He can fire or sue, just as I can fire my grocer
by stopping purchases from him or sue
him for delivering faulty products. What
then is the content of the presumed power
to manage and assign workers to various
tasks? Exactly the same as one little consumer's
power to manage and assign his
grocer to various tasks. The single consumer
can assign his grocer to the task of
obtaining whatever the customer can induce
the grocer to provide at a price acceptable
to both parties. That is precisely
all that an employer can do to an employee.
To speak of managing, directing,
or assigning workers to various tasks is a
deceptive way of noting that the employer
continually is involved in renegotiation of
contracts on terms that must be acceptable
to both parties. Telling an employee to
type this letter rather than to file that
document is like my telling a grocer to
sell me this brand of tuna rather than that
brand of bread. I have no contract to continue
to purchase from the grocer and
neither the employer nor the employee is
bound by any contractual obligations to
continue their relationship. Long-term
contracts between employer and employee
are not the essence of the organization
we call a firm. My grocer can count
on my returning day after day and purchasing
his services and goods even with
the prices not always marked on the goods
-because I know what they are-and he
adapts his activity to conform to my
directions to him as to what I want each
day . .. he is not my employee.