My boss never takes a day off. I work behind a bar. We only open on Fridays and Saturdays and yet my boss is there from 9am everyday, Monday to Monday, working. I once made the mistake of sending her an email on a Monday (I assumed this would be her weekend as it is for EVERYONE else that works in the hospitality industry) with ‘P.s have a good day off! ’, her reply (sent within five minuets of my email) was ‘When I get a day off ill let you know how it goes’. Her boss has now made her a bedroom in the club complete with shower etc. (considerate right?) On top of this she is doing masters in business management via correspondence. She. Is. Insane. At work she is like fictional character, she has an ear piece in one ear connected to her phone and another in her other ear connected to the security radios. I repeat, she. Is. Insane.
They key concept discussed this week, mainly in the Deuze and Greggs readings is this idea of the convergence of work and leisure. It is the idea that technology is beginning to combine all aspects of our lives, weaving the personal and economical into one big mesh that we call our lives. This play into the second key idea of the two readings which is the ideas surrounding the expectations and subsequent stress that this kind of converged lifestyle promotes. Gregg, M. has coined this idea as “presence bleed”.
My boss falls into Greggs idea of ‘function creep’. He says ‘new media devices enable increased work hours for many employees by invading personal and leisure time’( Gregg, M) I think that although she may do much of her work ‘on the run’ she doesn’t realise that she is in fact working 24/7. We are all so confused by her hours that we all feel comfortable texting her at any time on work matters (I texted her at 11.30 last night about a shift and she replied within minuets).
Gregg, M. N.D., Function Creep: Communication technologies and anticipatory labout in the information workplace, accessed 8/8/11, http://homecookedtheory.com/wp-content/uploads/functioncreepnms.doc
