Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-3-2015 12:00 AM "When [S]He is Working [S]He is Not at Home": Challenging Assumptions About Remote Work Eric Lohman The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Nick Dyer-Witheford The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Eric Lohman 2015 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lohman, Eric, ""When [S]He is Working [S]He is Not at Home": Challenging Assumptions About Remote Work" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3120. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3120 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "WHEN [S]HE IS WORKING [S]HE IS NOT AT HOME": CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT REMOTE WORK (Monograph Thesis) by Eric Lohman Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Eric Lohman 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ ii Abstract In this monograph thesis, I explore how at the end of the first decade of the twenty- first century, the prospects for telework, rather than following a straightforward and inexorably rising trajectory, became strangely complex and conflicted. This project explores the reasons for the apparently contradictory and certainly confusing state of telework. It is about these contradictions, and more specifically about who benefits from telework arrangements, and under what conditions these arrangements are deployed. The study adopts a mixture of qualitative methodologies, including political economic analysis, reviews of popular press articles, and in-depth interviews. The political economic analysis explores the costs and benefits of remote work, specifically how workers and employers are affected financially. We may have to reconsider whether flexible work arrangements will be the norm in work environments of the future, because of capital’s inability to manage the work process effectively and its loss of the benefits of spontaneous interaction between co-workers. In the chapter devoted to the popular press, I analyze news stories that discussed Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s 2013 decision to end telework. This is the first discourse analysis of telework coverage in the popular press. I argue that Mayer was subjected to unfair coverage in the press, which was largely based on her role as a woman and mother. Finally, I conducted a series of in-depth interviews with teleworkers, with unique arrangements and diverse professions. The insistence by tech company giants like Google that worker interaction is vital to creative labor is supported by my interviews with teleworkers, who contend that the biggest disadvantage to working from home is reduced social interaction with their coworkers. The thread that ties all three of these methodological approaches together is the critique of the conventional assumption that telework is an unqualifiedly positive arrangement for workers, and an inevitable staple of future work environments. My research exposes the problems with this assumption. Overlooking the disadvantages that telework actually presents for workers, and also the very different disadvantages it can pose for capital, has also caused an overstatement of the importance of telework in Post-Fordist labour environments. Keywords Marissa Mayer, Telework, Remote Work, Telecommuting, Labor, Political Economy, Feminism, Autonomist Marxism iii Acknowledgments I would first like to thank Nick Dyer-Witheford for his expertise, insight, patience, and his willingness to look at unpolished drafts. I have benefitted tremendously from his guidance and friendship. Thank you to Pam McKenzie and Carole Farber for their help along the way, especially with methodology issues. I would like to thank Marnie Harrington, who like every good librarian, has been trusted counsel on all issues brought before her. From the day I landed in Canada, till the final throes of this project, Marnie has offered indispensible assistance, for which I am so grateful. I would like to thank Jonathan Burston for his mentorship, specifically around my teaching. I was fortunate to study with a brilliant group of scholars and collaborators in the Media Studies doctoral program; those who deserve the most thanks are Gemma Richardson and Estee Fresco, whose bright minds and warm friendship made this arduous endeavor seem less daunting. I have learned a tremendous amount from Austin Walker, Kate Hoad-Reddick, Indranil Chakraborty, Atle Kjosen, Jeff Thomas, Lillian Dang, Elise Thorburn, Warren Steele, Andrea Benoit, and Nichole Winger. This is not an expansive list by any means. My time in London, Ontario was made all the richer by having a group of friends to commiserate with. Many of these people I met through my time serving in student organizations and or conducting union work. Amanda Vyce has become a surrogate aunt to my children, a lunch buddy, and dear friend. Desiree, Mike, and Remi Lameroux have become a family away from home, and will be truly missed. Finally, Josh and Marylynn Steckly deserve credit for being available for coffee and impromptu babysitting whenever I needed it, which was very often. I hope all of them know how much their friendship has meant to my family and me over the last five years. All of the work I have done is truly for the benefit of my children, Deven and Delilah Velez, and Silas and Rosalie Lohman. I know it has been a sacrifice for you, but I trust that over time you will all come to understand this foolish enterprise. If nothing else, I hope that you find some inspiration in my desire to forgo money in the pursuit of intellectual stimulation, and do the same. After all this writing, I lack the words to effectively convey how grateful I am for Stephani Lohman. I will not lie and say that she was always patient, or that her tone was always helpful, but without her knowledge, wits, editing abilities, budgeting, humor, and encouragement, this project could simply have never been completed. iv There is much, much more that she has done to help me, but I’m so tired of writing that you will have to take my word for it. v Table of Contents ABSTRACT III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IV LIST OF TABLES IX LIST OF APPENDICES X INTERROGATING TELEWORK: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE AND BENEFITS OF WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY 1 METHODOLOGY 5 POLITICAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS 6 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 8 IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS 9 CHAPTER OUTLINE 10 A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON TELEWORK 13 DEFINITION, MEASUREMENT, AND SCOPE OF TELEWORK 16 MANAGEMENT OF TELEWORKERS 20 TRAVEL RELATED IMPACTS OF TELEWORK 23 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ISOLATION 25 BOUNDARIES BETWEEN HOME AND WORK 28 IMPACT OF TELEWORK ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE FAMILY 31 GAPS IN THE RESEARCH AND AVENUES TO EXPLORE 34 HARDLY THE PANACEA: UNPACKING THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF TELEWORK 38 SAVINGS FOR COMPANIES 41 COSTS TO WORKERS 47 COSTS TO COMPANIES 55 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION 61 THE MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRITES: MARISSA MAYER AND THE YAHOO! TELEWORK BAN IN THE POPULAR PRESS 68 vi METHODOLOGY 70 WHY BAN TELEWORK?: “THE LATEST INNOVATION FOR CREATING INNOVATION.” 78 TELEWORK: EMPLOYEE PERK OR A WORKER’S RIGHT? 81 DEFENDING MAYER’S BAN 84 CRITICISMS OF MAYER AND THE BAN 85 “PAINFUL IRONY:” CRITICISM OF MARISSA MAYER 86 “THAT NURSERY!” MARISSA MAYER AS A HYPOCRITE 87 “I REALLY THOUGHT WORKPLACES WERE MOVING TOWARD MORE FLEXIBILITY.” 91 DISCUSSION 92 CONCLUSION 95 THE FLIPSIDE OF FLEXIBILITY: TELEWORK AND THE MYTH OF WORK/LIFE BALANCE 100 LITERATURE REVIEW 101 METHODOLOGY 103 “I’M IN THE ZONE”: THE ADVANTAGES OF TELEWORKING 107 THE DREADED COMMUTE 109 “I CAN THROW IN A LOAD OF LAUNDRY:” WEAVING IN PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY 111 THE PROFESSIONAL, SOCIAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DOWNSIDE TO TELEWORK 113 OUT OF THE FLOW: LATENCY IN OPERATIONS AND COMPLICATING SIMPLE WORK TASKS 114 PROFESSIONAL REPERCUSSIONS OF TELEWORKING 117 TELEWORKING AND OVERWORKING 119 “I GET TO HAVE MY CHRISTMAS PARTY IN MY KITCHEN!:” TELEWORK AND ISOLATION 121 CONCLUSIONS: “IT’S LIKE HAVING SHACKLES ON YOU ALL THE TIME.” 125 CONCLUSION 131 CHAPTER REFLECTIONS 132 THE STRUGGLE OVER MOMENTS: COMMON THREADS BETWEEN THE CHAPTERS 136 MARXIST FEMINISMS AND TELEWORK 138 AVENUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY 146 APPENDICES 165 RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENT 165 vii WESTERN’S RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD APPROVAL 166 LETTER OF INFORMATION AND CONSENT FORM 167 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 170 CURRICULUM VITAE 173 viii List of Tables Table 1: Participant Demographics ---------------------------------------------------------- page 105 ix List of Appendices Recruitment Advertisement Western's Research Ethics Board Approval Letter of Information and Informed Consent Form List of Interview Questions x "He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home." Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 xi 1 Interrogating Telework: Challenging Assumptions About the Future and Benefits of Workplace Flexibility Since it was first conceptualized in the 1970s, telework— the use of digital technology to bring work to employees, rather than employees to work— has enjoyed varying levels of interest, but seems to have attained peak attention from businesses and governments alike after the turn of the 21st century. The Telework Research Network, a consulting and research organization that “specializes in making the business case for workplace flexibility,” published a report in 2011 that found telework had risen in the United States by 73% between 2005 and 2011, and was likely to increase another 69% by 2016 (Lister and Harnish, 2011).