“We have to come to terms with the challenges and opportunities of contingent employment, precarious labour, and a structural sense of real or perceived job insecurity”(Dueze p2)
This week we discussed work seeping more into time that wasn’t necessarily work time before. In the last 10 years there has been a shift from business being rigid and confined to the office cubicle to “working from home” and sending proposals via your iPhone, while you sit sipping your latte at a café downtown.
The Dueze reading discusses that this shift from the conventional work environment will lead to a shift in other things. He outlines family: “The family has become […] a ‘shell’ or […][a] ‘zombie’ institution: people and policymakers alike still refer to the family as the primary unit in today’s society, even though in its traditional connotation of the nuclear family – two married parents and children at home – it has all but died.”
I can see a shift in other things. This constantly connected shift has been made possible by the boom of smart phones, wifi and the human fear of being obsolete. I carry my phone around “in case of emergencies”, and this is mostly the case. But it’s more of a security thing, like a blanket for a child. Also, I get reprimanded by my friends for not answering my phone a copious amount so it’s more a fear of being shouted at, and not being connected.
I think it’s a fear of being obsolete, and that if you’re offline, someone else can take over.
I had an analog experience when I moved house and had trouble getting internet for most of the uni semester. I was spending a lot of time on the computers at the BLD 17 labs at uni. I didn’t want to spend the whole day there though, so I found myself prioritising more (creating more lists, which I already do a lot!) and doing work, rather than trawling facebook. It was also the fact that I was using uni computers that I felt obliged to do work or I might get kicked off!
My job is very much online, I’m a media intern at an infrastructure research facility. I write articles for the newsletter and website as well as update facebook, twitter, youtube and the website itself, and most of my correspondence with my boss is via email. I was never a huge fan of email, but as I’ve moved into the working world I found email was easier. You didn’t waist phone credit and you could convey more content than in a text message. WIN WIN!
M Gregg talks of “coping mechanisms” for workers “to keep up with their workload regardless of formal paid hours and the impact of this “anticipatory labour” on home life.” (P1). Ted raised this question also in the tutorial…What are the skills needed to cope in this current concrete jungle (or as it becoming…ASCII jungle)? I say you need offline time. I think if you get too immersed either you’ll go a bit coocoo, or you’ll cope just fine, tough it out, and become a cyborg. I’m not sure I like either option though.
I think if you can have some time to differentiate between work and play time, the better of you’ll be.
p.s. my word processor doesn’t recognise the word “analog”, which I find ironic.
p.p.s too long...again... i apologise for my blog vomit
No comments:
Post a Comment