Pauli Komonen's presentation at the seminar Quantified Employee on 28th March 2017 at the National Museum of Finland. www.ttl.fi/en/qe2017-seminar-hki/ www.kopla.fi www.paulikomonen.com

1. Work As The New
Leisure Time
PA U L I K O M O N E N · K O P L A H E L S I N K I O Y
www.kopla.fi | www.paulikomonen.com | Twitter: @paulikomonen

2. Two Discourses of
Work in Finland
(Dufva et al. 2017)
INCREASING
PRODUCTIVITY
Work as controlled, linear
production
Focus on taxation, legislation,
welfare structures, export
REDEFINING
WORK
Work as meaningful interaction
and problem solving
Focus on ways of working, compe-
tences, organizations, networks

3. In the ”productivity” discourse,
the question of time is critical:
work is as it used to be.
In the ”redefining” discourse,
the question of time is open.
Let’s concentrate on the second one…

4. When trying to crystallize the Zeitgeist
of work in the ”redefining" discourse,
we can observe values and attributes like:
PASSION
MEANINGFULNESS
HAPPINESS
EMPATHY
COMMUNITY

5. Work
is supposed
to be fun.

6. Take a look at leisure. What do
working age people do then?
PHYSICAL EXERCISE
TAKING CARE of kids and / or one’s own parents
HOUSEWORK

7. Dull, repetitive
and draining
activities.

8. According to
recent studies,
leisure activities
have become
more stressful
than work.
(eg. Hakala 2016, Kuluttajatutkimuskeskus 2013)

9. Home is the 19th century factory.
But it’s not only because we are forced to do many
things there, it’s also about trying to optimize
every area of life.
Being in control is important for the middle class,
and when the working life can not be controlled,
the quest for control moves to the leisure time and
home.
(Siltala 2017)

10. If we look at interior trends,
what do we see at home?
Scandinavian minimalism, post-industrial
rustiness, middle-class decency.
How about the workplace?
Kindergarten colorfulness, pinball and pool
tables, tongue in cheek slogans on the wall.

11. Consumerization of work:
People look at work from the
perspective of a consumer.
We go to the workplace to
experience something and
forward-looking companies
concentrate on employee
experience design.

12. Is this a mere
illusion?

13. The so-called ’new work’ and the freedom
related to it has led to a new situation:
People experience stress, because they
don’t have skills to manage the freedom.
We are still learning self-leadership and
other new skills.

14. Time is not synchronized
anymore.
This is the idea of
rhythm economy
(Halava & Pantzar 2013)
and desynchronized society
(Wajcman 2014).
We do mostly same things as before, but
not at the same time with other people.

15. Life is not faster than
before, but we
have an experience
of acceleration.
Extremely fast and extremely slow time
overlap with each other.
This creates a new experience of time,
but does not change the quantity of time.

16. To understand contemporary
work and leisure, we need to
be aware of this diversity of
time and temporalities.

17. Thank You!
PA U L I K O M O N E N
K O P L A H E L S I N K I O Y
www.kopla.fi
www.paulikomonen.com
Twitter: @paulikomonen