Bodywork at Work: Attending to Bodily Needs in Gig, Shift, and Knowledge Work

Item Type Conference Paper Author Deepika Yadav Author Kasper Karlgren Author Riyaj Shaikh Author Karey Helms Author Donald Mcmillan Author Barry Brown Author Airi Lampinen URL https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642416 Series CHI '24 Place New York, NY, USA Publisher Association for Computing Machinery Pages 1–13 ISBN 9798400703300 Date May 11, 2024 DOI 10.1145/3613904.3642416 Accessed 2024-12-09 Library Catalog ACM Digital Library Abstract The concept of ‘bodywork´ refers to the work individuals undertake on their own bodies and the bodies of others. One aspect is attending to bodily needs, which is often overlooked in the workplace and HCI/CSCW research on work practices. Yet, this labour can be a significant barrier to work, consequential to work, and prone to spill over into other aspects of life. We present three empirical cases of bodywork: gig-based food delivery, shift work in hospitals and bars, and office-based knowledge work. We describe what attending to bodily needs at work entails and illustrate tactics employed so that work can be carried on, even when the body (or technology optimising it) breaks down. Arguing that all systems are bodily systems, we conclude with a call to acknowledge the centrality of bodies in all work and the roles technologies can play in supporting or constraining bodywork differently for different workers. Proceedings Title Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Short Title Bodywork at Work