This document discusses several topics related to non-safe-for-work (NSFW) content in the workplace, including: 1) How humor can benefit workplaces by increasing productivity and releasing tension, but personal social media posts while off sick still risk backlash from employers. 2) The dangers of using dating apps like Grindr at work, which could "out" private sexual preferences and endanger employees professionally or personally. 3) While some argue coworkers dating can increase stability, explicit sexual conduct at work like a professor displaying his erection was deeply inappropriate and distressed audiences. 4) Low-paid content moderation work policing social media for prohibited content like pornography or violence takes

1. N/SFW @
WORK
Ben Light
@doggyb
Connected Lives, Diverse
Realities Research Group
School of Health and
Society

2. Humour and the workplace
Sex and/as the workplace
Policing the digital at work
The dirty work of NSFW

3. Humor and the workplace
• If you make people laugh, they will
work harder for less money;
• if you make people laugh, they will buy
your product;
• and if you laugh, you will be more
effective
(Rodrigues and Collinson 1995).
• The ability to innovate, often
associated with productivity, is also
linked with humor’s capacity to release
tension and is considered a central
feature of “strong” corporate cultures
(Deal and Kennedy 1982).

4. Humor and the workplace
I was off [work] with depression and
bereavement, so I daren’t even put anything
happy or positive on, but then I don’t like
putting all miserable stuff on. Yeah. My
friend had taken me shopping and, in Asda,
she takes stupid photographs of me in Asda.
She found a packet of cock-flavoured soup;
it has a picture of a cockerel on the front,
which she made a post with it. So I’m like
that, with this cock-flavoured soup. So she
posted it on Facebook and I’m like “But I’m
supposed to be off sick with depression!”
So I were waiting for the backlash off that,
but no one ever said anything.
Light (2014: 107-108)

5. (Looking for)
Sex in the workplace
Browsing Grindr in a toilet at work, for
example, will allow anyone else to see and
communicate with that user’s profile. This
may “out” an otherwise private sexual
preference, which, in turn, may become
unsafe professionally, personally, or both.

6. (The benefits of)
Sex in the workplace
“We believe…that there are a
number of trends that suggest that
developing policies for married
couples working together is a good
thing…
Our analysis of demographic trends
shows more couples will be
geographically restricted, and this
may serve as a means to achieve
starting stability for the
firm.” (Mainiero 1989: 7)

7. “the mere public showing of his [Prof. Brindley’s] erection from the podium
was not sufficient. He paused, and seemed to ponder his next move. The sense
of drama in the room was palpable. He then said, with gravity, ‘I’d like to give
some of the audience the opportunity to confirm the degree of tumescence’.
With his pants at his knees, he waddled down the stairs, approaching (to their
horror) the urologists and their partners in the front row. As he approached
them, erection waggling before him, four or five of the women in the front rows
threw their arms up in the air, seemingly in unison, and screamed loudly. The
scientific merits of the presentation had been overwhelmed, for them, by the
novel and unusual mode of demonstrating the results.”
(Klotz 2005: 956-957)
(Talking about)
Sex in the workplace

8. (Doing)
Sex in the
workplace
(Images removed
because ethics -
search cock out a
work on Tumblr if you
are so inclined)

9. (Doing Sex) as the workplace
•Economical advertising
•Control of working environment and schedule
•Check out clients
•Easy entry into this form of work
•Information sharing - health, worker rights etc.
•Doxing and capping
•Decline in street trade
(Rekart 2006; Ray 2007; Feldman 2014; Reece 2015; Jones 2016; Ryan 2016)

10. Policing the digital at work
(before and beyond)
•Policy
•Terms of access
•Device usage
•Voice / Censorship
•Technical
Over the preceding decade, the use
of social media (in the US) to screen
candidates increased by 500%.
The top two pieces of information
that “turned off employers” were:
provocative or inappropriate
photographs, videos, or
information (46%) ;
information about candidate
drinking or using drugs (43%).

11. Outsourced and offshored , e.g. the
Philippines or Morocco pay as little as
one USD per hour (Chen 2012).
In 2014, over 100,000 people—that is,
about the same number of people
employed by social media companies for
other tasks at the time—were estimated
to moderate social media services, apps,
and cloud services (Chen 2014).
In addition to screening content flagged
by users, content moderators screen
posts for pornography, gore, violence,
racism, sexual solicitations, animal
torture, and sexual content concerning
minors.
The dirty work of NSFW

12. Not mentioned
…but it’s in the book! Forthcoming autumn 2018
with MIT Press
• Sexual harassment
• Safety studies
• Structures of work
• Physical environment of
work
• Porn work
• Edgy comedy work
• Expectations of concerned
with the performance of work
(e.g. Disneyland)
• Using NSFW content - sex/
humour to sell products and
services
• Having sex as part of
ethnographic work - a perk, a
necessity?
• Hacking of work emails
NB this work is based on a collaboration with Kylie Jarrett and Susanna Paasonen