Avoiding “Beige Cubicle Hell”

Abstract

Every job has tradeoffs. When choosing an occupation, individuals are faced with choices about pleasure, freedom, security, and financial gain. This case study invites readers to consider how workers manage emotions and work-life spillover by contrasting the experiences of white-collar workers with an example of nontraditional workers—adventure workers, or individuals who have short-term adventurous jobs or perform seasonal work to support an adventurous lifestyle. An understudied group in organizational communication scholarship, nontraditional workers do not fit into the white-collar, ideal worker identities commonly represented in organizational communication research. To examine this understudied group along with a range of different work-related emotions, Amy's story and work-life experiences as a seasonal adventure worker are contrasted with the experiences of her brother and his friend who are employed in what she views as “beige cubicle hell.” These characters grapple with what makes work emotionally fulfilling and the tradeoffs they face in balancing security with freedom.

Resetting time and priorities: communicative sensemaking and implications of homeworking

“…Individuals perpetuate the notion of 'work now, life later' (Blithe & Wolfe, 2017, p. 1) through productivity-focused communication, which contributes to ideal worker norms, including working long hours, accepting additional responsibilities, sacrificing personal time, and perpetually deferring the ideal self (Pink & Godager, 2022;Ruder & Riforgiate, 2019). US workers also encounter and adopt managerialist discourses, defined as everyday talk that serves to 'manage' or organize behaviors to be rational (un-emotional) and predictable to increase efficiency (Denker & Dougherty, 2013).…”

“…Researchers should also explore how individuals continue to shape emerging realities that deemphasize organizational and corporate control in pursuit of a 'life now' ideology (Pink & Godager, 2022), as well as how organizations might grapple with resuming control to reemphasize the 'centrality of work' (Tracy & Trethewey, 2005). To this end, practitioners should consider the benefits noted by participants regarding experiencing time and reprioritizing life while simultaneously navigating flexible working arrangements as an integral component of the organizational bottom line.…”