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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Ann Eyerman, Women on the Job: Transitions in a Global Economy (Toronto: Sumach Press 2000)
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| WOMEN ON THE JOB is a refreshing, clear, and surprisingly informative account of current trends in the world of work. Importantly, this book reaches beyond an academic audience, and speaks to the thousands of women who work as secretaries, receptionists, clerks, and call-waiting attendants, in addition to a host of office employees. Striking a satisfying balance between the somewhat esoteric restructuring research literature on the one hand, and personal testimony on the other, Women in the Office offers an accessible and engaging discussion of current trends in the world of paid work. In the context of a now rather extensive scholarly literature on restructuring, this study represents one of the few accounts in which workers themselves have a voice; indeed, in Eyerman's book, the workers are situated front and centre, positioned within, but not eclipsed by the larger structural imperatives of the "post-Fordist" regime. |
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Women in the Office is premised on two central ideas. One, the world of work has been undergoing fundamental changes, and these changes are to the detriment of most workers. Two, paid employment remains very important to people, not only as a source of income but also as a means by which to find personal fulfilment and meaning in life. The current reorganization of work thereby has a bearing on an individual's entire being, in and outside of the actual "work site." Eyerman effectively weaves these central themes in and out of the stories of twelve women office workers. These stories are presented with care. We do not get the sense that the author merely draws on quotations from the women in order to substantiate claims made by academic writers. Rather, the impression is that the women themselves have shaped Eyerman's analysis; indeed, their testimonies are central to the book. They give it a human, personal dimension, without allowing us to lose sight of the economic and political forces that shape individual experience. |
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It is significant that this book emerges from Eyerman's own experiences as an office worker, the frustration of working in offices, and never feeling that she really had a voice, as well as her subsequent involvement with Times Change Women's Employment Service, a female- run organization that helps women to find secure and satisfying work. In fact, it is through her involvement in Times Change, that Eyerman first met the women whose words fill the pages of the book. The analysis, as a result, is not a detached one. |
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What does the new world of work look like? Eyerman highlights various changes that began to take place in the 1980s and 1990s and continue to this day. These changes are part of what may be termed a "new transnational corporate hegemony." (17) They revolve around the transition to a post-industrial "information society," with the implementation of sophisticated computer technology and the application of various managerial strategies that promote "flexibility" both of the workplace and the workforce. For office employees, the majority of whom are women, these trends have resulted in heightened job insecurity, an increase in non-standard (part-time, temporary) work, the demise of the reciprocal employment contract (that is, loyalty and commitment in exchange for opportunity and security), an intensification of work, increased (often electronic) surveillance, and an overall loss of trust and friendliness between workers and their bosses. |
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The women's stories highlight the impact of these larger changes on individual workers. Their testimonies describe both the minor and dramatic changes that have been reshaping office work across the country (for example, the introduction of computer programmes, the contracting out of jobs, and the large-scale introduction of teleworking). The reader will be familiar with most of these changes, perhaps from a distance. After all, they have been the subject of much public commentary. The contribution of Women in the Office is in relating the ways in which these workplace developments have impacted on individual work histories and personal lives. The women, for example, speak about the consequences of ever-changing computer technology. In so far as the technology is always developing, the office worker must constantly upgrade, typically at her own expense and on her own time. While this is not an officially-stated requirement of the job, it is an unofficial expectation. The women speak of a new expectation that they will generally go above and beyond, go the extra mile, and put in more overtime. And this is not done in an effort to improve one's chances for promotion. Rather, it is done in an effort to simply hold on to a job. Similarly, the scope of many office jobs has been extended to incorporate such functions as selling and customer service, without a corresponding increase in pay or greater recognition. Moreover, on the whole, flexible new workplaces have resulted in an intensification of work, with the consequent loss of "downtime." And importantly, Eyerman highlights the consequences of restructuring for women's sense of identity in the workplace, for their values and social relationships. The elimination of the full-time, full-year worker, for instance, has meant the loss of valued friendships with co-workers, changes in workplace culture, the demise of informally-transmitted job-related knowledge, as well as the loss of the collective memory of an organization. |
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It is no surprise that these developments have had serious implications for workers' health and well-being. Not only have the new computer technology and the refashioned workplace resulted in various physical injuries and ailments such as repetitive strain, chronic neck and back pain, headaches, and eye strain, but they have furthermore contributed to rising levels of stress, tension, and anxiety. The emotional costs of job insecurity and precarious employment arrangements are many and should not be minimized in importance. The consequent deterioration in self-confidence and loss of self-respect are part of the invisible cost of this new era of work. |
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Women in the Office does not break theoretical ground. Nor does it offer any empirical data that have not been documented elsewhere. However, Eyerman does not profess to advance our analytical understanding of workplace change. Rather, she attempts to pull together, describe, and help us to recognize the issues that are important to women who work in offices in Canada. She does this effectively. The women's testimonies echo the themes that we read about in the restructuring literature, but when they are voiced by women office workers themselves, they have a clearer resonance. Eyerman's book will serve as a useful tool in the undergraduate classroom, the union, and the office, and will serve as an important resource for efforts to promote progressive change and thereby improve the working lives of office workers. |
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Pamela Sugiman
McMaster University |
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