Monthly Archives: March 2018

An arrogant boss, an overwhelmed manager, a botched valuation, and the exploitation of workers

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

In the so-called Zenon archive, a cache of some 2,000 papyri from Philadelphia (Fayyum), covering a time-span from 263 to 229 B. C., there is a complex deposit that starts with a letter from one Panakestor to Zenon, the Egyptian … Continue reading →

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Advice, Conciliation, Arbitration

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

It is difficult to find solutions in conflicts in which emotions run high, and it requires insight on either side of such conflicts that presumably not all demands can be met. At the same time, it requires a desire to … Continue reading →

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Abusive working relationships

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Many strikes do not leave any substantial traces in the historical record. In other cases, the historical record proves extremely hard to read. The following instance is one such example – to show just how sketchy the evidence can be … Continue reading →

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Debased and changed beyond recognition

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Bankers, money-lenders, and money-changers do not carry a particularly high reputation in present-day discourse when it comes to virtues such as ‘honesty’ and ‘trust’ – which is strange, to a degree, as the entire sector fundamentally relies on belief in … Continue reading →

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Strike action and the creation of cheap labour

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Until very recently, I believed that the strike of Egyptian artisans at Deir El-Medina in the twelfth century B. C., as recorded in a famous papyrus now in the possession of the Museo Egizio at Turin, was the oldest actual … Continue reading →

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If they win on this point, what then will they not try…?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

In 195 B. C., Rome’s women had had enough. It had been for almost exactly twenty years that, due to a decision taken in 215 B. C., at the height of the Second Punic War, their right to possess, and … Continue reading →

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Creative disruption and relentless retribution

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Strikes are annoying to everyone: employers, customers, and – last, but certainly not least – their employees. Annoyance quickly leads to anger, and anger quickly leads to advocacy for acts of retribution for a perceived injustice – retribution that in … Continue reading →

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Selling out core values

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

The Historia Augusta, probably dating to the fourth century A. D., is a most peculiar assemblage of imperial biographies, much of which may be pure fiction. In the context of the Life of the Deified Aurelian, an emperor of the … Continue reading →

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Worth a fart(h)ing?

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

There are many things one may say about Petronius‘ famous Neronian-era novel Satyricon; that it shows much sympathy for Rome’s lower and lowest social classes, however, or for those who managed to escape their social predicament and reached a certain … Continue reading →

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