Ethnographic Essay comparing the Relations of Coworkers and Gym Goers

“I always keep my work phone and personal phone on me at all times, [the phones are] almost like it’s my child because once I don’t know where it is, I freak out.” This quote was during an interview of my supervisor, Jordan Hantman. I believe this quote accurately depicts this era of mobile technology as most of us are deeply attached to our smartphones. Just the other day, I was having a family dinner at my parent’s house. At dinner I noticed there were obvious differences in the desire for smartphones by each generation. The oldest, being my parents, didn’t even have their phone in site and always tell us to leave our phones in another room for dinner. Next up, it’s me and my sister who are roughly the same age; we have our phones on us most of the time and this dinner I came to the table with mine, but rarely check it. This time it came in handy as we were getting into a discussion about bees and I had to lay some facts on them. Lastly, we have my two younger siblings who are 13 and 15, and they are just out of control at dinner when it comes to smartphones; constantly sending texts, giggling, and liking every photo they see on Instagram. Its easy to see the generational differences of smartphones from this family dinner as I’m sure many other families have a similar pattern.

This ethnography examines the relationship between my co-workers at my office and their outside life in a nearby gym called Retro Fitness. I wanted to see the difference in peoples’ actions and feelings as an employee and compare it to their “real self” outside of work. Media scholars have examined similar employee interactions, including “corporations using ethnographers to adapt products for specific markets. Intel, for instance, has designed PCs to appeal specifically to market segments in China and India. And it was an ethnographer who figured out that Japanese people don’t use instant messaging on their PCs, because interruptions are considered impolite” (Fitzgerald, 2005). These scholars have overlooked the fact that these same employees may act different socially or physically outside of the work community. I draw on employers act differently socially outside the confides of the office because they don’t have any standards to work by, as in they are free to do what they want outside the constraints of the office. I am arguing that my coworkers will act differently in a gym than when they are in the office because there is no authority to make them act a certain way. One theory I thought could explain this was Foucault’s metaphor of the panopticon which states if a subject thinks they are being constantly watched then they will be on their best behavior to avoid any further punishment and in this case would be the cameras in our office that record the employees. “Constant observation acted as a control mechanism; a consciousness of constant surveillance is internalized” (Mason, 2018).

I had observed my gym for a total of four hours over four days which is equal to the time I spent working out as well because I wanted to immerse myself in the community and get real results. With the four hours of observation I also conducted two interviews to better understand why one might act differently between these two communities of work and exercising. Participant observation is a research method to collect data by becoming close with the subjects and their environment. For confidential purposes the participant wanted to remain anonymous, but allowed me to use the data I found, so we will call him Mark. Mark also works in the same office as me at Cintex Wireless. A side note: my boss also owns a gym and he was generous enough to offer free membership for all employees. There was a row of treadmills that Mark was occupying, so I decided to run besides him. As I was getting setup and deciding what song to put on I noticed mark had an old school iPod for music, and surprisingly, his tablet on the other shelf of the treadmill in landscape mode. As I did a double take, I noticed he had his work email open on his tablet. He was scrolling through and was mainly deleting, from what I could tell, junk mail. He sent about one or two quick emails as well. This came to my surprise, but it seems that this may be a popular trend for workers all around the country. A study done by Gallup “discovered that 67 percent of employees said checking after-work emails didn’t have much effect on their personal well-being, with 17 percent saying it actually has a positive effect” (Brooks, 2017). After that, Mark and I chatted for a little, the purpose being was to see how his mood and interactions would be different since we were outside the office. He seemed much more relax and he would swear a lot more which caught me off guard because in the office he was very well mannered. This could be due to the endorphins being released during his workout and he felt energetic. An old article suggests this could be the case for mood changes because “elevated serum beta-endorphin concentrations induced by exercise have been linked to several psychological and physiological changes, including mood state changes and ‘exercise-induced euphoria…” (Harber and Sutton, 1984). The weird thing about this participant observation is I suddenly had the urge to check my email and that’s exactly what I did after getting off the treadmill.

There were some ethical concepts I had to understand before I began my interviewing process. Ethics are a big part of a workplace and as they should be. You want your employees and co-workers to feel comfortable while they’re working. If not, then things just become chaotic and the work flow is then hindered. Now, as an ethnographer are when ethics should always be considered, or you could find yourself in legal trouble. When taking field notes of people and conducting interviews, you always want informed consent, meaning you make them aware that their actions and information will be used in a potentially published article or paper. Tom Boellstorf mentions the legal risk in his book, “Ethnography and Virtual Worlds” because sometimes ethnographers get caught up in legal disputes. It’s not always that we are the defendant in the situation, but more as a witness to something that might’ve happened while field notes were being taken. Events like this are rare but it is important to be aware. Like informed consent, we must also respect a subject’s privacy. we must not reveal any information regarding the subject if they wish to remain anonymous as it could affect their life/career as well as yours. Some ways Boellstorf suggestion to get around this is to alter the subjects name; just like I did with Mark, it’s easy and quick.

Since I work with Mark, I figured he would complement my research with an interview. The next day I asked Mark if he would be ok if I interviewed him about my research and he consented. I asked mark why he checks his emails even when he’s out of the office and on his own time. His answer was simple, he felt less stressed and more productive that day and even the following day since he wouldn’t ever get a buildup of emails. An email survey released their findings in 2016 to say that most people check their emails out of the office and even on vacation which explains why mark is so attached to checking them. This may be the reason some smartphones are being allowed in the office space now.

One reason smartphones and mobile technologies are becoming more prevalent in the workplace is because it can ultimately boost productivity. You might be thinking “wait, shouldn’t it be the opposite?” but what I realized, myself included, is that smart phones allow you to take an occasional break from what might be a heavy workload that day. This short break of just separating you from your task can allow you to regather your thoughts and start back at 100%, or close to it, rather than overloading your brain and powering through at just 70% focus.

Another thought I had was smart phones can reduce the costs of IT and even make your computer run faster. This is because an employee knows their phone inside and out for the most part, so they know what works and what doesn’t. For example, just last week my professor and I were having difficulties setting up a Google Hangout on my laptop and rather than call my friend Bob up in IT, I simply downloaded it onto my phone and we continued the face chat from there.

During my fieldwork I was expecting to run into trolls or as the author of, “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Whitney Phillips puts it as “a parasite of the Internet.” Trolls are all over the Internet and they come in different forms as well, but all these trolls have one thing in common and it’s trying to annoy, offend, or cause trouble in an online community. This was worrisome for my research as I was expecting to come across a troll in the gym, but in the end I did not come across one and my data was therefore uninterrupted.

During my research I had time to reflect on my own actions and mood in the gym compared to at work. I noticed I spent much more time on my phone at the gym mainly for picking which songs I want to listen to and replying to texts. I realized since I am not in a career yet and still a student, these actions are equivalent to Mark who would reply to some emails outside of work. Most other gym goers also seemed to be in the same category as me or Mark. I noticed many would quickly pull out their phones, what it looked like to me, to change their current song. With the other fitness fiends, I saw with the big tablets were reading news articles or books since the screen was easier to process. Overall, almost everyone in the gym uses some sort of mobile technology to help them get through that hour of hell each day.

Through my methods I have concluded that the relationship between my coworker’s life and their gym life isn’t much different. Both identities are attached to their phone in some sense whether its work related or not. They all have a mindset to better themselves by reducing stress by cardio, weightlifting, and for Mark, reducing that amount of emails he has. As people’s technology usage stayed the same, their interactions were different in the gym than the office due to endorphins rush and not having the feeling of being watched by their superior like the panopticon metaphor. Knowing research ethics helped me along the way to conduct a moral research project as I omitted anyone who wanted their privacy and always asked for their consent before the interview. I was able to reflect on other people’s interactions as I was aware with mine which helped keep the observations accurate. I can conclude there are some slightly different emotions and interactions when comparing employees and their gym identity.

Works Cited

Boellstorff, Tom (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Fitzgerald, Michael (2005). Corporate Ethnography. MIT Technology Review. Business Impact. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/404920/corporate-ethnography/

Foucault, Michel (1977). Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books. http://www.moyak.com/papers/michel-foucault-power.html

Phillips, Whitney (2015. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture., 2015. Print..