Fulfillment of the Work Games: Warehouse Workers' Experiences with Algorithmic Management
EunJeong Cheon, Ingrid Erickson

TL;DR
This study provides an in-depth ethnographic analysis of Amazon warehouse workers' experiences with algorithmic management, highlighting their resistance practices and the implications for understanding control mechanisms in automated work environments.
Contribution
It offers a detailed empirical examination of workers' reactions and resistance to algorithmic management in fulfillment centers, expanding CSCW insights beyond gig work.
Findings
Workers resist algorithmic control through 'work games'
Resistance practices are linked to broader control mechanisms
Understanding resistance can inform critiques of algorithmic labor systems
Abstract
The introduction of algorithms into a large number of industries has already restructured the landscape of work and threatens to continue. While a growing body of CSCW research centered on the future of work has begun to document these shifts, relatively little is known about workers' experiences beyond those of platform-mediated gig workers. In this paper, we turn to a traditional work sector, Amazon fulfillment centers (FC), to deepen our field's empirical examination of algorithmic management. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, we show how FC workers react to managers' interventions, imposed productivity rates, and quantified objectification when subjected to labor-tracking systems in their physical work environments. Situating FC workers' resistance to algorithmic systems and metrics within the current CSCW literature allows us to explicate and link the nuanced practices…
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