It is Labor Day, which means many of us are enjoying a day away from work. But Labor Day is also a good time to think about the people and events that helped shape the workplaces we have today.
A few years ago, I visited the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. It is now the Brown Building and part of NYU’s campus. I had learned about the tragedy before, but standing in front of the building where it happened felt different. The building is still there. It looks like an ordinary building in New York City today, surrounded by everything that has grown up around it. But knowing what happened inside those walls made it difficult to look at it as just another building.
On March 25, 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women. Many were trapped inside the building. Some doors were locked, fire escapes failed, and workers had very few options for getting out (Wagner, n.d.).
The tragedy became a turning point in the American labor movement and led to significant changes in workplace safety and labor laws.
Of course, workplace safety is one of the most obvious lessons we can take from Triangle. But as I thought about the tragedy again, I kept coming back to two lessons that are just as relevant to managers today.
The first is the importance of listening to the people closest to the work.
Before the fire, workers had already raised concerns about their working conditions. In 1909, thousands of garment workers went on strike for better wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions (Cornell University, 2018).
The people doing the work were telling the people in management roles what they were experiencing. That is something managers should never lose sight of.
Employees are often the first people to recognize when something isn’t working. They see process problems before anyone else. They know when workloads have become unreasonable. They hear customer frustrations. They notice when a policy creates unintended consequences. They may see risks that management simply cannot see from where they sit.
The question is whether we have created an environment where they feel comfortable sharing. An open-door policy is not the same as a work environment where people feel safe sharing concerns. Listening is not simply asking for feedback. It is being willing to hear something we may not want to hear and then doing something with that information. Sometimes managers do not need another dashboard, report, or meeting. They need to talk to the people doing the work.
The second lesson is about the difference between control and management.
The locked doors at the Triangle factory were not simply a safety issue. They were also a reflection of the power structure within the workplace and the desire to control employees.
Obviously, most managers today are not locking doors to keep employees at their desks. But control can show up in subtler ways. It can be found in excessive monitoring, rigid policies, unrealistic productivity expectations, or a work environment where questioning a decision is viewed as insubordination. It can show up when we prioritize the transaction over the person producing it or when employees learn that speaking up will only create problems for them.
Good management requires structure, accountability, and expectations, and legitimate leadership requires us to remember why those things exist in the first place. People are not the obstacle to getting the work done. They are the reason the work gets done. That distinction matters.
The workplace has changed dramatically since 1911, but managers’ responsibilities have not changed as much as we might think. Managers have influence over the environment people experience every day. Managers make decisions about how work gets done, how policies are applied, how concerns are handled, and whether people feel heard. Those decisions may seem small in the moment, but they shape the workplace.
Standing outside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building a few years ago, I remember thinking about how much can happen inside a workplace that may not be visible from the outside. Today, the building looks very different from the picture we have in our minds when we think about the tragedy. But the history and those experiences remain.
That is why I think the story is still worth remembering. Not simply because of what happened that day, but because of what it teaches us about the responsibility that comes with managing other people.
Listen to the people closest to the work.
Pay attention when something doesn’t feel right.
Do not mistake control for management.
And perhaps most importantly, do not wait for a crisis to tell you what employees have been trying to tell you all along.
This Labor Day, that is the management lesson I am carrying with me, and I hope you do too.
References
Cornell University. (2018). Sweatshops & strikes before 1911. ILR School. https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/story/sweatshopsStrikes.html
Wagner, E. (n.d.). Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (Brown Building). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/places/triangle-shirtwaist-factory-brown-building.htm
