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From: actnyc!gcf@uunet.UU.NET (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Electronic sweatshops
Message-ID: <11313@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 23 Jun 88 20:10:13 GMT
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} LAURA@VX.LCS.MIT.EDU (Laura Bagnall) writes:
} >
} >* data entry shops where people are monitored electronically according
} >to their keystroke rate per hour, and reprimanded if it drops for some
} >reason.  This leads to people being afraid to chat even briefly with
} >their neighbours, and general feelings of paranoia.

This might be of interest: about five years ago I had to install a
a new data-entry system in place of an old one at an insurance company
here in New York.  The data entry clerks were all women; most of them
were immigrants with varying degrees of ability to speak English.
The new and old systems were radically different in both 'feel' and 
appearance on the one hand, and underlying structure on the other. 
It was necessary for the clerks to _like_ the new system, or (the
management felt) the whole installation would be a disaster.  So a
primary goal of my work was to see that the clerks got what they
liked.  Therefore, I interviewed several of them.  Some surprising
things came out.  The clerks didn't care what the system looked
like as long as the operation was keystroke-for-keystroke exactly
like the system they had been using.  They never looked at the
screens anyway.  (Maybe they were protecting themselves from VDT
radiation.)  They _demanded_ that the new system keep account of their
keystrokes, because they believed that this figure proved to the
management how good they were.  Since the system I was installing
didn't know about keystrokes at the application level, I had to
alter the device driver, which those who have done it will know is
not a trival or cheap task.  The management willingly paid for these
substantial changes.

In observing the operation, I noticed that the women talked with each 
other while they entered the data; their work had become pretty much 
automatic and they didn't have to pay much attention to it.  Their error
rate was lower than mine when, to test the system, I carefully
and with full attention entered some of the data, so I believe their
estimate of their value as workers was correct.  The management was
very careful to keep this group reasonably happy.

By the way, one of the managers of this company, who had managed
a larger data entry operation elsewhere, told me that he had never
seen a man who could do data entry, although he had seen some try,
unsuccessfully.   His theory was that women were more 'flexible' 
mentally, a concept which he was unable to explain.