Research On The Phenomenon Of Internet Companies Working Overtime From The Perspective Of Labor Process Theory

With the rapid development of the Internet economy,the Internet products update more and more rapidly.In order to grab the market opportunity,almost all Internet company encourages employees to work overtime,overtime work has become normalization,which arises widespread concern in the society.This research mainly focuses on the labor process of Internet companies,trying to reveal how Internet companies use "manufacturing consent" to strengthen employees’ recognition of overtime work,and then use rules operation to shape employees’ overtime behavior.At the same time,this study also shows how employees respond to the company’s overtime control and their behavior is affected by macro-level factors,which in turn normalizes overtime work.From the perspective of labor process theory,this article conducts fieldwork on the labor process of Internet company employees by entering the labor field of M Internet company.The main investigation methods include participation observation and in-depth interviews.The author entered M Internet company as an intern,and obtained research data through participating in observations and conducting in-depth interviews with 13 employees of the company.Internet companies’ overtime control is similar to Bulowie’s "catch-work game",which utilizes the struggle encouragement,performance appraisal,and process specifications make employees to agree the company’s values,work tasks,and management methods,and then to overtime.During the operation of the rules,the combination of rewards and punishments,flexibility and enforcement,authority influence and recognition are used to shape employees’ overtime behavior.Specific measures include generous salary treatment,the last elimination system,flexible working system,excess workload,leadership pressure,and welfare temptation,so that employees are under the control of the Internet company’s labor process and then work overtime.Of course,in the labor process,employees are not completely passive in the face of the company’s overtime control.They exert their subjectivity,mainly including three aspects:adaptation to overtime work,the strategic response and opt-out.This study found that under the overtime control of Internet companies,employees have also exerted their subjectivity,which makes the labor process becomes more complex and diverse.This kind of labor process state is not same as the Bulowie’s production regime characterized by "hegemony" and "autocracy",and also different from pure emotion injected labor.This labor process combines reward and punishment,flexibility and coercion,and leadership influence and recognition to shape employees’overtime behavior.Employees’ response is no longer a simple resistance,but adaptation,strategic response or opt-out.Of course,the formation of overtime is not only affected by micro factors,but also macro factors,such as the buyer’s market for employment,the weakening of legal supervision and the prevalence of overtime culture.Under the combined effect of various factors,the phenomenon of overtime work has been formed.