We need a big "How to betray your Bourgeois paymasters without getting blacklisted" manual.

I'd say push it as far as you can without actually committing actionable crimes, and take some time each weekend to look for another job. I don't think you can get arrested for stonewalling you boss on schedules and firing, right?

Hey I had a similar situation albeit it was a non-profit childcare center, for me the best way to acheive this way to focus on what is called "horizontal leadership" as well as constant advocacy for the employees. The idea is pretty much anarchist theory co-opted into managerial speak.

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My mom worked her way into management for a government contractor. She decided she hated it because her job was basically just to act as a liaison for the bullshit the company wanted to enact on her employees. She decided instead of that, she was going to shield her employees from management.

She quit a few years later because her management didn’t like it at all and realized it was going to become untenable.

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definitely, think of your role as an advocate for the people with less power than you. protect them from bullies, both above them and from outside.

a good leader uses their institutional power to get their people what they need to be effective. i.e., in retail, can they sit down and do their job, or is there the typical american culture of expecting shift workers to be on their feet constantly for no reason. set schedules are a great idea.

if you have an employee that needs improvement, always coach in private. on the flip side, always praise in public.

There's a kind of weird dynamic in this situation where the employees will lose respect for you if you go to them and are like "fuck the boss amiright?" You are the boss and they expect a certain sort of relationship to exist there that you shouldn't entirely subvert because at best most people will think you're just weird, and at worst they'll tell your boss and you'll get canned. Instead, be transparent about what is happening in the business and make sure communication flows both ways. Group meetings/huddles are good but I would refrain from voting if the group is small enough to work through consensus.

On the subject of organizing, I would not encourage them to unionize unless you find a comrade among their ranks. Most people do not think much about unionizing and will think you're :lt-dbyf-dubois: if you tell them too. You can and should however, get them to practice organizing. Primarily by getting them to discuss conditions with each other and collectively confronting the boss (you) to voice their concerns. Getting them to turn each other out to group meetings is a great way to do this. Don't simply call a meeting, tell one or two people there will be a meeting and get them to tell everyone about it. Bonus points if you show up late to the meeting and give them all time to talk to each other.

Overall, respect their autonomy and humanity. Socialism comes from the bottom which means they've got to pursue it.

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and having staff vote on policies?

Curiously I don't think this works in the given system. Every manager I had that did this was pretty resented by the entire team cause how it usually, even with the best intentions, works out more akin to socializing the losses and privatizing the wins.

I mean if it's "How do we decorate the break room" or stuff about how to organize when everybody takes their breaks or something? Sure, yeah, absolutely ask them.

If it's important strategic decisions? That either means literally every one has to read into the full scope of information available (your job) or basically pick at random and still fear getting blamed for their decision, they voted for it after all. This is regardless of whether that actually happens. Basically if I have to have a manager I want him to do his fucking job and not offload the bits for which they get paid more onto me.

Consultation? Yeah, absolutely. And you better be able to argue for your decisio. Could even be on the grounds of "it all sucks, I tried to go for the least sucky option" but democratizing your workplace like this doesn't really work out all that well in my experience. People know it's bullshit and hence seem to respect an honest, transparent decision even if it isn't to their liking because at least they can't be blamed for it.

I think there's a way to be in that position where you advocate hard on behalf of your team whenever the higher ups want to push bullshit on them - but if you actually commit to doing it you won't be in that position for very long.

It depends on your workplace. Some places will fire you if you aren't a class traitor - meaning that if you don't fire precarious people to make the line go up, then you will be fired and replaced by someone who will. Other places will be more flexible or, arguably, disorganizdd and will relent to pushback or heel dragging.

For the first kind of place, you'll have to put yourself in a position to get fired in order to not be a class traitor.

For the second kind of place, you can keep yourself afloat through office politics, protecting the people "under" you from management, contractors, and customers.

Of course the reality is a continuum between these.

Also please consider the extent to which you are forced into unethical work by capitalism. "No ethical X under capitalism" isn't free license to betray the working class, but it is an important factor to weigh. For example, any work you do in the imperial core that is actually useful for a company is surely contributing to global exploitation and unequal exchange, but you need to show results in order to have basic security in housing, food, and medicine.

If you have an upwardly-mobile trajectory, consider using some of your inevitably ill-gotten compensation to donate to the global working class, especially those in AES countries. Bonus points for groups that are building up a socialist project that requires active defense.