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Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Andrew Ross, No Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 2004)

MUCH PUBLIC and academic discussion about the workplace has in recent years focused upon the information technology industry. Workers in this sector are often thought to work in environments that are vastly different from workplaces outside of IT, and otherwise to enjoy unique perquisites and benefits. Andrew Ross seeks to reveal more about the functioning of the no-collar workplace, as he terms the information technology work environment, in No Collar: The Humane Work-place and its Hidden Costs. Ross is a professor in the American Studies program at New York University who provides many insights into the IT workplace. He reveals that the no-collar work environment is not markedly different from any other work environment as it is ultimately governed by the quest for profit and manipulates employees in order to achieve this objective.

Ross concentrates his analysis on the ubiquitous dot-com firms of the late 1990s, specifically on two in New York City. The staffs at Razorfish and 360HipHop felt the main impact of the new economy in the sense that their perceptions of working conditions were fundamentally altered by it. Employees believed that some kind of improved if not idyllic society could be founded within a corporate structure. This belief was buttressed by pervasive corporate discourse which suggested that the new economy enhanced the transfer of knowledge. Ross includes references to Elton Mayo's Hawthorne studies to substantiate his view that the new economy workplace appealed to workers' need for recognition and fulfillment.

Ross conducted comprehensive field research for this study and witnessed first hand how workers became entranced with the no-collar ethos, then ultimately were betrayed by it. There was little organizational hierarchy at Razorfish or 360HipHop, and there were conscious efforts by managers to blur distinctions between themselves and their staffs. There was also little distinction between work and play as the latter activity was considered to enhance the former. Office parties were often raucous events that drew faithful staff attendance while affording yet another outlet for creative expression. Razorfish and 360HipHop grew in size during the expansion of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and their informal, seemingly nurturing work environments were sustainable as long as the firms were solvent, if not profitable.

The weakness with the no-collar system, as Ross ably shows, was its vulnerability under duress. Initial rounds of layoffs dampened employee enthusiasm for motivational initiatives and morale quickly dissipated. Ross's analysis is strongest when he delves into the hidden costs of the no-collar workplace. He shows that the fundamental hazard of this workplace is that it enlists workers' thoughts and desires in the service of salaried time. The long hours worked by the staff, their total allegiance given to the firm, and their subsequent rejection by it led staff members to feel a profound sense of rejection.

Ross's analysis broadens when he contextualizes the information technology workplace within the urban environment. He refers to IT employees as "sophisticated consumers of space" and notes that they prefer certain urban environments and experiences. (135) The workers described in this book often came from disparate backgrounds but they exhibited agency through style and attitude. They expressed sympathy for unionization among some sectors of the economy, although few of them were unionized. Their managers were much more traditional as they were anti-union, and preferred to consider their workers self-employed. As the dot-com bubble burst, Ross found that workers at places like 360HipHop even began to revolt against the proliferation of technology in their workplace as it was robbing them of personal contact.

While IT employment is reputed to be personally enriching, we also see in this book that information technology is accelerating the casualization of work. The seemingly amorphous definition of employee utilized by IT managers has enabled them to refer to anyone, regardless of work status or tenure, as an employee. This does not bode well for the prospects of unionization, as Ross notes, or for the natural feeling of security that workers often need.

The main weakness of this book is its lack of both a clear methodological approach and a comparative framework. There are elements of both discourse and materialist analyses found throughout, but anyone reading this book may wish it possessed methodological clarity. The information technology workers whom Ross so ably describes are not adequately analyzed in relation to their peers in blue-collar or white-collar occupations. We would perhaps learn how different their work is from blue-collar or white-collar work had some comparisons between them been offered. There is considerable literature on the impact of technology on the workplace, such as the work by Harry Braverman and Graham Lowe, yet Ross did not reference it despite frequently describing a process of work degradation within the firms that he studied.

The penchant of no-collar managers for incorporating a cornucopia of loud music, long idyllic lunches, and quiet places for contemplation into the work-place is a continuation of a long tradition of the human relations systems founded in the early 20th century, but Ross draws no comparisons between contemporary employer paternalism and its historical antecedents. The staff at Razorfish would have perhaps scoffed at the free sausages handed out to employees of the Swift's company in Chicago in the 1920s, but their meditation spaces and costume parties represented the evolution of paternalistic practices used by early 20th-century employers like the mid-west meat packer.

Issues of gender and race are also found throughout this book, but do not form a comprehensive part of Ross's analysis. Razorfish had offices around the world, and also included significant numbers of women throughout the staff and managerial ranks. Ross does not, however, look into issues of sexual inequality in the workplace. Instead, his proximity to his object of study, and frequent reference to workers at Razorfish as "fish," suggests that he may have subconsciously adopted the no-collar view of people as primarily being high-tech workers, rather than individuals with many potential identities. The staff at 360HipHop was predominantly African American and the firm was founded by prominent media personality Russell Simmons. The main crisis experienced by the firm was its takeover by Black Entertainment Television [BET], yet Ross does not delve into a discussion of how African American workers may have faced unique challenges in the high technology economy.

This book has much to offer despite the shortcomings mentioned above. Writing about the information technology workplace seems to have in many ways become the preserve of popular journalists and business academics. It is therefore important that Ross has written a well-researched, cautionary analysis of the IT work environment that is not deterministic or unjustifiably celebratory. Anyone reading this book will find that the IT industry is not particularly unique; nor are the workplaces operating in it.


Jason Russell York University

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