HCII PhD Thesis Proposal: Franky Spektor
When
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Description
Documentation Tools for Worker Wellbeing
Franky Spektor
PhD Thesis Proposal
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Date & Time: Tuesday, June 10th at 11:00 am ET
Location: Gates & Hillman Centers (GHC) 6115
Zoom: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/5748948236
Committee:
Sarah Fox (Co-Chair), Carnegie Mellon University
Jodi Forlizzi (Co-Chair), Carnegie Mellon University
Laura Dabbish, Carnegie Mellon University
Julia Ticona, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract:
Low wage workers often have no say in the algorithmic management technologies (AM) that direct their workflows. Because employers are direct consumers of AM, such technologies tend to elevate managerial priorities while exacerbating – and thus normalizing – existing harms in low wage work. Researchers in the digital workerism movement are increasingly developing worker-centered technologies to quantify workers’ experiences of harm, with the goal of producing data with which to challenge black box algorithms. However, reliance on alternative technologies as the primary driver of change may exclude individuals with low technical literacy, or those who work in traditional sectors beyond gig or platform work, which have tended to be the focus of digital workerism interventions. Moreover, researchers’ focus on quantification may be insufficient to help workers respond to the nuanced, embodied, and relational aspects of work.
In response to these gaps, my thesis explores how workplace technologies mediate unionized cleaning service workers’ experiences of holistic wellbeing, which I define based on worker testimony in my empirical research. In the first part of my thesis, I use participatory design methods to understand the perspectives of unionized hotel housekeepers whose work is directed by an algorithmic manager. In the second part, I conduct interviews with unionized commercial cleaners who do not yet use algorithmic technologies to learn about how workers’ baseline conditions impact their wellbeing, and what mechanisms they use to organize for change. Despite differences across essential cleaning service occupations, I describe how workers perform intense physical labor under persistent time pressures, conditions which often lead to invisibilized experiences of chronic stress and strain. These shared dynamics suggest that existing systems of control, productivity, and oversight not only influence work regardless of the presence of AM, but shape the implementation of the AM itself.
To account for these experiences, my work draws from critical disability studies to develop visions of labor in which worker wellbeing is a central and uncompromising goal. I propose an intervention that is flexible enough to capture both the specific ways technology amplifies chronic strain, as well as the broader ecosystem of exploitation that creates such experiences in the first place. Specifically, I propose co-design workshops to develop low-tech documentation tools to help workers visualize their collective experiences. Rather than deploying computing resources to collect precise worker data, these tools would aim to support workers in building power through union activity and direct action around their working conditions. The scope of my proposal focuses on co-designing mid-fidelity prototypes, to be implemented and evaluated with workers as high fidelity tools in future work.
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Hope to see you there!
- Franky