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Economist and policy wonk Jeremy Rifkin points out in his book The End of Work that, with the futuristic dream of a techno-utopia firmly within our grasp, the only question that remains is whether information and communications technologies will free workers for more leisure time -- or force leisure upon them. Most of which they'll spend in long unemployment lines, while the rest of the work force, its productivity enhanced to mind-boggling proportions, works hard for decreasing personal time. Rifkin contends that the forces of the marketplace continue to strive for increased productivity and profit, "with little thought of generating additional leisure of the the millions of working people whose labor is being displaced." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 56) "Telecommuting means that they work from home via a computer or that they work in smaller satellite centers where groups of firms, small and large, share office space." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) Office space rented by a company for use by traveling as well as far-flung employees, usually in one of those utilitarian edge-city buildings that wind like a belt of blue glass and steel, between the city and the 'burbs. "In the beginning of the 1990s, before virtual offices came along, middle managers in many companies were skeptical about telecommuting...because they were concerned that without supervision office workers wouldn't perform. But by mid-decade...middle managers were finding that productivity among those working outside the office had risen. Studies have also shown that direct supervision no longer appears to be a major issue in getting workers to produce more. Among other factors, the fact that more and more project-based work has deadlines, coupled with rising job insecurity in general, means that former office-based workers -- from clerical through the professional ranks -- are pushing themselves harder and working longer hours." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) "Even advocates of the virtual office admit that one of its problems is that there is no "virtual watercooler" -- no place where workers meet to chat and to exchange ideas and solve problems that have to do with their work." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 125) "Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"Telecommuting means that they work from home via a computer or that they work in smaller satellite centers where groups of firms, small and large, share office space." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) Office space rented by a company for use by traveling as well as far-flung employees, usually in one of those utilitarian edge-city buildings that wind like a belt of blue glass and steel, between the city and the 'burbs. "In the beginning of the 1990s, before virtual offices came along, middle managers in many companies were skeptical about telecommuting...because they were concerned that without supervision office workers wouldn't perform. But by mid-decade...middle managers were finding that productivity among those working outside the office had risen. Studies have also shown that direct supervision no longer appears to be a major issue in getting workers to produce more. Among other factors, the fact that more and more project-based work has deadlines, coupled with rising job insecurity in general, means that former office-based workers -- from clerical through the professional ranks -- are pushing themselves harder and working longer hours." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) "Even advocates of the virtual office admit that one of its problems is that there is no "virtual watercooler" -- no place where workers meet to chat and to exchange ideas and solve problems that have to do with their work." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 125) "Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
Office space rented by a company for use by traveling as well as far-flung employees, usually in one of those utilitarian edge-city buildings that wind like a belt of blue glass and steel, between the city and the 'burbs. "In the beginning of the 1990s, before virtual offices came along, middle managers in many companies were skeptical about telecommuting...because they were concerned that without supervision office workers wouldn't perform. But by mid-decade...middle managers were finding that productivity among those working outside the office had risen. Studies have also shown that direct supervision no longer appears to be a major issue in getting workers to produce more. Among other factors, the fact that more and more project-based work has deadlines, coupled with rising job insecurity in general, means that former office-based workers -- from clerical through the professional ranks -- are pushing themselves harder and working longer hours." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) "Even advocates of the virtual office admit that one of its problems is that there is no "virtual watercooler" -- no place where workers meet to chat and to exchange ideas and solve problems that have to do with their work." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 125) "Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"In the beginning of the 1990s, before virtual offices came along, middle managers in many companies were skeptical about telecommuting...because they were concerned that without supervision office workers wouldn't perform. But by mid-decade...middle managers were finding that productivity among those working outside the office had risen. Studies have also shown that direct supervision no longer appears to be a major issue in getting workers to produce more. Among other factors, the fact that more and more project-based work has deadlines, coupled with rising job insecurity in general, means that former office-based workers -- from clerical through the professional ranks -- are pushing themselves harder and working longer hours." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 124) "Even advocates of the virtual office admit that one of its problems is that there is no "virtual watercooler" -- no place where workers meet to chat and to exchange ideas and solve problems that have to do with their work." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 125) "Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"Even advocates of the virtual office admit that one of its problems is that there is no "virtual watercooler" -- no place where workers meet to chat and to exchange ideas and solve problems that have to do with their work." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 125) "Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"Networks are as central to the 1990s as personal computers were the 1980s. By 1994, 87 percent of large firms and 32 percent of smaller companies had some form of Local Area Network. An increasing number of organizations have also installed Wide Area Networks, which link computers in different departments, buildings, and cities. And probably the most dominant feature of today's workplace is the fact that individuals and organizations are more easily hooked into world-wide networks, like the Internet...." -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 109) "An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"An incarnation in human form." -- Webster's Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
Rifkin reports that in an attempt to ease the psychological trauma inflicted on geographically dispersed workers, Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England, is experimenting with a computer screen divided into five different windows to allow people to see each other as they collaborate on projects -- all in an attempt, according to corporate management, "to recapture some of the flexibility and human warmth that electronic communication has lacked." -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 151) "Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
"Networks also support organizations that want to divide their labor force geographically and get more output from the same number of workers -- or, where possible, fewer workers....According to the chief technology officer of Chase Manhattan Bank, networks increase productivity by increasing the amount that can be processed at any one time....Investment in more reliable and standardized hardware and software....makes it possible for management to cut payrolls and provides the flexibility to keep them cut. -- Joan Greenbaum, Windows on the Workplace (p. 111) Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
Rifkin points out a Japanese government research program to develop computer that mimic the human brain. Called Real-World Program, the project's mission is to develop "flexible information processing," which performs intuitive thinking of the sort that people use when they make decisions. The ultimate goal, according to Rifkin, is to create intelligent machines capable of reading text, understanding complex speech, interpreting body language and anticipating behavior. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 61) According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
According to Rifkin, the man responsible for putting efficiency at the center of the American work was Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of "scientific management" became the standard for organizing the workplace at the turn of the century. Taylor timed each worker's task and broke the performance down into units that could be continually improved by increments of fractions of a second. By calculating peak performance and knowing what specific points in the work process could be optimized, Taylor could recommend to managers how save time -- and time of course, equals money. Taylor blurred the lines between people and machines by treating people as automatons whose performance could be tweaked with just the right adjustment here, a little elbow grease there -- paving the way for the cyborg dystopia we could all be living in a few years. -- Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (p. 72) The Virtual Office Lobby
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Economist and policy wonk Jeremy Rifkin points out in his book The End of Work that, with the futuristic dream of a techno-utopia firmly within our grasp, the only question that remains is whether information and communications technologies will free workers for more leisure time -- or force leisure upon them. Most of which they'll spend in long unemployment lines, while the rest of the work force, its productivity enhanced to mind-boggling proportions, works hard for decreasing personal time. Rifkin contends that the forces of the marketplace continue to strive for increased productivity and profit, "with little thought of generating additional leisure of the the millions of working people whose labor is being displaced."