Technology and Workplace

written by Aizat. (Work)

Majority of people saying that the advancement in technological development nowadays really helps a lot in making their lives to flow smoothly without any major obstacles. Adding to that, some of them even drastically stating, without any technology to help them around, there are no more explicit reasons to live in this chaotic world. It's hard to separate the connections or bonds which exist between the technological development and workplace. Why? Likes the example given by Greenbaum in her book entitled "Windows on the Workplace", "workplaces can be found in homes, in cars, on mobile phones, in airport lounges, and in variety of settings" (Greenbaum 5). From what I believe, she simply tries to say that the great progression in today's technological development allows human being to perform work from any part of this world. This statement alone proves that there exist a strong connection between the technological development and workplace.
Although I agree with the fact that technologies bring an infinite amount of advantages to human as a whole, however, the way I visualize this matter change completely as I ask myself these such questions: what is happening to jobs and what is happening when technologies are designed, produced, and then used in real work situations. The introduction of technologies to working environment causes people inevitably to lose their jobs day by day without them even noticing it for the reason that people in general have put their belief on the words saying that technologies will help to ease their work conditions. This was exactly as what Greenbaum wrote, "most workers are learning that they need to jump from job to job and be prepared to be self-employed"(Greenbaum 5). Apart from that, work skills get re-engineered, basically to lower salaries and dividing up work so that pieces of it can be programmed into software and databases. In conclusion, should we still put our full support or faith on the argument articulating technological development will solve all of our problems and ease our working style?

Let the Computers Work For You

Traviers Herndon
The idea of self service and utilizing computers has a positive and negative effect on the workplace. As described in Greenbaum, usage of technology and the objectives of management would cause changes within the workplace. The management objective in any company is to minimize liabilities to make the largest profit possible and this is essentially what these companies that I have observed are planning to do. The Alaska Airline planned to take away ticket counters and allow self help kiosks that would shorten the length of time that it takes to check in and help with previous issues of lifting tons of luggage daily by employees is now done by customers for themselves. As for the cell phone check in that plans to use barcodes to convenience for the line waits involved in boarding an airplane, this is another push to optimize the convenience of the customers and save money for the airlines. The last idea that involved the pizza industry was to turn to using text messaging to order which will help the call volume drop and lower the waiting time to order. Though all these issues have their positive aspects that allow companies to be more efficient in one or another, the largest and more considerable thought about this issue is the amount of job cuts and pay cuts that will take place. For every machine that can do a job, there could be a person cut from the business because the labor will no longer be necessary. This will not interest producers because they will figure that the profit will rise because less skilled labor will be needed by a human despite the potential rise of unemployment as more and more industries may decide to switch to technological advances that don’t require the old jobs that humans occupied.

Options

written by Ikhwan Jamaludin (respond to 'Freedom and Choice' handout)

Determination can be done if we have an option to choose. If there is an option to choose, of course, we must want to choose something that better than the other option. However, what if we do not have an option to choose, and even worse we force to choose the only option that we have? Everyone has a right to choose and we are free to choose in our life as a right of freedom. I like to respond with the handout given by Professor Perry titled' Freedom and Choice' where he stated that, choice and freedom is not equal. He also relates that freedom is not equal only to choice but it is also not equal to work. After I read this article, I realized that there is a different between 'free to choose' and 'force to choose'. Options are just a medium between 'determinations' and 'choose'. In this medium, the distinction is occurred in a 'choose' side, where we are not always free to choose, instead sometimes we are forced to choose even we have an option. It means every choice that we have is seem to be not completely free to choose and also not completely forced to choose. Let relates back to choice and work. For example, if we work as a cashier in a restaurant or let say we work in a five star hotel restaurant and we have an option to work as waiter or waitress but, we are not interest to it because it is not that what we wish to do and we do not like to do that particularly job. In the other case, we do not have any other jobs option instead of being unemployment with no pocket money. Moreover, it is hard to find any other jobs at this circumstance. In this situation, we do have a right of 'free to choose' but we are not completely have it likewise we are 'forced to choose'. We are able to do other work but we do not have an option that is similar in what we able to do. So, it is clearly stated, the differences between 'free choosing' and 'forced choosing'. We still have a right to choose as well as free choosing but there also forced choosing in it. In the process of choosing, determination will take place and it depends to the person who has right and freedom to choose.

Heart of Working

written by Ikhwan Jamaludin (work)

Working is something that we want to do and we wish to do but, it is not something that we force to. By watching the first part of Modern Times, it shows the reality of the capitalism world. The doctrine of the capitalism is basically referred to the profit making. It means, capitalism does not care of anything except for profit making. Like what Professor Perry said in his lecture, concept of profit making is from money to commodity to more money. This concept tells us to the idea of the importance of profit making in term of commodity with ignoring other things such as welfare of employee, environmental care, or etc. This idea was pictured clearly in Modern Times movie. In this movie, we can see all the labors were working with specific division type of work as in detail. Each specific work will be conducted by at least one worker or more and they will responsible in what are they doing. Division of labor in detail will cause the deskilled of labor. It means, they cannot expand their ability or talent in doing other jobs that may they can do better with it. This particularly problem has been explained by Harry Braverman in 'Labor and Monopoly Capital' where he explained in the chapter of Scientific Management; the first principle of Capitalist management is "the dissociation of the labor process from the skills or workers". Besides that, every movement of the workers always is being watched by the employer like there is no freedom for the workers is also one of the examples of the Capitalist Scientific Management. This problem is shown clearly in the scene when Charlie was stopped by his boss from taking a short rest at the toilet. This circumstance was related to the Harry Braverman's third principle that is "the use of this monopoly over the knowledge to control each step of the labor process and its mode of execution". Nowadays, the concept of Capitalism is being used by the countries that have power in economy and politics even we know this concept has something wrong with it. For them, Capitalism is sweet and acceptable, but for me it is not. Capitalism has some problems and we admit it, even we cannot do anything except we have power to avoid it.

Modern Times Review

written by Aizat. (Work)

I was really excited as I watched over the first two scenes of Modern Times video that featuring Charlie Chaplin as the main character. In fact, I even laughed pretty hard at the time I watched that movie not just because it was funny, but how it amazed me with so much connections with all the readings that we have done so far.
In this video, it portrays clearly with somewhat in Braverman reading when he says about the existence of division of labor derived from the earliest innovative principle of the capitalist mode of production. When we talk about the division of labor, we know that it is separated to two different matters which is the social division of labor in general and the social division of labor in detail. Again, in this video, the social division of labor in detail plays its main function in dividing up industrial workers such as Chaplin to do a specific task on his entire day apart from the overall production process. Well, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing to do because as we can see the result of the introduction of the social division of labor in detail in the industrial process helps a lot in increasing the means of production and the productivity produced by the workers. Nevertheless, I cannot agree to all benefits bring by this system up to the extent when it eventually altering jobs so that work becomes less important or less complicated and thus can be easily handled out by deskilled workers. Yes, these conditions do increase the job opportunities especially for many unskilled workers out there, however, in reality, things that they do not truly realize are that their chance or right to voice up their concerns regarding works that they do become zero. Subsequently, these workers have no other choice but have to accept the fact that they being paid by relatively low wages and if not they can be easily terminated or replaced with someone else who desperately need a job. Braverman wrote, "the subdivision of the individual, when carried on without regard to human capabilities and needs, is a crime against the person and against humanity". I agree to that the most without any further explanations but just based on the above example.
Also what saddens me when I get to watch this video are about the way capitalist economy forces people to use their labor energy up the maximum level just simply because it wants to gain a full profit out of each worker and consequently neglect the necessity of maintaining the employees welfare. Such example, we saw on the second part of this movie when Chaplin suddenly and unexpectedly acting very awkwardly as the result of the high tension swirled in his head or to be more exactly, in the workplace itself. Why is this happening to him? Answers to that, the social division of labor which was being practically applied by the based capitalist owner of that factory caused him to work harder and harder and, continuously employees monitoring by the employer caused the workers to work in great pressure.