The Tendency of Putting Work at the Heart of Daily Concerns - Essay Example

No doubt technological advancements and communication means have severely affected the lives of common individuals specially the salaried Prior to the new media technologies lives were simple where no immaterial labour could dismantle the personal life of a person. People used to go to work and after office hours, there was enough time for social interaction. When computers were introduced into the office/ workplace environment; life at workplace became more dehumanized because it was not the manager who now contained colleague from social interaction rather it was an electrical box which diminished social relations (Laroya, 2010). One could have adjusted to this change since it was limited to the workplace only. This situation got even worsened by the advent of new media technology which on a lighter note are designed to make office work easier and portable. These technologies provide facility to work wherever we want but in fact they have broken down the barriers of personal and private space (Mandy, 2011). These technologies have merged workplace environment with social environment whereas the ultimate problem of this shared over exposure has led to enforced work intimacy which in fact is no more than immaterial labour working for zero returns. Apart from technology change, new media has also changed the psychological environment of workplace. There was a time when efficient management decision were required to keep in mind the desires of workers and their autonomy. Management was asked to maintain psychological esteem of workers for positive outputs and workforce always needed motivation from employer. Now, with the changed dynamics of labour, employment model already assumes that workers are committed, enthusiastic and keen to be praised by their meaningful work. With the advent of new media technologies, nature of modern professional jobs and working environment has completely changed (Paulus, 2008). It imply that workers are only motivated by the reward while in order to acquire reward workers are ready and willing to work. New dynamics of immaterial labour assumes that workers are well aware of what they must and they are not needed to be reminded if they require reward. Since reward is the self-motivation here which keeps individuals busy even after working hours, at homes, during travel or even at night. New demands of workplace have made everyday life a person so complex that ultimately all the external organisational constraints have been transferred to an individual’s private life. Although these new demands provide individual with control of all the matters making him/ her feel special about his job but actually it takes every inch of social interaction and fills it with utter elderly tendency of immaterial labour. Jobs in today’s workplaces assert a persistent pressure to comply with the targets set considering the efficiency of workplace (Vishmidt, et al., 2003). Coping the efficiency targets always push individuals to enhance their productivity and keep them under the constant self-monitoring to fulfil management tenets. In doing so, there is no way that a salaried man could feel liberated to perform his social duties because he is already engaged to prove himself a responsible worker of modern workforce. It is clear that modern system of workplace demands too much while the reward in return is considerably marginal. New dynamics of office demand self-responsibility and self-monitoring while achieving efficiency targets is next to impossible. In order to achieve these targets and taking responsibility of job; individual, personal and social life of an individual goes undermined which is one of the curse of new media technologies. These technologies have dismantled the balance between social life and office life. This disorder of social life and workplace has forced individuals to give up social relations and at the cost of their daily life, they are bound to fulfil office work for greater reward. In order to explain the changing dynamics of immaterial labour and the knowledge economy, we must need to understand that how do these changes transform our social lives. Knowledge in usually undertaken in terms of its economic worth and gains forthcoming (Hartley, 2003). Even in design policies related to education, its economic value and capability to create more wealth is assumed preferably. The knowledge economy in turn expect new workforce of future to be more knowledgeable, energetic and highly skilled (Brown, et al., 2004). This claim of knowledge economy compels youth to attain higher level of education and experience at the same time which then is related to higher rewards in jobs (Archer, et al., 2007). However, the nature of knowledge economy is directly related to adult workforce which is under constant constraint of higher qualification and experience ultimately ends ups losing social interaction with society and force them to prioritise their work over everyday life. Nolan wrote knowledge economy as an hour glass where occupations are polarised. If someone is highly skilled with higher qualifications ends up with higher reward and secured job. If someone is less skilled or does not has higher qualifications then most certainly will fail to earn high paid and secured job (Nolan, 2004). This competition has led knowledge economies to a place where management, technical and professional jobs horizon and positions have expanded immensely and so did the routine too. People are required to work even outside the workplace and consequently new media technologies have helped organisations in this endeavour (Brown, et al., 2004). Many researchers consider these polarisations of education and knowledge economies necessary for quality of education. They believe that knowledge driven economies and demand driven labour market can provide enhanced chances of expansion and growth and as a result workers stay motivated and in part their learning also take place. Considering the transformation of daily lives of workers due to new media technologies; one can simply denote such contemporary knowledge economies as revolutionized form of capitalism (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2005). Changing dynamics of knowledge economies are a key to motivation for youth to attain higher level of qualifications but if these economies fail to provide a secure and autonomous jobs to workers. The ultimate change will be loss of youth’s interest in education. If individuals are not left with autonomous lifestyle where they have no social privileges and cannot find time for their personal everyday life then legitimacy of education for highly rewarded jobs will be vanished (Keep, 2005). Changes in knowledge economy are one part of the field which influence workers social and personal life. Second part of knowledge economy and workplace are the population who provide their skills and knowledge to the functioning of an organisation (Sorlin & Vessuri, 2007). Knowledge is the principal for productivity and growth while immaterial labour is the agent which completes next half of workplace. Immaterial labour concept combines both attributes of knowledge which is mental labour and the human interaction which defines the effectiveness of his work. In order to satisfy and fulfil the needs of workplace, an individual is needed to employ both attributes of his skills and qualifications. So, what sort of attribute of immaterial labour is employed; the ultimate trade off to produce output for reward is the daily life. In today’s life style with technology and new media; it has become more convenient to give up social and daily life activities over office work satisfaction and reward (Warhurst & Thompson, 2006). Some scholars claim that new technological advancements and communicational competencies which have been developed through new media allow employers to exploit the lives of their workers. These technologies have provided permit to employers to budge into the daily life premises of workers and employers efficiently use these permits to attain economic benefits from their workers (Dowling, 2006). These contemporary communication mediums help delivering a platform to salaried professionals to perform immaterial labour. Irrespective of the fact that these technological capabilities are helpful in producing quality work but they also have a complicated relationship to actual office requirements and continuous interference in personal life. An overview of knowledge economies and immaterial labour delivers enough insight about office culture which has totally changed with the advent of new communicational capabilities and technological competencies (Yousuf, 2007). The changing dynamics of workplace have out burdened salaried professionals not even at office but also during their studying period. Salaried professionals are required to improve their networking skills and their productivity to meet efficiency targets which goes unrewarded while individuals have even given up their everyday life in return. In current workplace environment higher education, pressure performance, social networking and highly skilled labour is not rewarded with job security rather these attributes of immaterial labour are just a mean to stay employed during the course. This insecure employability is the result of changed knowledge economy which has made skills and knowledge more important than everyday life that even the long standing practice does not earn you job security. Modern knowledge economy has made everyday life easily replaceable with work in which only guaranteed job security is that if someone continuously keeps working at the cost of social interactions. Hence the whole concept of job security in modern knowledge economy is nothing but a lie and a vague concept. It has been established that work load in the presence of technological competences is never going to end for a salaried professional and it will continuously intervene in the everyday life. On the other hand technology is also very important for enhancing productivity of work which means technology cannot be eliminated from work rather other strategies are needed. It require reorganisation of workplace through different strategies which can ensure survival of privacy in personal life. In this regard, the most important players have been the labour politics and labour unions. The players have always fought for placing limits on the number of hours a worker can be retained at office, number of days for work, workers holidays and specially have fought for considerable reward against productive services of labour. It is impossible to rule out the influence of technology in our daily lives but certainly labour activism can cope up with unnecessary workplace intervention to our everyday lives. This influence of workplace into professional life is the latent function of changing dynamics of knowledge economies and immaterial labour which can not only be solved by labour activism or labour unions. This relationship has its roots buried inside the knowledge patterns of our society where development of personality and skills undergoes certain processes that ultimately follow professionals into their workplaces and offices. Technology along with changing knowledge economies has made salaried professionals simultaneously more autonomous and constrained (Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2013). So, the dire need is to examine the changes in education system which later on define immaterial labour. Educational and labour policies are result of political decisions which can be moulded by social, political and cultural pressure. Economic and educational polarisation is also a determining factor for performance of labour force while control on job insecurity can release performance pressure. 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