ABSTRACT
Of all the potent images of workplace computing abroad in our culture, perhaps the most influential is that of the-computer-as-relentless-and-unforgiving-monitor-of-job-performance. In one of the most widely noted studies, Shoshana Zuboff portrayed the effects of sophisticated computerized monitoring systems on the experience of work. The contrast between this and virtually all of our other cases of computerized job surveillance is hard to miss. Workplace monitoring is obviously but one of many ways in which computing impinges on the quality of work life. Computerization also alters the content of work, the social interactions of working groups, and the most elementary social structures of the workplace. This chapter provides less detailed information on the quality of work experience than it does on a number of other points.
