{"id":1776,"date":"2009-09-20T11:15:20","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T16:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2009-09-20T12:57:42","modified_gmt":"2009-09-20T17:57:42","slug":"lifes-everyday-resistances-or-hey-slacker-get-back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/09\/20\/lifes-everyday-resistances-or-hey-slacker-get-back-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Life’s Everyday Resistances -or- Hey Slacker, Get Back to Work!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"basics.L\"<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> has an article on doing something about the Internet as the scourge of the workplace, being a timesuck of epic proportions<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“During the last few weeks, I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

And then there are the apps that really mean business \u2014 they let me actively block various parts of the Internet so that when my mind strays, I\u2019m prohibited from giving in to my shiftless ways. It\u2019s the digital equivalent of dieting by locking up the refrigerator and throwing away the key.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Michel deCerteau in The Practice of Everyday Life <\/em>offers up the term, “la perruque,” where workers steal time for their own purposes as a form of resistance to the surveillance of control::<\/p>\n

“It differs from absenteeism in that the worker is officially on the job.\u00a0\u00a0La perruque<\/em> 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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This probably rings true for many::<\/p>\n

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In my opinion, people engage in la perruque<\/em> 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. \u00a0In this day and age, employees are often made to feel they are lucky to even have a job and this was before the recession. \u00a0Outsourcing and cost-cutting are terms used to “manage” the workforce through fear. \u00a0The problem with fear…is that it breeds more resistance. \u00a0A vicious cycle.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because if I’m doing my job and engaging the students, they wind up using the Internet to complement class discussions, not as a distraction.<\/p>\n

Now that I’m a consultant doing my own thing, I find that I still waste time on the Internet. \u00a0If it increases, I suppose it’s because I have a jerk for a boss.<\/p>\n

Twitterversion:: <\/strong>NewSftware prevnts timesink w\/Internet,but is wastng time just”la perruque”by deCerteau. Contrlvs.Motivate?<\/span>#ThickCulture<\/span><\/a> <\/span>http:\/\/url.ie\/2gx8<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>@Prof_K<\/a><\/p>\n

Song::<\/strong> Temptation – Heaven 17<\/a><\/p>\n

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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\u2019ve been using a slate of programs to tame these digital distractions. The apps break down into three broad categories. The most innocuous simply try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1898,1903,1901,1899,1897,1902,1900,1904],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-everyday","tag-heaven17","tag-hegemony","tag-internet-usage","tag-michel-de-certeau","tag-panopticon","tag-software","tag-temptation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1781,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}