Self-Service In A Service Economy
Craig Lambert writes in The New York Times about "shadow work":
THE other night at the supermarket I saw a partner at a downtown law firm working as a grocery checker, scanning bar codes. I'm sure she earns at least $300,000 per year. Even so, she was scanning and bagging her purchases in the self-service checkout line. For those with small orders, this might save time spent waiting in slower lines. Nonetheless, she was performing the unskilled, entry-level jobs of supermarket checker and bagger free of charge.This is "shadow work," a term coined 30 years ago by the Austrian philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich, in his 1981 book of that title. For Dr. Illich, shadow work was all the unpaid labor -- including, for example, housework -- done in a wage-based economy.
In a subsistence economy, work directly answers the needs of life: gathering food, growing crops, building shelters and fires. But once money comes into play, a whole range of tasks arises that do not address basic needs. Instead, such work may enable one to earn money and buy both necessities and, if possible, luxuries.
To do the work requires extra jobs, like commuting. The commuter often has to own, insure, maintain and fuel a car -- and drive it -- just to get to work and back. These unpaid activities ancillary to earning one's wages are examples of shadow work.
In the industrialized world, few of us live in a subsistence mode, so shadow work is ubiquitous: shopping, paying bills, housework. Digital technology -- with its spam, e-mail, texting, smartphones and so on -- is steadily ramping up the burden of shadow work for all whose lives revolve around its magnetic field.
...The conventional wisdom is that America has become a "service economy," but actually, in many sectors, "service" is disappearing. There was a time when a gas station attendant would routinely fill your tank and even check your oil and clean your windshield and rear window without charge, then settle your bill. Today, all those jobs have been transferred to the customer: we pump our own gas, squeegee our own windshield, and pay our own bill by swiping a credit card. Where customers once received service from the service station, they now provide "self-service" -- a synonym for "no service." Technology enables this sleight of hand, which lets gas stations cut their payrolls, having co-opted their patrons into doing these jobs without pay.
...TO be sure, shadow work has its benefits. Bagging one's own groceries or pumping one's own gas can save time. Shadow work can increase autonomy and enlarge our repertoire of skills and knowledge. Research on the "Ikea effect," named for the Swedish furniture manufacturer whose products often require home assembly, indicates that customers value a product more highly when they play a role in constructing it.
Still, doctors routinely observe that one of the most common complaints today is fatigue; a 2007 study pegged its prevalence in the American work force at 38 percent. This should not be surprising. Much of this fatigue may result from the steady, surreptitious accumulation of shadow work in modern life. People are simply doing a huge number of tasks that were once done for them by others.
One way to decrease shadow work is to telecommute -- to work over Skype instead of in the same location (to which one or more people will have to drive). This also means you may be able to hire somebody who lives very far away from you -- giving you access to a much wider and maybe much better labor pool.
I wander into WalMart, or the grocery store, and I see fat people riding around in motorized shopping carts. People are fatigued because they are in pitiful physical condition.
The upside of the shadow economy: All your stuff makes it into the bag. The machines give you the correct change.
The downside is that people with few skills and no ambition have even less opportunity to do anything to earn their keep.
MarkD at October 31, 2011 6:12 AM
"If you want something done right, do it yourself."
In an age where the unskilled worker often doesn't speak English, or is surly/rude; is incompetant/slow/distracted/doesn't give a damn, self-service is usually preferable to any "service" provided by a paid employee. Paying bills, keeping my car running, buying groceries - this isn't "shadow work," it's just life.
JDThompson at October 31, 2011 6:21 AM
The number of things people have to keep track of and remember to do can be overwhelming. Just thinking about all the things that need to be done can be mentally draining.
One of the upsides of my recent unemployment is that my husband and I have split our duties differently. I'm taking care of most of the "shadow work": grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc. He has commented several times that he feels a lot less tired when he can come home and not have to worry about these things. When we were both working full time, keeping up with these things frequently wiped us out. We're both in average physical condition and are a healthy weight, so it has nothing to do with physical fitness. It's mental exhaustion.
At any rate, we are working out a way for me to work from home part time and continue to do the "shadow work" because it means everything gets done without the burnout for either of us. I'm currently freelancing and selling homemade breakfast sandwiches to my husband's co-workers. The bigger challenge has been that I've never been out of work for more than a week before, so I don't always feel like I'm contributing very much, but the results are real.
On a related note, self-service checkout isn't necessarily an improvement when so many people in front of me can't get it to work properly. I've found most cashiers to be perfectly fine, so I'd rather have a cashier if I'm at the supermarket because it means I'm less likely to get stuck behind someone trying to put her $5 bill into the machine over and over and over again.
One way to decrease shadow work is to telecommute --
More employers should hire telecommuters. Unfortunately, many still seem to be attached to the idea that people are going to slack off if you're not standing right over them.
MonicaP at October 31, 2011 6:51 AM
Hubby is a programmer and very knowledgable about computer hardware. He has been working from home for the last month and his out put is so much greater. When he is at work people feel free to ask him a bunch of question about their personal PCs. He is an introvert and wants to get his job done but can't because of other having access to him. If he is at home they would have to call instead of just walking up to him.
Honestly I think I would be the same for all the water cooler chatting that goes on. Like separating the 2 chatty girls in class so the will get their work done. Make'em all go home so they will work.
JosephineMO7 at October 31, 2011 7:09 AM
The author really thinks that we are now completely over-worked and overwhelmed because we have to pack a few groceries and pump our own gas? Give me a break! 100 years ago 90% of Americans were farmers which involved 16 hours of back breaking work, 7 days a week with no time off!
So let's look at all of that extra work that we have to do now compared with even 40 years ago. Many of my neighbors/friends/relatives have a service or technology to:
All of these things were either done by my parents or involved a lot of effort on their part when I was a kid. Pumping gas, using an ATM, and packing a few groceries are at best a convenience and at worst a minor annoyance in comparison.
Yes I agree that people were willing to give up "service" for reduced cost. But that was a conscious decision that people made. They voted with their feet by abandoning the full service stores in favor of the big box stores. Its pretty disingenuous to whine about that now.
Allens at October 31, 2011 8:05 AM
It's not about physical labor. It's the little niggling annoyances that exhaust people. Driving in heavy traffic is not exactly an Iron Man event, but it can easily exhaust people's energy and patience. People don't snap in road rage because their arms are tired holding the wheel.
MonicaP at October 31, 2011 8:16 AM
I'd much rather take five minutes to pump my own gas, deposit a check at the ATM, or bag a few groceries than pay someone to do things that I can do myself.
This stuff makes people "fatigued?" Seriously? In a world where some people find the energy to run marathons for FUN? In a world where American soldiers and Marines are humping 80 pounds of crap over hill and dale in Afghanistan for months at a time?
There's a cashier at my usual grocery store who is pretty badly disabled. If HE can manage to bag groceries for eight hours a day - and he does, while also telling jokes - very few people can believably whine that they're "fatigued" by doing the same thing.
I just volunteered at the Phoenix Solder Ride. If people who are MISSING LIMBS can bicycle 21 miles in the hot desert, then able bodied Americans can pump their own gas into their luxurious SUVs without getting "fatigued."
Americans are such crybabies sometimes.
MikeInRealLife at October 31, 2011 8:34 AM
"which lets gas stations cut their payrolls, having co-opted
their patrons into doing these jobs without pay."
That should say, "without explicit pay". Just where does Lambert
think the pay of those gas pump employees would come from, the
charity of the owner? If the owner had to staff to pump, check
oil, and clean windows in the old, traditional fashion, the pump
prices would have to rise to compensate that staff.
Pumping your own gas means that at least some of the money that
would have gone to the person handling the pump will, instead, go
to you. It's not get-a-paycheck type pay, but the end result is
the same: more money in your pocket at the end of the day.
Ron at October 31, 2011 9:53 AM
Several local stores are pulling the self-checkout lines. Turns out that they cost more to maintain than just using a regular cashier. I can't count the number of times these things have failed on me or have required that I wait for the "supervisor" to cancel an item (that rang up wrong) or some such thing. It's gotten to the point where I only use self-checkout if there are no lines at them and there are lines at the cashiers. (The point is that they work most the time, but when they don't, it's a huge pain in the ass.)
Joe at October 31, 2011 10:35 AM
Pumping your own gas (except in New Jersey) makes sense since it's a single point of sale with a closed system; all you buy is gas and there are no returns.
Joe at October 31, 2011 10:38 AM
After reading the above excerpt, just what is Lambert saying? It is a long dictionary entry, signifying nothing.
Is shadow work good or bad or both?
What are the alternatives, or is shadow work the alternative?
What does Lambert want to do about it?
Is shadow work a problem or a benefit?
If I drive to a restaurant and park my car, am I a victim of shadow work? Why is Lambert employed.
Andrew_M_Garland at October 31, 2011 10:40 AM
>>"(The point is that they work most the time, but when they don't, it's a huge pain in the ass.)"
AMEN! As someone who works with a Self-Check machine (at my library), I detest the damn thing. I refuse to use them at stores, because of my direct experience. Those things are faulty as fuck.
cornerdemon at October 31, 2011 11:10 AM
"After reading the above excerpt, just what is Lambert saying? It is a long dictionary entry, signifying nothing."
Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Most of what he mentions just seems like "life." Has there ever been a time when anyone other than the aristocracy had abundant leisure time?
ahw at October 31, 2011 11:14 AM
Automation may had added a few tasks to the overall operation, but it has also freed us from the tyranny of unskilled labor.
By that I mean the tyranny of accommodating unskilled labor to do tasks that could be done quickly and easily by oneself, not the harsh brutality of a militant grocery store clerk.
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When I was a kid, you banked during banking hours only (9-5 on weekdays and 9-12 on Saturdays). That meant you couldn't get cash after hours, so you hoarded what cash you had and paid by check whereever you could.
Paying by check required two forms of ID and a manager's signature to process. Often, the manager was otherwise engaged and the entire line was delayed until the manager could disengage himself and come over to the register to review the IDs and approve the check.
And pity the poor shopper stuck behind the person who didn't even start writing the check until after the total was rung up ... or the one who took forever to record the transaction in the check ledger AFTER waiting for the manager to approve it ... or the anal-retentive person who had to record every detail of the transaction AND calculate the remaining balance while standing at the register.
ATMs and automated banking have mostly freed us from that; although the downside is I now get impatient behind people paying with cash.
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When I was a kid, if you wanted to get gas after midnight and before 6am, good luck. Most stations were closed during those hours and since there was no way to pay without and attendant back then, you had to drive around wasting what little gas you had to find an open station (even one that allowed you to self-pump after hours).
Conan the Grammarian at October 31, 2011 11:47 AM
"When I was a kid, if you wanted to get gas after midnight and before 6am, good luck. Most stations were closed during those hours and since there was no way to pay without and attendant back then, you had to drive around wasting what little gas you had to find an open station (even one that allowed you to self-pump after hours)."
When I was a kid in order to actually have what you needed, say for example gas in the car, or dinner on the table you had to do something called "planning".
That skill seems to be in short supply now. Back in the good old days people without those essential "planning skills" where easily identifiable.
They were the ones having Cheerios and beer for dinner usually by candle light because the electricity had been shut off due to failure to pay the power bill.
The fifties and sixties were a world where the obsessive/compulsive were kings. They planned everything, even when they didn't need to. Many of them had lived through the depression, and they were rightfully scared, because lack of planning could leave you without things that you needed for actual survival.
What this author calls shadow work, I call "life and financial maintenance" tasks. That is, you should do for your self what it is easier and cheaper or faster to do than to have others do it for you.
That 300k attorney wasn't saving herself "money" by bagging her own groceries, she was saving "time" and time IS money.
Isabel1130 at October 31, 2011 12:09 PM
They say in Germany it's illegal for many businesses to be open on nights and weekends and things like that... And apparently their reasoning is pretty naked: They don't want everyone else to have come into the shop to compete.
And so they don't.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at October 31, 2011 1:40 PM
I'm with Allens; if people are "fatigued", it's not because they had to bag their own groceries rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
(Here in Oregon we get the worst of both worlds - the State refuses to admit that we can safely pump our own gasoline, but we also get no other service.
Not that I'd trust some random schmuck to "check my oil", or that it's really valid to do so right after shutting down, or that it's particularly necessary on a modern car that isn't half dead.)
I am also with Conan - unskilled labor isn't a good thing to have more and more of. It'll never be particularly valuable, by definition (at least outside of a vast shortage of labor, period).
I'd rather do my own checkout and bagging than sit in a longer line. My time is more valuable than having some high-school kid "serve" me.
Sigivald at October 31, 2011 2:12 PM
I'd rather scan my own if the clerk is the usual cretin. At TJ's, I want to see my favorite guy. It's all about those relationships--a clerk who doesn't know me, no matter how many times I shop, doesn't need my business.
KateC at October 31, 2011 8:27 PM
Here's my problem with self checkout: if you're not giving me a discount for DOING YOUR JOB, I don't see the point. Seriously, I'm paying the same amount if I do your job or you do. I'll wait in line, thanks. I have a Kindle and can occupy myself.
Daghain at October 31, 2011 9:26 PM
I've got a buddy who will be a new lawyer, and the man continually informs me to protect yourself from trial law suit if possible. To get he'd consider it a good idea is that if you will find there's large amount of financial resources, so is incredibly guaranteeing, so we tend to be fully prepared to win true.
Him at January 2, 2012 12:46 AM
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