Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work

by Craig Gent

How technologies of organization are redrawing the lines of class struggle

All around us, algorithms are changing the nature of work, even of workers themselves. Nowhere is this clearer than in the logistics and distribution sectors, where workers are tracked, monitored and surveyed by increasingly dystopian management technologies. Yet, no one is sure what to do about it.

In The Politics of Algorithmic Management , based on seven years of original research, Craig Gent takes us deep into the dark underbelly of contemporary work, and asks how these new forms of workplace management affect the workers who bare its brunt.

Empirically rich, with testimony from workers at the coalface of this new world of work whilst riding for Deliveroo or picking for Amazon. And theoretically lucid, this book is a bold new conceptualisation of contemporary capitalism, and offers a guide for how workers may be able to crack the facade of algorithmic control and enact their own political agency in the workplace.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Technology, Labor

256 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2024

About the author

I write about the digital technology, technologies of information, and informational capitalism. I often do this through attention to 'work' as a social activity where the political and ethical stakes of screens, scan guns, algorithms, AI, etc can be worked out. Of course, I'm really interested in power, agency, justice.

Reviews

[Sarah Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blurb forthcoming! But: you want this one.

[Ursula · Rating 3 out of 5]

A super relevant read, especially now with AI creeping into more and more workplaces. One common mistake people make when using algorithms and AI is just letting them run the show unsupervised. Kind of like how our parents used to believe everything they saw on the internet was true.

The book dives into how using algorithms for management tasks can be both helpful and harmful. Sure, they can make some things more efficient, but they also strip a lot of the human element from the workplace, even for managers. Through real-life examples and interviews, especially with gig workers, Gent shows how these systems create an illusion of freedom while actually making work more isolating and controlled.

One of the big takeaways for me was that if workers want to fight back or push for better conditions, they really need to understand how these algorithm-driven systems work. Sometimes people find clever ways to game the system (like Gojek drivers using fake GPS!), but that only gets them so far. Without real supervision, and with algorithms calling the shots, a lot gets lost in connection, fairness, and even accountability. I assume that the loss of these factors would benefit corporations, which explains why they might want to erase them completely.

If I can be honest, this book is tiring… like reading a thesis. Interesting, but I get it if readers give up halfway through unless they are really passionate about the topic.

[Tom Fielden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately, it is an engaging, well-written and researched take on the rise of algorithmic management. The specific stories of real workers, their conditions, and their acts of struggle, are the most compelling and interesting aspects the book has to offer. I found the middle chapters more dense and packed with theory, which supplements the thinking of the book but ultimately ends up feeling like a literature review. It would also be good to have further real world stories and examples outside of Amazon and Deliveroo. If this is a a new site of labour-capital relations, are there broader examples we can look at (perhaps in sites where capital is less strong).

The book ends with hope a space of labour contestation and struggle outside unions. I believe the challenge is how these scale and take on a real collective nature. I'm not convinced that the book has answers for this. Without this answer algorithmic management becomes a risk to labour conditions and those who must sell their labour power to survive.

[Peter McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming from an industrial sociological perspective, this book offers a useful introduction to the understudied issue of algorithmic and data-driven management systems. Their increasing use is outlined alongside a broad overview of managerial developments (Taylorism etc.). Worker testimonies across an array of algorithmically-based settings provide unique insight into the pervasiveness of this frontier of control issue, whilst also providing lived experience resistance examples. These practical elements are particularly unique, aiding understanding of the contemporary labour process.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and enlightening by turns. Gent's personal opinions are rarely hidden but his interviews, if sparse, are well conducted. I found Cyberboss really helpful to understand not just how Uber / Amazon and other employers use and abuse their employees, but also how the work itself is changing under platform capitalism / technofeudalism.