Overview

As online distractions increasingly colonize our time, why has productivity become such a vital demonstration of personal and professional competence? When corporate profits are soaring but worker salaries remain stagnant, how does technology exacerbate the demand for ever greater productivity? In Counterproductive Melissa Gregg explores how productivity emerged as a way of thinking about job performance at the turn of the last century and why it remains prominent in the different work worlds of today. Examining historical and archival material alongside popular self-help genres-from housekeeping manuals to bootstrapping business gurus, and the growing interest in productivity and mindfulness software-Gregg shows how a focus on productivity isolates workers from one another and erases their collective efforts to define work limits. Questioning our faith in productivity as the ultimate measure of success, Gregg's novel analysis conveys the futility, pointlessness, and danger of seeking time management as a salve for the always-on workplace.

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9781478000907

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Reviews

Gregg . . . places the genre [of self-help] in a rich social and historical context. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *

Counterproductive trains its lens on the productivity self-help genre itself, posing the question 'How does this insatiable industry for productivity continue trading on essentially unchanging insights?' Gregg . . . sees the glut of such books as a symptom of deeper problems with the organization of modern work. . . . Best for: Self-help burnouts. -- Caitlin Harrington * Wired * Gregg . . . places the genre [of self-help] in a rich social and historical context. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *

Reading [Counterproductive] caused me to have the biggest writing-related epiphany I've ever had. -- Theresa MacPhail * Chronicle of Higher Education * Counterproductive trains its lens on the productivity self-help genre itself, posing the question 'How does this insatiable industry for productivity continue trading on essentially unchanging insights?' Gregg . . . sees the glut of such books as a symptom of deeper problems with the organization of modern work. . . . Best for: Self-help burnouts. -- Caitlin Harrington * Wired * Gregg . . . places the genre [of self-help] in a rich social and historical context. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *

Counterproductive is a must-read for everyone interested in the sociology of work, especially for those investigating the development of digital tools and their impact on workers' lives. -- Anna Maria Ozimek * Information, Communication, & Society * A smart, fascinating analysis of the theory, practice, and anthropotechnics within the knowledge economy, a business sector whose productivity can be defined by its intellectual capital as opposed to its production. -- Julia Scatliff O'Grady * Journal of Cultural Economy * Gregg's analysis provides productive insights in the ways that productivity has framed the work narrative, at times in less than beneficial ways. This book is appropriate for the general public, sociologists, business professionals, freelance workers, and librarians, concerned with the understanding the unhealthy impact that the focus on time management and productivity may have on the workplace and their own lives. -- Clem Guthro * Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy * Gregg has written a book that will change the way people look at the notion of time management. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals. -- M. J. Safferstone * Choice * Reading [Counterproductive] caused me to have the biggest writing-related epiphany I've ever had. -- Theresa MacPhail * Chronicle of Higher Education * Counterproductive trains its lens on the productivity self-help genre itself, posing the question 'How does this insatiable industry for productivity continue trading on essentially unchanging insights?' Gregg . . . sees the glut of such books as a symptom of deeper problems with the organization of modern work. . . . Best for: Self-help burnouts. -- Caitlin Harrington * Wired * Gregg . . . places the genre [of self-help] in a rich social and historical context. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *

Author Information

Melissa Gregg is Principal Engineer and Research Director, Client Computing Group, Intel; coeditor of The Affect Theory Reader, also published by Duke University Press; and author of Work's Intimacy.

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