout like you're only allowed
to quit if your job is just asbad as all of those people.
Like we should be looking tothese situations and learning
from history so that it doesn'trepeat itself.
Yeah, like I said, if a13-year-old girl can stand up to
(43:45):
their boss, so can you.
Absolutely so can you.
Little baby boss bitches, lovethem.
Ivy (43:53):
I can't even believe how young people working on
machinery and mangled hands,yeah Ugh.
Katie (44:03):
Ugh, it's very upsetting to hear about, but I think it's
important because we arecurrently about to let stuff
like this start happening again,I'm afraid.
Ivy (44:14):
Well, and the things that we're talking about today are
the things that led to betterworking conditions for everyone.
Katie (44:22):
Yeah, except for Homestead Steel.
They fucked up.
Ivy (44:26):
Everyone is a strong word.
Better working conditions.
It led to laws.
It led to child labor laws.
Eventually, yeah, it just, itled to things.
So you know, yeah.
Katie (44:41):
And if you are in a working environment that is
anti-union, that's a red flag.
Ivy (44:47):
Do we even have unions here ?
Katie (44:50):
We are a right to work state, which means that you
cannot be forced to join theunion, which I guess is fair.
But, like a right to work, lawin our state prohibits employers
from discriminating againstemployees based on their union
membership.
It also prevents employers fromrequiring employees to join a
union as a condition ofemployment, which sounds fine,
(45:12):
but it's really kind of not.
It's basically like weakeningthe union, you know, because if
you are required to join theunion in order to have that job,
that makes the union stronger.
Ivy (45:22):
Why would you not want to join the union?
Katie (45:25):
I don't know.
Yeah, I really don't know.
When I was a teacher, I waspart of the teacher's union and
I got a lot of my other fellowteachers to join because, as I
mentioned in the first episode,we worked in a county where the
parents were very litigious.
The union provided some legalrepresentation for us if we were
(45:46):
to get ourselves into a lawsuit, so that was like enough reason
, but they didn't really.
They don't have a lot ofnegotiating power in a state
like this.
Yeah Well, that was really darkand scary and awful.
I loved it.
Let's not go back to the GildedAge?
No Like some people seem toreally want to do, and if our
(46:07):
listeners would like to look upsome more about these historical
dirtbags, feel free.
There's a lot more to learnthat we couldn't fit into our
descriptions.
Oh yeah, for sure.
I was fascinated with the MatchGirl Rebellion.
I want a t-shirt that says I'ma match girl.
Ivy (46:23):
I mean, I want to learn to be a musician so I can name my
band Match Girl Rebellion.
Katie (46:28):
That's so tight.
I don't know, man, it's givenGirl Scouts in a great way.
I love it.
Let's move on to something alittle bit lighter, because I
need it.
Let's do some bad boss email,mad libs, awesome.
This is so silly.
I'm telling you now Okay, so Ineed from you a noun Hairy cock
(46:52):
bag Okay, and I need anadjective Incredible, another
adjective, shitty Okay, and averb.
Ivy (47:04):
Eating.
Katie (47:04):
Okay, all right.
So I just got this email frommy boss.
I need you to kind of like helpme interpret it.
Okay.
So it says I just reviewed yourcock bag and it's completely
incredible.
How could you miss such shittyerrors?
Fix it by the end of the day orbe prepared to eat your job
security.
Nice, I just reviewed your cock.
Ivy (47:28):
You know I'm always nervous when people review my cock bag.
I'm always like, oh shit, Isn'tthat like a HIPAA violation?
What are they going to think ofmy cock bag?
Katie (47:40):
It's way too hairy.
Which brings us to my favoritelistener story time.
Yeah, we need like a theme forlistener story time.
Ivy (47:54):
This listener had a experience with her boss and a
printer.
So she said the boss was havinga rough time getting the
printer to work.
It kept jamming and stoppingworking and she would beat it on
the side and email the listenerand say I need you to get over
(48:17):
here and make this printer work.
She went over there and got theprinter to work Magic.
Nothing was wrong with theprinter.
Her boss got up and left.
A little while later yelled putthat printer on the back porch.
I want to beat it with abaseball bat.
(48:39):
So, being the good littleemployee that she was, got the
printer out of the office,carried it out to the back porch
, put the printer on the backporch and thought she doesn't
have a baseball bat.
Where's the baseball bat?
I don't know.
Went back into the office, wentback to work, heard some
(48:59):
bashing and some yelling andthen finally turned to find her
bloody boss standing in thedoorway with her hand and she
was blubbering something withher hand in the air and blood
running down her hand.
So this person got up, walkedover and said we need to get you
(49:20):
to the emergency room, yeah,and to that the boss turned
around, stomped her foot andsaid no, I'm not going.
Katie (49:32):
You know what?
You're going to your roomwithout supper.
You're grounded, you'regrounded.
Ivy (49:39):
Boss was about.
I'm holding up two fingers thisclose to losing the finger
altogether.
Jeez, Turns out she did nothave a baseball bat, so she just
decided to use her hands.
Katie (49:54):
Just physically beating this piece of office wood.
Ivy (49:56):
She physically was beating the printer and throwing it and
stomping on it, and when shepicked it up to throw it one
final time, it almost took herwhole finger off like it was a
bad gash on her finger.
Um, and then several weekslater the boss tried to get her
(50:17):
to pull the stitches out.
She didn't want, that's not myjob.
She didn't want to go back tohave the stitches removed and
said to this listener the doctorsaid you can do it.
And she tried and she failed.
Gross.
Katie (50:39):
I'm not touching anybody's nasty finger.
No, for no, no, no, no, no,that's.
That's some messed upboundaries in several ways.
Oh my God, listener, I'm soglad you survived and I'm glad
(50:59):
your boss didn't require, like,a blood transfusion, because,
let's be real, that would havebeen you.
Ivy (51:04):
Even if it wasn't the same blood type, it sounds like that
boss wouldn't have cared.
Give me your blood.
Katie (51:10):
Talk about an energy vampire.
Wow, that was a doozy.
Ivy (51:15):
All right, they'll be coming out of the woodwork.
I'm hoping.
I'm hoping to get a lot ofstories like that one Give us
your stories.
Katie (51:23):
We want to know, and it's not a competition Hard to beat
that.
Ivy (51:27):
Katie, let's do this, let's rate these stories.
Katie (51:31):
Yeah.
Ivy (51:32):
Let's rate them on a scale of one to Harry Cockbag.
Katie (51:36):
I love it.
I love it.
Okay, you know there was nomurder involved, but there was
blood there was.
Ivy (51:47):
Yeah, I'll give it three out of five Harrycock bags.
Three out of five in that bag.
Yeah, I think I'm going to gowith four out of five Harrycock
bags, just because this listenerattempted to pull stitches out
of her boss's finger.
Katie (52:01):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, that brings us to thevocabulary word of the week.
Yay, this week's vocabularyword is brought to you by red
phosphorus.
Red phosphorus, the onlycorrect phosphorus to have in
(52:21):
your life.
The best color of phosphorus thebest color of phosphorus for
any skin tone.
This week's vocabulary word ofthe week is oligarch, oligarch,
oligarch, oligarch alsopronounced oligarch, but I've
always said oligarch.
Both pronunciations are correct, despite what my husband said.
So an oligarch is one of aclass of individuals who,
(52:46):
through private acquisition ofstate assets, amassed great
wealth that is stored especiallyin foreign accounts and
properties, and who maintainclose links to the highest
government circles.
Sounds like a criminal.
Yeah, let's break that down alittle bit.
Yeah, so this is a person who'sextremely wealthy, whose wealth
(53:07):
was mostly acquired throughacquisition of state assets,
like government grants, etcetera.
A lot of that wealth is storedin foreign accounts, and an
oligarch is a person whotypically maintains very close
links to the highest governmentcircles, so they're usually
pretty buddy-buddy withpolitical leaders.
(53:28):
Yeah, indeed, I wanted to giveyou some examples of using this
word in a sentence, if I may, ohplease.
This one is a quote from theChicago Tribune from earlier
this year.
How dare oligarchs infiltrateand purge departments created
(53:52):
and authorized by pastleadership to help people?
I like it.
I like saying it.
Yeah, it makes me sound smartand fancy.
Oligarchy.
I really enjoyed learning allthat stuff, even though it was
dark and upsetting.
I know Me too.
Yeah, I feel like it'sabsolutely worth knowing, and I
was questioning why I wasn'ttaught those things in school.
Maybe it's because they didn'twant me to rise up against my
(54:13):
oppressors, or something, Idon't know.
Ivy (54:15):
Oh, yeah, well, especially, you know, because we're girls.
Katie (54:19):
Most of these involved exploiting marginalized people,
absolutely.
Thank you guys so much forlistening to our podcast this
week.
Ivy (54:28):
Hope you guys enjoyed and are not too traumatized, and I
hear that it's important to saysomething to the effect of like
us, follow us, subscribe.
Give us a five-star rating.
Katie (54:40):
Yeah, if you enjoyed this podcast, please like us, follow
us, give us a five-star rating,leave a comment and tell us
your bad boss stories.
Yes, If you would like to sharewith us a bad boss story or a
toxic workplace story of yourown, you can email us at stories
at badbossdetoxcom.
You can also go to our Facebookpage, which is called Bad Boss
(55:03):
Detox, and use our Google formthere If you like.
You can follow us on Instagram.
That account is badbossdetoxpod.
Ivy (55:11):
We're looking forward to getting to know all of you.
Katie (55:13):
Looking forward to hearing all of your crazy
stories so we can laugh about itand heal together.
Thanks so much for doing apodcast with me, Ivy.
Ivy (55:23):
Oh, katie, thank you, it was a blast.
It's so much fun.
Katie (55:27):
All right, I'm going to go take the soup out of the
crock pot.
Ivy (55:30):
All right, I'm going to go feed my husband.
Make my husband a steak.
Oh yeah, all right, bye.
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