The New York Times has an article on doing something about the Internet as the scourge of the workplace, being a timesuck of epic proportions.
“During the last few weeks, I’ve been using a slate of programs to tame these digital distractions. The apps break down into three broad categories. The most innocuous simply try to monitor my online habits in an effort to shame me into working more productively. Others reduce visual bells and whistles on my desktop as a way to keep me focused.
And then there are the apps that really mean business — they let me actively block various parts of the Internet so that when my mind strays, I’m prohibited from giving in to my shiftless ways. It’s the digital equivalent of dieting by locking up the refrigerator and throwing away the key.”
The author goes on to talk about the various software solutions, but at the end he surmises that it’s human nature to goof off and waste time.
Why?
Michel deCerteau in The Practice of Everyday Life offers up the term, “la perruque,” where workers steal time for their own purposes as a form of resistance to the surveillance of control::
“It differs from absenteeism in that the worker is officially on the job. La perruque may be as simple a matter as a secretary’s writing a love letter on ‘company time’ or as complex as a cabinetmaker’s ‘borrowing’ a lathe to make a piece of furniture for his living room.”
This probably rings true for many::
In my opinion, people engage in la perruque in resisting the logics of surveillance, but I feel this could be thwarted by developing organizational cultures where people feel motivated to do the work, rather than slack. In this day and age, employees are often made to feel they are lucky to even have a job and this was before the recession. Outsourcing and cost-cutting are terms used to “manage” the workforce through fear. The problem with fear…is that it breeds more resistance. A vicious cycle.
This is why I always allow students to use laptops in my classes and I don’t even care if they’re updating their Facebook or playing poker. Why? Because if I’m doing my job and engaging the students, they wind up using the Internet to complement class discussions, not as a distraction.
Now that I’m a consultant doing my own thing, I find that I still waste time on the Internet. If it increases, I suppose it’s because I have a jerk for a boss.
Twitterversion:: NewSftware prevnts timesink w/Internet,but is wastng time just”la perruque”by deCerteau. Contrlvs.Motivate?#ThickCulture http://url.ie/2gx8 @Prof_K
Song:: Temptation – Heaven 17
Comments 8
Sean LM — September 20, 2009
I'm intrigued by the idea that workers "slacking" on the job is a form of stealing back their own time, which is why I'm a little confused as to why you describe this as a form of resistance to surveillance, in particular, rather than resistance against the general coercion of the wage relationship. Perhaps I simply don't understand the use of the word "surveillance," here - you mean managerial monitoring as a form of control, yes? But isn't the root issue the control?
I agree, though, that all things being equal, workers could be incentivized to work productively, and that the suggestion that the business is doing the worker a favor by employing her - and the fundamental inequality in power that underlies this - foments resentment on the part of the worker and does not encourage her to be productive.
Kenneth M. Kambara — September 20, 2009
@Sean LM:: Yes, you're spot-on regarding the issue of control and the surveillance being the manifestation of said control. I re-read the post and your comment, which is making me think of the nature of the labour-capital relationship and how to alter the power relations in that dynamic, i.e., the intricacies of human motivation and behaviours within the context of the social relations of production. So, yes, it's beyond the panoptic idea of surveillance and could be generalized to other forms of resistance in response to multiple forms of control.
@Loudpaper:: Another interesting point, as this made me think of not just the workplace but the sphere of the home. I feel I do resist work at home, which can manifest in the self-perruque to my own detriment. We SOHOs {small office/home office} types can face this work-related computer time-wasting, as well as diverting our attention in ways that are tied to our "isms" in our everyday lives. I try not to judge activities like too much Tweeting or gaming, as perhaps these recreational forays into social media or entertainment may be interactive escapism from late capitalism or simply a consumptive experience.
OK, it's a beautiful day here. I need to get out IRL.
Seth — September 24, 2009
Psychologically speaking, sometimes a little slacking is good for you. My advisor used to call this "sharpening the saw." A researcher at the University of Melbourne reports finding in a sample of 700 that "people who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t." (see http://voice.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/ ).
Beyond that level of slacking, I only halfway agree with the conceptualization of surfing the 'net as "resisting," (although this is undoubtedly true at times)beacuse of what you said about doing the same when working at home. If it's resisting anything, it's often just the work that no one wants to do - "task delay" or good old fashioned procrastination. And there are individual differences in that... extraverts are more likely spend more time on the 'net in general and people who score high on conscientiousness are less likely to procrastinate over their work.
Interesting post!
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