Description
Book SynopsisMelissa Gregg explores the obsession with using productivity as the primary measure of most workers' sense of value and success in the workplace, showing how it isolates workers from each other while erasing their collective efforts to define work limits.
Trade Review"Gregg . . . places the genre [of self-help] in a rich social and historical context." -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *
"
Counterproductive trains its lens on the productivity self-help genre itself, posing the question 'How does this insatiable industry for productivity continue trading on essentially unchanging insights?' Gregg . . . sees the glut of such books as a symptom of deeper problems with the organization of modern work. . . . Best for: Self-help burnouts." -- Caitlin Harrington * Wired *
"Reading [
Counterproductive] caused me to have the biggest writing-related epiphany I’ve ever had." -- Theresa MacPhail * Chronicle of Higher Education *
"Gregg has written a book that will change the way people look at the notion of time management. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals." -- M. J. Safferstone * Choice *
"Gregg’s analysis provides productive insights in the ways that productivity has framed the work narrative, at times in less than beneficial ways. This book is appropriate for the general public, sociologists, business professionals, freelance workers, and librarians, concerned with the understanding the unhealthy impact that the focus on time management and productivity may have on the workplace and their own lives." -- Clem Guthro * Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy *
"A smart, fascinating analysis of the theory, practice, and anthropotechnics within the knowledge economy, a business sector whose productivity can be defined by its intellectual capital as opposed to its production." -- Julia Scatliff O'Grady * Journal of Cultural Economy *
“
Counterproductive is a must-read for everyone interested in the sociology of work, especially for those investigating the development of digital tools and their impact on workers’ lives.” -- Anna Maria Ozimek * Information, Communication, & Society *
Table of ContentsPreface ix
I. Theory
Introduction: The Productivity Imperative 3
1. A Brief History of Time Management 22
II. Practice
2. Executive Athleticism: Time Management and the Quest for Organization 53
3. The Aesthetics of Activity: Productivity and the Order of Things 78
III. Anthropotechnics
4. Mindful Labor 103
Conclusion: From Careers to Atmospheres 127
Postscript: A Belated Processing 141
Acknowledgments 143
Notes 147
Bibliography 179
Index 191
