booter@ads.com (Elaine Richards) (07/19/88)
Here is the entry I saw in a previous posting.
AUTHOR(s): Garson, Barbara.
TITLE(s): The electronic sweatshop : how computers are transforming
the office of the future into the factory of the past /
Barbara Garson.
New York : Simon & Schuster, c1988.
288 p. ; 22 cm.
Includes index.
Bibliography: p. [271]-273.
OTHER ENTRIES: Office practice Automation.
Business Data processing.
(etc)
I decided to read this book, which was mentioned in a chain of discussion
about working from home (telecommuting). I saw no references to work at
home in this book, but found it to be a worthwhile book to read. As
computer professionals, it is important to know the social consequences
of our work.
The bulk of the book describes how systems analysis and expert systems
packages break down processes into the most minute components. By
following a procedure that is viewed as optimal by the systems analysts,
the process of doing work is divorced from creativity and initiative.
Examples given are McDonald's fry cooks, airline reservations people,
stockbrokers and social workers. There are others too, but they escape
me.
Some of the examples are heartbreaking, especially the way McDonald's
treats its employees as disposables and how social workers are so
closely monitored that they cannot take a whole case and really help
people, but must refer them around. There are heartening examples,
like the one where a supervisor had to fire a destructive employee
using the automated monitoring system to avoid the animosity of the
union and other staffers. She had only used monitoring once and in
an extreme situation and stated a basic distrust of micromanagement.
Whether you agree or disagree on the content of this posting, I recommend
that you all read this book. It is truly fascinating. The author wrote
another book about work, called "All the Livelong Day" and I intend to
locate that one as well.
ER