Workfulness: governing the disobedient brain

Abstract

The Scandinavian telecommunication company Telenor recently introduced the notion of Workfulness by adapting digital detox to the workplace. Workfulness is a management program aimed at technologyintensive companies that rely strongly on digital media. The program encompasses strategies of disconnection for employees, including mobile and email-free work hours and technology-free meetings, in order to enhance focus and efficiency. This article investigates Workfulness as one prominent example of managerial approaches that are based on neuroscientific assumptions about human decisionmaking. Drawing on textual materials and interviews, the analysis shows that Workfulness manages digital distractions in the workplace by establishing a form of stimulus-control rather than appealing to rational self-control. Workfulness alludes to the necessity of making choices, but it considers unconscious behavior, which is explained with reference to preconscious workings of the brain. The human brain becomes a battleground between rational and impulsive decisions, and it is the disobedient brain that needs to be governed in order to become an efficient employee. We situate the Workfulness program as part of and at the same time extending the biopolitical economy by incorporating advances in neurosciences into modes of governance. ARTICLE HISTORY

Digital detox: Media resistance and the promise of authenticity

“…As any cultural trend or counter-trend, digital detox draws on a variety of inspirations, and motives for practicing digital detox vary. In one sense, digital detox fits within a tradition of corporate self-optimization where individuals are encouraged to improve efficiency through the use of technology and software, including software to reduce digital distractions (Gregg, 2015; Guyard and Kaun, 2018). Furthermore, as noted, digital detox draws on notions of balance and mindfulness.…”

Temporal ambivalences in smartphone use: Conflicting flows, conflicting responsibilities

“…For some informants, time management through self-regulation relied on willpower as the sole strategy: deciding, repeatedly, to not (extensively) use the smartphone, and then do as decided, every time. However, many appeared to subscribe to the view, described in other studies, that willpower does not suffice to control digital media use (Guyard and Kaun, 2018). They, therefore, added different supplementary strategies: managing settings describes doing something with the smartphone to make it less intrusive, such as turning off notifications.…”

Social Media, Interrupted: Users Recounting Temporary Disconnection on Instagram

“…They "specified certain quantities of digital technology use as unhealthy, comparing them to problematic eating behaviours." It also conveys a special effort from the individual-or services offered to them-that needs to be done, as the brain seems "disobedient" in face of technology (Guyard & Kaun, 2018).…”

“…In her ethnography on digital detox camps around San Francisco, California, Sutton found that detoxers felt they learned not only to live better with technology but also to reconnect with themselves by appreciating privilege, and with others in deeper connections. They “specified certain quantities of digital technology use as unhealthy, comparing them to problematic eating behaviours.” It also conveys a special effort from the individual—or services offered to them—that needs to be done, as the brain seems “disobedient” in face of technology (Guyard & Kaun, 2018).…”