Between Employment and Nonemployment: The Ambiguity of Work and Leisure in the Contemporary Labor Market

Abstract

The relationship between work and leisure has significantly changed in various segments of the contemporary, digitalized labor market. This article explores the characteristics of the developments that contributed to an increasing indistinguishability of work and leisure. It also discusses theoretical concepts associated with this ambiguity, namely prosumption, playbor and gamification, taking into account the issue of motivation, remuneration and the linkages between an individual engaged in a given activity and other agents.

KEYWORDS :

• Labor market
• digitalization
• prosumption
• playbor
• gamification
• leisure and work

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank John Komlos and two anonymous referees for insightful comments, advice and guidance.

Notes

1 Most of these tendencies were significantly reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pressure to stay at home contributed to the transfer of several activities associated with work and leisure to the virtual world (Jahan et al., 2021). For instance, in Europe the number of people working remotely increased by nearly 15% from 2019 to 24.4% in 2021 (Eurostat, 2022). The pandemic also contributed to a 35% increase in time spent on social media (Perifanou et al., 2021).

2 For example, platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk (intermediating between employers and jobseekers who are willing to perform a specific task) offer a median hourly wage of about 2 USD (which is much lower than minimum wage in many countries). Only 4% of contractors earn more than 7.25 USD per hour (Kotaro et al., 2018).

3 For example, contests for game moderators (see also footnote 9) give a chance to win a high prize and gain recognition in the gaming community. There are many types of contests for moderators. One of them may be improving the graphics in the game. The creators of the best modification can count on a high financial reward. In order to increase their chance of winning, competition participants often form teams in which they jointly develop game modifications during long working hours. However, such competitions are associated with high risk. The creators often have to waive their rights to the results of their work (Sotamaa, 2007).

4 Outsourcing work to consumers and users has actually a long tradition. Telecommunications was one of the first industries to engage in this process. Initially, calls were intermediated by an operator who connected the caller with the call receiver. However, the work of the operator extends the connection period and is subject to human errors. To reduce costs, the duties of operators were shifted to users. Thereafter, callers started to dial telephone numbers themselves (Ross, 2012). Over time, more and more sectors began to implement similar solutions that became as popular as self-service stores, ATMs (and later online banking services), or self-assembly of furniture (Grün & Brunner, 2002). In order to depict the trend of making consumers work, Ritzer (1993) coined the term McDonaldization: at McDonald’s clients have to order and pick up their food, and discard the waste. However, there is a tendency to transfer increasingly difficult tasks to consumers (Rieder & Voß, 2010).

5 For instance, the number of online banking users has increased steadily over years, but a sharp increase was observed after the outbreak of the pandemic. Within a few months, there was a 35% increase in number of individuals involved in online banking in the United States (Deloitte, 2020).

6 For example, in the game industry even 80% of work can be done after the release of the product. Consumers de facto perform the work of game testers providing the producers with the information necessary to improve the product and extend its life cycle (Kopecka-Piech, 2014). If this activity is focused on individual satisfaction of needs, it can be interpreted as prosumption. In other cases, it may be closer to playbor or gamification.

7 Game modifications may refer to game interface, introduction of randomizers (that shuffle some elements of the game to make it more challenging), or creation of add-ons (smaller modifications associated with selected elements of the game, such as new weapons, maps, tracks or character levels).

8 This was the case of the developers of the game Counter-Strike which was released as a modification of the Half-Life game. One of the developers of Counter-Strike was later employed by Valve, the producer of Half-Life.

9 The platform offers filmmakers a fee of about 0.21 EUR for 1000 views (WebePartners, 2022), but they must meet certain conditions (Youtube, 2022). Often, creators fail to receive payment for the effort put into the creation of the content (Goldberg, 2018). Youtuber’s income depends on many factors, but one of the most important is the number of subscriptions. Failure to reach the required number of viewers makes it impossible to receive payment.

10 Taylorism (scientific management) was introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in “The Principles of Scientific Management” (Taylor, 1911). It is a system involving collection of data, allowing to increase productivity of work thanks to breaking tasks into single measurable actions or motions and elimination of unnecessary elements. Often criticized because of its mechanistic treatment of humans, Taylorism gained a new face in the digital economy which offers unprecedented opportunities for data collection and measurement (e.g., counting single clicks).

11 This tendency can be illustrated by a wide range of examples: from the program “Miles and More” by Lufthansa, via various point-based gamification strategies or rewards and discounts offered by companies like Booking.com or Starbucks to the “All eyes on the S4” advertising campaign by Samsung.