Comments on: The No-collar Workplace

By: sean fizzy

sean fizzy — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:17:53 +0000

middle management has always been a pain in my ass. i think that the key is to allow employees some freedom to do non-work related activities while on the clock. creativity is a very personal possession, and handing out ideas to slave drivers has never appealed to me. as long as I can remember i have been most productive when i have been the least managed.
for some employers this was not really possible, as they were looking for quantity as opposed to quality, but at other places, with a larger staff all working in the same way, there was enough freedom and enough nurturing that i got to really push myself creatively.
i am still pretty young, so i am very excited to see what this all turns in to in the next 10 years when i will really be engulfed in my career.

By: mark safranski

mark safranski — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:35:29 +0000

Thank you very much. Unless middle level managers become focused value-adders in their own right, instead of glorified hall monitors, they’re a drag on creativity, productivity and information flow. We need to find better uses for these people.

Your academic background seems to have been heavily influenced by economists, so I imagine you’ve read Thorstein Veblen. He had a lot of insights into the cultural/social noneconomic behaviors that are submerged in our ostensibly economic ones. Kind of forgotten these days but Veblen’s due for a revival of interest.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:00:50 +0000

Mark– I could not agree with your superb points about middle-management more! You nail it. These are exactly the same kind of people who not only sabotage corporate change efforts but community change efforts as well – the community types are, if anything, even worse. I always like what Jane Jacobs called them – the “squelchers” – that’s exactly what they are.

By: mark safranski

mark safranski — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 01:31:05 +0000

“What does this re-framing of work as part “play” mean for the way we define our work and ourselves, and for our society?”

Partly, it is a return to the preindustrial mode of life where there was no clear delineation between “work” and ” home” or ” private life”. It will be more creativity and at times more stress, but overall, probably be much better for employees.

OTOH we shouldn’t overestimate the extent to which this is going to happen, which will involve knowledge workers who can ” work” wherever there is an internet connection. Millions are still going to have to get up in the morning and ” go to work”.

Moreover, middle-level management is going to wage guerilla war against this trend because it cuts into their ability to exercise pointless and economically counterproductive – but very ego-satisfying – control over employees time and mode of work. Greater comfort and autonomy for employees is a diminishment of managerial status and power. Something of greater psychological importance to this group than the distant and abstract corporate bottom line.