Why are there more and more of your work groups?

New Weekly

2024-05-08 12:03Posted on the official account of Guangdong New Weekly

Author | Mei Zhenli

Edit | Tan Shan Shan

Title Picture | "I'll get off work at the end of the day"

On the eve of Labor Day, the #5000块钱的工资46个工作群#词条冲上社交平台热搜榜前列 caused many people with similar situations to vent their bitterness in the comment area: the salary was not overpaid, but the number of work groups increased with the increase of working hours. For workers in the digital age, being inexplicably pulled into a new work group has become a new type of PTSD.

The flood of work groups has caused more and more workers to fall into "invisible overtime".

"Okay, ROCE"

In recent years, it has become an unwritten rule in the workplace that workers are "always online". Recruitment announcements in the media, FMCG and other industries even state that workers need to "respond to messages in a timely manner", but the operators do not explain the "invisible overtime" problem behind "always online".

The so-called "invisible overtime" refers to the behavior of employees who are outside the prescribed working time limit and are in the non-workplace, and still handle work affairs. The emergence of work groups has brought this "invisible overtime" situation into the public arena. The assignment task that was originally one-on-one private chat once it happens in the work group, there are many more bystander eyes, which may come from the leader at the upper level, or from colleagues at the same level as you.

At this time, based on these invisible pressures, it is difficult for the worker to refuse the task freely and freely, so he can only think about it again and again, knock down a long list of heartfelt words and then delete them, and finally reply with a "Okay, received".

(Photo/"I, get off work at the end of the day")

If a worker resists on the grounds of refusing invisible overtime, the superior will often say, "So-and-so is like this" and "People are okay, why can't you?" PUA will be imposed on the dissenting worker.

How did our work environment become like this?

The online office method, represented by work groups, was originally designed to improve work efficiency and communicate effectively. Freelance writers living in Dali can communicate with the editor about the manuscript writing outline in the work group at any time; Those who are inconvenient to participate in the conference can hold a conference call while forwarding relevant materials in the work group. During the epidemic, applications such as WeChat, DingTalk, and Feishu enabled colleagues who were scattered in various places and could not meet each other to communicate and exchange smoothly.

(Photo/"I Don't Want to Do Anything")

However, while the work group brings convenience, it also changes people's original work mode.

In the days when instant messaging was not yet widespread, people contacted by fax, phone, or e-mail. These means of communication only need to be implemented in the workplace, so at the time, people's working time and private time were not confused. Except for practitioners such as doctors and nurses who need to be on call at all times, leaving the office is a private time for other workers, and even if they have temporary work, they have to put it on hold until the next day.

Media scholar McLuhan once used the example of electric light to explain the impact of technology on human beings: before the invention of electric light, people lived a life of sunrise and sunset. The advent of electric light made it possible for people to work both during the day and at night, thus changing the relationship between time and space, and reshaping the structure of public and private life.

The same is true for online instant messaging, represented by work groups. The convenience of online instant messaging makes it possible to be online anytime and anywhere, which means that the company expects workers to be "available 24 hours a day". They bring a new dimension to human life and reconstruct the definition and demand for work in modern society.

(Photo/"I Don't Want to Do Anything")

In addition, a derivative consequence is that the "group" has become a Shura field for interpersonal relationships: I don't want someone to be there, and I don't want someone to hear some news, so outside the big group, one small group after another is opened. The overlap of one group after another, and the 99+ message red dots that popped up without looking at the group for a while covered the time that originally belonged to us.

24/7, kill the last personal time

The online instant messaging method, which was originally intended to eliminate the constraints of time and space and allow workers to be more free, has now become a burden on the job and a rope that binds the workers. On the one hand, it helps people to achieve the communication that used to require a long journey and getting together, reducing the time cost and greatly improving the communication efficiency. On the other hand, it also blurs the boundaries between working time and private time, allowing the two to be mixed. Accessible communication means that workers are required to be online 24 hours a day.

Even if you are far away at the foot of a snowy mountain or by the sea, you only need an @ in the work group, and you must build an invisible office anytime, anywhere.

(Photo/"The Ancient Brothers and the Four Sufferings and Eight Sufferings")

Workers are gradually aware of the erosion of invisible overtime on personal time and space.

In January 2024, in the work report of the Beijing High People's Court, the first case in the country to explicitly mention the issue of "invisible overtime" in a judgment document was mentioned.

The client, Ms. Li, asserted that she worked overtime from December 21, 2019 to December 11, 2020, which was embodied in communicating and processing information in various work group chats. With regard to Ms. Li's claim, the company did not pay her overtime pay, arguing that this did not fall within the scope of overtime.

After the trial, the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court held that "Li's use of social media to work during the off-duty hours and rest days on some working days has gone beyond the scope of simple communication, and the content of the work has the characteristics of periodicity and fixity, which is different from temporary and occasional general communication, and reflects the characteristics of the employer's management and employment, and should be determined to constitute overtime", and accordingly ruled that the company should pay Li 30,000 yuan in overtime pay.

However, protesters like Ms. Li are still in the minority. More workers, bound by family, society, money, etc., can only maintain the status quo.

Supporting information provided by Ms. Li regarding overtime. (Photo/WeChat public account "Jingfa Network Affairs")

When we understand "invisible overtime" as "the general environment is like this", we should not forget that the May Day that has just passed is the historical achievement of workers defending the eight-hour working day.

"Before the town of Coking Coal could not be seen in the dark morning with the smoke of Monty Python, the 'fairytale palaces' were already brightly lit. The clogs clattered on the pavement, the factory clock made a continuous sound, and all the depressed and frantic 'elephants' had been scrubbed and oiled for the monotony of the day, and they began to do their heavy movements again. ”

In Hard Times, Dickens depicts the working life of 19th-century British workers. In Europe and the United States in the 19th century, the capitalist world system and commodity economy developed rapidly, and capitalists generally exploited workers by increasing labor hours and labor intensity in order to pursue profits.

At that time, in Europe and the United States, workers usually worked 12~16 hours a day, and some even reached 18 hours. To this end, the German worker Moritz Bromer wrote: "The workers of the new era have more demand!" He asks to enjoy the pleasures of life. He wants to improve himself! ”

Against this backdrop, the American worker community has shouted the slogan "8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and the other 8 hours at their disposal." In 1916, the eight-hour workday was established in the United States in the form of federal legislation. Major industrial countries in Europe and the United States have also completed legislation on the eight-hour working day during the same period.

The American drama "The Gilded Age" (Season 2) depicts the scene of workers fighting for an eight-hour workday. (Photo/"Gilded Age")

At that time, many factory owners and capitalists were forced to implement the eight-hour work day under the pressure of workers' struggle. However, they found that giving workers plenty of time to rest and recreation actually increased productivity.

More than 100 years later, there are still two polarities in our working model: on the one hand, some countries have begun to experiment with a four-day workweek to increase productivity while ensuring the physical and mental health of workers; On the other hand, in a 24/7 system, we are trapped in it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The boundaries between work and rest, public and private, reality and dreams, groups of opposites, are being erased.

Perhaps, like our predecessors, we should think about a question: if we are disciplined in a 24/7 system, every day is work except work, then what is the difference between man and machine?

At least, we can make it clear like the heroine in the Japanese drama "I, I'll Get Off Work": I'm not refusing to work, but I also have to firmly defend my private time.

(Photo/"I, get off work at the end of the day")

[1] China Youth Daily, The Aftermath of the First Two Industrial Revolutions

[2] In the case of the Beijing Law Network, the judge said, ∣ The case I heard was written into the work report of the High Court

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