Internacional

Chief and

Managers

Professional Technical

_{Administrative}

Principles Office Manager

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ _■ Seniors _Middle • • ■ _{■ #} Juniors _Juniors ■ ■ ■ • _{• • • •} Female Male (37)

Figure 4 shows the hierarchical structure of the office in this study by main job category and gender. The figure is the basis of the characterisations of workers made throughout this study.

Each of the 24 people under discussion has their own strategies, motivations and assumptions regarding work and what they hope to gain from it. In order to disentangle the individuals' actions and reactions from the web of behaviours, I will throughout this study refer to three main groups (management, technical and admin) and in some instances, their sub-groups (e.g. junior and senior). My interest here is to compare the strategies of each group against the others in order to reveal how they function and play against one another. A certain degree of generalisation of the groups has of necessity developed in my descriptions and analysis, and it is more than likely that any implicated individual would not be able to identify completely with my claims of what one particular group is up to. My generalisations will serve two useful functions here. First, they will simplify my argument. Second, they will help to maintain the anonymity of the individual people who have been observed. In the remainder of this section, I will briefly introduce the groups.

The managers, including the chiefs, are the most senior in the organisation in age and status. Theirs is the highest salary band and the most highly paid takes home over three times what is paid to the lowest paid admin worker. They drive to work in company cars. Having been in employment the longest of all the workers, they also have the most paid leave. They are responsible for the office and all that goes on within it. Committee reports are stamped with their authority and are representative of their ideas and opinions. No major change occurs in the office unless under their direction. These people range in age from mid 40s for the managers to mid 50s for the chiefs. All have specialist educational qualifications and are members of at least one professional chartering body. All are men except for the admin manager. Only one of the managers has what can be termed a traditional family life - a partner with children. One has a partner but no children and the remaining live outside permanent relationships. As a group, they tend to work significant amounts of overtime. However, they all take

their holidays and generally travel out of the country on journeys that their staff could not afford, and to more exotic places than they might choose. Though they have well formed outside interests, the managers do not have any absorbing hobbies or avocations.

The managers receive a great deal more from their work than their salaries. Most importantly, they receive respect, status and prestige that can, and is, traded freely outside the office. They are invited to regular events and meetings of the great and the good, and can count amongst their acquaintances local government leaders, senior civil servants, even cabinet ministers in some cases. They socialise in circles full of people of influence like themselves, and when they congregate with the powerful, they introduce themselves by their job titles. Discussions centre around comparing notes on their latest achievements and the issues they believe will move to the fore in the near future. If they lost their jobs they would be excluded from these gatherings and they would loose many of their contacts. The managers rarely meet with the leaders of outside organisations for purely social reasons. Business is always somehow involved.

The technical staff (“techs”) are similar in many ways to the managers. The techs haven't yet reached the managers’ level in the hierarchy and many won’t ever progress that far. There are three strata within this job category: principles, seniors and juniors.

The principles are all men. All but the youngest are in their mid 40s. They earn approximately two and a half times what the most junior admin worker receives. They are not allocated company cars. They have responsibility for discrete project areas and manage junior staff. Their work is checked by the managers but rarely changed. Their educations are much the same as the managers and they also belong to professional institutions. These men have been in work for around 20 years. Most have wives and families and they do not tend to work overtime, rather spending time with their children. They have hobbies that they mention from time to time, but the main non-work focus of their attention is what awaits them at home. They derive less personal status and fulfilment from their jobs and profession than

their superiors because they are not managers and are therefore not yet considered by their peers to be truly successful in what they do. They rarely mix with the great and the good, mainly because they are not invited. They aspire to be managers.

The senior techs have around 7-15 years of work experience. Their university educations are fresh in their minds and they try new ideas that would not necessarily come to mind for the principles. They have more limited project responsibility and in most cases their work must first be cleared by a principle then by a manager. They earn about twice as much as the most junior admin worker. Whilst some of the principles have developed the opinion that their career progress has stalled and they don't try hard to impress as a result, this hasn’t yet occurred to the seniors and they believe that they have a good chance for career advancement if they work hard and occasionally dazzle somebody in the right place. Women have been entering the profession steadily in the past decade and it is no longer exclusively male. It is at the senior level and below where past equal opportunity policy begins to change gender proportions. Two of the seniors have permanent relationships but no children. The other is still looking for a partner. They all hope to become principles soon.

The junior techs are either finishing or have just finished their university training. Their chartering institution requires that they work four years after receiving their post-graduate degrees before they can become members. Only half have achieved this and the remainder are still qualifying. One man is still on a day-release scheme completing his studies. They earn approximately one and a half times the salary of the most junior admin worker. They are all single, most live in group houses or have room-mates. They socialise with friends regularly and never work overtime unless forced to do so. They are still learning their profession and are given very little responsibility. Only the oldest are allowed to draft reports which are typically changed dramatically before they go to Committee. Their main tasks are to do the indispensable but monotonous research that the principles and seniors rely upon to inform their own work. They are grateful to have jobs since many

of their friends from University are having trouble finding work or are working for less money. They are having a good time. They want to progress their careers but not just yet.

Admin have to work as hard as their professional colleagues but they are treated as less important to the organisation, are not allowed the same type of responsibility in that they are not encouraged to think creatively unless specifically directed to do so, and they receive less pay. The main exception to this is the office manager who is paid and has responsibility on the same level as the senior techs. Admin workers who are below office manager level but higher than the most junior, such as the chiefs secretary, have responsibility for certain areas such as setting up some computer or filing systems, but it is difficult for them to initiate tasks. They are expected to wait to be instructed. All three of the senior admin have qualifications but not university degrees. Two have partners but none have children. They have hobbies and interests that they carry on with dedication but do not discuss much with their office colleagues. They work hard and feel that they are not appreciated. They want either to be given more recognition and more responsibility in this office or they want to leave it altogether for work elsewhere.

The junior admin (the telephonist and the typists) are the lowest paid workers and receive very little satisfaction from their jobs. They are all women though at the end of the study period a 17 year old male was taken on for the most junior position. The opinion of their colleagues is that they lack intelligence and are incapable of accepting responsibility. Junior admin do not agree with this assessment - they believe that they could do much more if only given the chance. They have no qualifications and though they have been working since the age of 16 they have not been significantly promoted. The oldest has a lower position than she once held because she was over 45 when she began looking for work after a career break. The admin women are allowed to show no initiative and though they occasionally receive training, it is generally so minimal that they cannot learn enough to improve their job performance. Their jobs entail typing, filing, answering the telephones,

photocopying, stuffing envelopes and franking post. They all have active and satisfying family lives: two are married and one lives with her parents and brother. They all have hobbies which they pursue avidly. They hate their jobs and only work to earn enough money so that they can do what they really want after work. They can never hope to reach the job status of the office manager.

These groups are extremely heterogeneous for all that they spend the majority of their waking lives together. Class expectation, experience, or education prevent them from ever seeing each other's position with complete clarity. Peers tend to keep their focus inside the boundaries of their own group and exclude non-members. They may therefore understand each others’ strategies and even help develop them, but misinterpret the actions of members of other groups. They may also seek to undermine the strategies of non-members in the pursuit of their own.