{"id":7116,"date":"2022-12-21T07:05:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T06:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/articles\/for-folks-like-me-on-the-job-from-9-to-5\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T10:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T09:08:18","slug":"for-folks-like-me-on-the-job-from-9-to-5","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/articles\/for-folks-like-me-on-the-job-from-9-to-5\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFor folks like me on the job from 9 to 5\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A contribution on office culture by BUREU team member Marco Ninno.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doors of a lift open and a storm of faceless women pour out and head to their desks. They effortlessly remove the cloths covering their typewriters and begin their working day. The camera moves to reveal an endless string of white-collar female workers. Soon the scene gets more chaotic. Folders are moved around, coffee is prepared, drawers packed with documents are slammed, there are images of telephones, workstations, early computers: an office safari!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as I would like to claim this as the first visual contribution to the BUR<\/a>EU<\/em> research project<\/a>, what I have just described is actually the trailer for the iconic film 9 to 5<\/em> (1980). In this hit comedy, starring Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, director Colin Higgins follows three female office workers who kidnap their abusive boss and start a workplace revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the entertainment value of the film is indisputable, I would argue that it is also useful as a narrative tool in a visual analysis of office planning techniques and managerial norms. Furthermore, it shows \u201cthe office\u201d as a microcosm of broader cultural and political phenomena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For political activist and women\u2019s rights advocate Jane Fonda, the office actually proved to be a key site for exposing women\u2019s everyday struggles. She had come across the reality of women\u2019s situations through real-life accounts of abuse and injustice from members of the Association 9to5<\/em>, a movement that since 1973 has been fighting to empower women in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Still frame from Higgins, \u201c9 to 5\u201d (1980). <\/p>\n <\/figure>\n\n\n

As pointed out in this blog\u2019s previous post<\/a>, office buildings are not simply \u201cneutral shells\u201d for political and administrative activities. In the case of the film, they prove to be spaces for political action and women\u2019s liberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the boss has been kidnapped, the women \u2013 who in the first part of the film are shown struggling with the office design and rules \u2013 end up gradually appropriating the space by changing it in order to reflect the \u201cnew order\u201d and break away from gendered managerial practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, at first, personal items such as plants, pictures or any kind of office decor are not allowed because the office should not look cluttered or sloppy. As the floor supervisor proudly explains: \u201cAn office that looks efficient is efficient!\u201d In reaction, the first resolution of the \u201cnew administration\u201d is to allow all these personal objects to be seen. As they gain control of the office, the working space comes to reflect their own values and desires. In line with what Varda Wasserman (The Gendered Aesthetics of the Physical Environment<\/em>, 2019) has identified as women workers\u2019 need to appropriate the male-controlled and male-conceived office space, the employees in 9 to 5 turn it into a place of their own. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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