Problem of perceiving of e-work in society

Аннотация

Khusyainov T.M.  Problem of perceiving of e-work in society // Psychological science and practice: State of the Art. Collected papers / Ed. Kostrigin A.A. Chicago, 2017. P. 97-101.

In the industrial era, work was the main activity for a person, determining its status in society, image and lifestyle, which undoubtedly influenced the formation of a certain notion of "good" and "bad" work, of prestigious and popular professions, and as a consequence, image of the "traditional" form of labor (Khusyainov, 2016).

However, in the context of the information revolution, society is undergoing serious changes that have led, among other things, to the transformation of the social and labor structure ‑ the emergence of new forms and types of labor, the replacement of professional landmarks. As a result of such processes, such tendencies as de-standardization, autonomization, informatization, creative work are marked, which does not fit into the framework of traditional labor, but becomes the basis for the formation of atypical employment.

The change of social formation from industrial to post-industrial occurred at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, so the new way has not yet fully taken root in society. Therefore, even in the context of the current transformation of employment, workers employing new forms that are different from traditional ones of labor may be stigmatized (Khusyainov, 2017). Till now, forms of labor different from those that existed in the industrial era are considered atypical, and employment outside the norms of industrial economy (remote, temporary, marginal employment) is considered unacceptable in many sectors of society.

One of the modern forms of work activity is e-work ‑ a form of performing its duties on the Internet, in which case the employee has the opportunity to work outside the office ‑ at home, public places, specially equipped coworking centers. At the same time, most Internet workers practice temporary employment ‑ participation in individual projects. A similar situation for the Internet labor market, which has been formed over the past 20 years, is the norm, and a large number of positive responses (due to participation in a large number of projects) is a positive characteristic for the selection of an executing employee. Moreover, in this case, the opposite situation is possible, when the performer has a small number of completed projects, i.e. experience that can be confirmed for the employer is a confirmation of his inexperience, which causes stigmatization in the Internet labor market. This situation is exactly the opposite of what was in the industrial labor market, when an employee who replaced a large number of organizations was assessed negatively.

Despite the fact that the use of the Internet densely enters people's lives in most countries of the world, work through the network is often perceived as "non-work," which undoubtedly has an impact on the employee himself. The opinion of others can seriously affect his professional self-image, and the misunderstanding of family and relatives can exacerbate this process. In the case of Internet employment, a similar problem becomes especially important, because Iin most cases Russian Internet workers prefer to work at home, which exacerbates the issue of family balance and work, and often leads to conflict of professional life and family relations.

As it was already noted, in the Russian society new forms of labor are just beginning to take root and are not perceived by many as "work", which leads to stigmatization problems with those who have switched to atypical employment.