As is too often the case, The Times has inspired me with another article - this time about the fact that people are starting at and leaving jobs without ever seeing their colleagues face-to-face. Their natural framing is that this is, if not bad, at least
"Or would the company say that it’s strictly business, and that you have to do what they say? Unless, of course, it’s a means of getting more money out of you, of controlling you, or emotionally fulfilling management’s desires."
Very true Ed!! I remember at the beginning of the pandemic I tried to circulate volunteer opportunities through a company listserv. The very same listserv that was used to send out baby, kid, pet, and food pictures, word of the day, riddles of the day, bullsh*t "morale" boosts. I got reprimanded and the email recalled because what I was sending was not "work related" or "work appropriate". (I believe because some of the volunteer opportunities were during work hours and I had suggested we use our lunch breaks towards them.)
Hi Ed, thank you for this piece. Where were you 25 years ago when I began working at the bank that claimed we were all one big family? Joking aside, this sort of American management nonsense did very well in Turkey in the '90s, then an Emerging Market looking to emulate US best practice. By the time I realised something was off, I had spent 5 years earning less and less for working more and more - frankly don't recall much about my 20's at all. Talking recently to the next generation of bankers, it seems nothing has much changed: mid and senior management is applying something they call 'hybrid' - 2 days at home, 3 days at work- and then deciding 1 week at home, 3 weeks at the office and various other iterations. It's hellish for employees not to have any visibility on what's going on in management's mind. One sad anecdote was of someone who moved to another region of the country (selling his home, moving his kids to new schools) on the basis that he was going to be remote 100% of the time but has now been told he has to come in to work as management can't make up its mind. In countries like Turkey, employees have a lot less bargaining power due to high levels of unemployment: labour is cheap. It adds another level of inauthenticity to the ongoing 'we are all a family' b'llcks when you know you're instantly sackable, I honestly don't know why they bother.... Keep on writing, I really enjoy reading your stuff. All the Best from Istanbul.
What's really going on here is disguised emotional labor.
That term is usually used in reference to service workers -- the fake cheerfulness of a Starbucks barista or the amplified gruffness of a security guard. But professional demeanor is also a kind of emotional labor. The pretense that it's not emotional labor is part of the work.
It's an interesting framework for other phenomena discussed in the WFH/WFO debate. The expectation to be available -- and friendly -- when people "pop by" your desk is emotional labor. The inability to walk away from or tune out a micromanager is emotional labor. To turn your camera off during a Zoom call is to opt out of the emotional labor of "looking engaged."
I know one of the reasons I like working from home is not having to do the emotional labor required in an office. The company as friend, family, and community is one of the ways this emotional labor is extracted. We're expected to deliver emotions that we'd naturally have toward these other forces in our lives. Ironically, though, we're also expected NOT to have the emotional freedom we'd have in these other relationships.
If your mom or your husband or your teenager is being a jerk, in functional families, you can retreat to another room and cool off. You're supposed to take your boss' b.s. without even an eye roll, on threat of losing your livelihood.
"Or would the company say that it’s strictly business, and that you have to do what they say? Unless, of course, it’s a means of getting more money out of you, of controlling you, or emotionally fulfilling management’s desires."
Very true Ed!! I remember at the beginning of the pandemic I tried to circulate volunteer opportunities through a company listserv. The very same listserv that was used to send out baby, kid, pet, and food pictures, word of the day, riddles of the day, bullsh*t "morale" boosts. I got reprimanded and the email recalled because what I was sending was not "work related" or "work appropriate". (I believe because some of the volunteer opportunities were during work hours and I had suggested we use our lunch breaks towards them.)
Fantastic article.
Hi Ed, thank you for this piece. Where were you 25 years ago when I began working at the bank that claimed we were all one big family? Joking aside, this sort of American management nonsense did very well in Turkey in the '90s, then an Emerging Market looking to emulate US best practice. By the time I realised something was off, I had spent 5 years earning less and less for working more and more - frankly don't recall much about my 20's at all. Talking recently to the next generation of bankers, it seems nothing has much changed: mid and senior management is applying something they call 'hybrid' - 2 days at home, 3 days at work- and then deciding 1 week at home, 3 weeks at the office and various other iterations. It's hellish for employees not to have any visibility on what's going on in management's mind. One sad anecdote was of someone who moved to another region of the country (selling his home, moving his kids to new schools) on the basis that he was going to be remote 100% of the time but has now been told he has to come in to work as management can't make up its mind. In countries like Turkey, employees have a lot less bargaining power due to high levels of unemployment: labour is cheap. It adds another level of inauthenticity to the ongoing 'we are all a family' b'llcks when you know you're instantly sackable, I honestly don't know why they bother.... Keep on writing, I really enjoy reading your stuff. All the Best from Istanbul.
What's really going on here is disguised emotional labor.
That term is usually used in reference to service workers -- the fake cheerfulness of a Starbucks barista or the amplified gruffness of a security guard. But professional demeanor is also a kind of emotional labor. The pretense that it's not emotional labor is part of the work.
It's an interesting framework for other phenomena discussed in the WFH/WFO debate. The expectation to be available -- and friendly -- when people "pop by" your desk is emotional labor. The inability to walk away from or tune out a micromanager is emotional labor. To turn your camera off during a Zoom call is to opt out of the emotional labor of "looking engaged."
I know one of the reasons I like working from home is not having to do the emotional labor required in an office. The company as friend, family, and community is one of the ways this emotional labor is extracted. We're expected to deliver emotions that we'd naturally have toward these other forces in our lives. Ironically, though, we're also expected NOT to have the emotional freedom we'd have in these other relationships.
If your mom or your husband or your teenager is being a jerk, in functional families, you can retreat to another room and cool off. You're supposed to take your boss' b.s. without even an eye roll, on threat of losing your livelihood.