“The System Sucks”: Computer Programs and Technical Control in Entry-Level White-Collar Work

Abstract Researchers often examine how technology controls the labor of precarious workers while demonstrating the limits of technology on controlling professional workers. Drawing on a subset of 46 in-depth interviews pulled from a larger sample, I uncover how technical control operates in entry-level office work. Technical control takes one of two forms. First, workers conduct all their tasks in a computer program. I call this task-oriented technical control. Second, workers must log all their offline work into a computer program. I call this social-oriented technical control. The types of jobs controlled by the latter are often done by women and are jobs where control routinizes social interaction. Social-oriented technical control is also experienced more negatively than task-oriented technical control. I therefore show how technical control transforms gendered disparities in work tasks into gender inequality in workplace experiences. I also expose that work has become less autonomous higher up the occupational hierarchy than most researchers observe.