Why did the concept of "office plankton" appear and what does it mean? Office plankton (attention! there is profanity).

Western Marxists have long, since about the 60s of the last century, started talking about the "office proletariat" and the "white collar revolution". Attention was drawn to the fact that this "office proletariat" plays a role in the "information society" similar to the role of the "industrial proletariat" in an industrial society. However, no white-collar revolution took place in the West, just as there was no “ordinary” revolution, so all the dreams of Western Marxists remain dreams.

In my opinion, we are again let down by the habit of thinking of Russia as "the West, only worse." Our "office plankton" is something fundamentally different than the Western "office proletariat", at least in terms of the situation in which it finds itself.

Let's not delve into the jungle of theories of the "information society", in which, supposedly, some kind of "knowledge production", etc. comes to the fore. etc. Let's make it easier. What is "office plankton"? This - a set of people who are elements of various management systems. Together, these systems govern the entire economy of the country, the national economy.

Please note: not all people engaged in "mental work" can be included in the "office plankton". Let's say a doctor is a representative of the intelligentsia. But when a graduate of the medical institute, having suffered for several years in an internship, spits on everything and gets a job as a sales manager for medications, he goes into the “office plankton” stratum. Similarly: production engineers are the intelligentsia, and system administrators are “office plankton”. Police officers and private security guards. Writers and journalists. Classical: scientists and teachers - and employees of the administration of scientific and educational institutions, all those chair secretaries, and so on. etc.

So: the intelligentsia is engaged, roughly speaking, in solving intellectual problems. "Office Plankton" performs the function of a gear, a drive belt in the control system. Bailiffs plus attendants - that's what it really is.

What properties most strongly distinguish "office plankton" from others social groups? Education? Yes, the majority of “office boys and girls” have higher education, but it is clearly inferior in quality to the education of the intelligentsia. Mobility? It is unlikely. Many representatives of the Saratov "plankton" dream of "dumping to Moscow", but these dreams remain dreams, but hard workers and villagers go to work in the capital or "to the north" every year. So the working class in terms of mobility, in my opinion, will give the "plankton" a few points ahead.

The main thing that distinguishes "office plankton" from the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia is its information connectivity. The reason is simple: firstly, it is among office workers most have regular and virtually free Internet access. Secondly, work with information and communication is the main professional function"office plankton"!

The dissemination of information on the Web has a number of features compared to both traditional media and “personal communication” in real life. Much has been written about the media, we will not repeat it. But if compared with interpersonal communication, then the amazing speed of information dissemination is striking, due to the fact that:

Network secondary communication (a message caused by another, primary message) is carried out at a lower cost than in real life (roughly speaking, reposting an important message in your LiveJournal that ten of your friends will read is much faster and easier than calling the same ten friends on the phone and telling everyone about everything)

With secondary communication on the Web the original message is much less distorted than in real life (i.e., there is less “effect of a damaged phone”), which is understandable: on the Internet it is easier to copy text than to state it “in your own words”, and it’s not difficult to find the “source” from the links

Thus, “office plankton” immersed in the Internet and able to use it has a colossal connectedness: an event that happened on the other side of the country not only instantly becomes known, but also witnesses, “people who are in the know”, etc. are easily found. etc.

This is not at all about the fact that the “office plankton” is homogeneous in terms of interpreting events, not at all. It is precisely in the interpretation that he is rich: everyone seeks to “make his own contribution”, to offer some idea, “which others have not thought of”. But here the general "agenda" for "plankton" is formed instantly despite great distances.

So, we have determined what “office plankton” is (a set of elements of management systems various structures, from a small firm to Gazprom) and what is its main property that distinguishes it from other social groups (information connectivity). Let's now try to understand why its role in political processes is increasing, while the role of the "classical" protest layers (the proletariat and the intelligentsia) is decreasing. Is it just the Internet?

Let's remember what classical Marxism said about the proletariat. "The bourgeoisie creates its own gravedigger." Why? Yes, because capital benefits from larger, machine production, and for such production a proletariat is needed. It is from the labor of the proletariat that the bourgeoisie extracts surplus value. But that was at the end of the century before last! And now in Russia?

The regime that was established in our country after 1991 capitalism is simply incorrect to call because there is no capital growth in the country. On the contrary, capital "leaks" from the country to the West or is simply destroyed. This applies to the remnants of the Soviet industrial potential, and to energy carriers (they are also capital), and to “ human capital" ("brain drain").

That is "classic" protest classes - the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia - the regime simply does not need: he is not going to extract any "surplus value" from them. They are “superfluous” and should simply disappear (to sleep and die, go abroad, move to another stratum). It’s not that they are being deliberately destroyed, it’s just that their fate does not bother those who are now in power.

But "office plankton" the regime needs. He, as I wrote above, is an essential element of the economic management system. That is, in our conditions, systems for the destruction of a country and a people in order to benefit a group of individuals.

Does this mean that the "office planton" is some kind of evil? Of course no. But he performs the function that Evil needs, about this Evil serves. And therefore, Evil is forced to create it and even develop it to some extent, just as the classical Marxist bourgeoisie is forced to develop the proletariat. I repeat, we are talking about our specific Russian situation.

Does the "office plankton" have any interests of their own and what are they?

Of course, office workers, like everyone else, want to "live well." As rightly noted Morky , at the moment for this group of the population the “housing problem” is critical. But is this the only thing? It must be clearly understood that a significant part of the “office plankton” is made up of former representatives of the intelligentsia (those same doctors who have retrained as sales managers, physicists who have become system administrators, philologists who write advertising articles, etc.). They may be quite happy with their salaries, but experience a feeling of "moral dissatisfaction"(not for this they studied, defended their diplomas and dissertations). At the same time, no “stability” will help: a physicist can become a system administrator, but a system administrator can return to scientific work after a ten-year hiatus, no more.

So, we have at least two factors that can push the "office plankton" to go over to the side of the opposition: the "housing problem" and "moral dissatisfaction." But there is one more thing. This class is currently in the process of self-realization. Information connectivity contributes to this. And, realizing themselves and their place in the system, "office plankton" can question not only their function, but function of the system itself of which he is a part and servant. Roughly speaking, the tool can get out of control.

How will it look like? What can serve as a catalyst for this? So far, there are simply no answers to these questions. One thing is clear: the process of structuring the "office plankton" will take place not according to the "economic" principle (who has a higher salary), but according to degree of awareness of their role in modern Russian society . Some will agree with this role of “servants of Evil” (more precisely, they will not care, they will not achieve “realization”), others will not. And these "dissenters" will form the "information backbone" of the new Russian resistance.

Finally, I would like to recall the old story about "dvoreg". This - small example of how “information connectivity” can work in a situation of spontaneous self-organization of “office plankton”.

Where even high school students fumble for fewer new employees, the concept of "office plankton" is used for the first time. In the world, masses of clerks are called office pawns, monkeys and broilers, the Russian language has chosen a more derogatory term

Pure city ​​work- that is, not production - used to take place in "offices". The authorities sat in separate offices (management - and with reception rooms), and ordinary employees - in almost the same, but several people and even many. Now, in large corporations, top managers occupy apartments similar to Soviet ones, but richer: wood-leather-bronze. Office plankton lives in the water area open space. Rows of light-gray tables are fenced off with workspaces for a computer and a head buried in it. Bright personality cell attached to a personal mug with cool picture, a couple of souvenir knick-knacks, a couple of private photographs, and a personal mouse pad. An ordinary capitalist will collect this belongings in half a minute in order to move along the service horizontal or vertical to enrich his resume with a new line. And the cell will be occupied by another tenant drywall walls a prestigious loft - some former Red Weaver factory.

The monotonous space of the office hall is broken up by nooks and crannies for middle staff and meeting rooms, usually made of glass with blinds. The flow of time is diversified by planning meetings (what to do?), meetings (how is it done?) and reports (what is done?). Office leisure consists of trips for tea (many offices with kitchens), lunches, smoke breaks and correspondence with neighbors on ICQ. From about 4 p.m., when urgent work is done, and the bosses tend to leave for business meetings, in Russia in the 2000s, the peak of Internet use comes - and what, overpay for home traffic? The leader of visits to the site "Behind the Glass" was the server of the "United Energy Systems"; according to a social survey, 90% of office workers admitted using the work Internet for personal purposes, insisting - "no more than half an hour a day." An in-depth analysis showed that up to three hours can only be spent on dating sites.

The key figure in the internal office life is HR, HR (human resources). The personnel officer-demiurge draws up the cherished stages of a career: "from the position of a purchasing manager to move to the position of a senior sales manager." She also gives social package”: a card for fitness and / or a pool, a SIM card with a corporate number and medical insurance. Through HR, the directorate sets a dress code - according to especially draconian rules, not only jeans and T-shirts are prohibited, but also translucent blouses of employees and non-black shoes - for everyone. Conductor service culture, HR arranges corporate team-buildings - non-work activities designed to rally the team spirit, such as out-of-town barbecue games, paintball, bowling and mini-football. It is necessary to relieve the tension of eventlessness and hierarchy! In a self-respecting office, a New Year's banquet is obligatory, shameful miserliness - to spend it "at the workplace", setting up tables in the lobby. In all seriousness, the corporate anthems of native companies are composed:

Where you pass through Russia, -
Your branches rise there...

Manager - "manager" (literal reading of manager) is now the same massively faceless profession as an engineer used to be. The office looks more like a research institute than a Soviet administrative institution. The same non-obvious results of activity individual worker, self-made career growth (then: junior researcher - senior - head of sector - head of department). The current achievement of the status of marketing director roughly corresponds to the defense of the candidate. Passion for "training" - before "courses", now "trainings". The melancholy of everyday life and the passion for collective leisure, only the skits and kayaks, archaic for the 21st century, have changed. And, of course, office romances: it's so exciting - a chance meeting at the cooler.

Phenomena mentioned in the text

Internet 1997

The Russian-language Internet in the spring receives the nickname "Runet". In autumn, the most popular national search system and Yandex mail server. The virtual homeland is rapidly acquiring all other infrastructure, and since the end of the decade, more will run in Russia than the Internet

"ICQ" 1998

Created two years earlier, the ICQ Internet pager receives worldwide recognition, and in Russia it is also nicknamed "ICQ"

"Behind the glass" 2001

On the night of October 27-28, the updated TV-6 channel launches the Behind the Glass project for 35 days. The first Russian reality show is a huge success on the spot, on the air, on the Internet and is angrily condemned by the zealots of morality

Fitness 2002

"High physical education" is part of the lifestyle of the new middle class in Russian megacities. Maintenance physical form, useful leisure, confirmation of status, communication with their own kind and a coach - and how have you managed without fitness so far?

“You are lucky, you are not like everyone else - you work in an office…”

Sergei Shnurov. Group "Leningrad".

Office plankton - what is it and what does it eat with.

Office plankton, clerical or office rat - similar terms have long entered our lives and brought some new vision to the image of an office worker.

Do you work in an office from nine to six? So you are plankton, part of a faceless gray mass. This erroneous stereotype is characteristic of most people who are not directly related to office life. Not every office employee belongs to the category of office plankton.

Who is this office plankton!?

Naked from a five-year sitting ass,

strong as washbasins,

are still living

quieter than water.

Cozy offices and bedrooms were built.

— Mayakovsky on plankton

Along the Lukomorye: Office plankton(aka "office trash", "stationery rat", etc.) - workers mental labor with a reduced creative component, spending their lives in offices and other departments, but not classified as engineers: lower managers, accountants, secretaries, etc.

My opinion is that the emphasis should be placed precisely on PLANKTON, and this can apply not only to office employees, but to all kinds of activities in factories, factories and shops. Well, why don’t you have “plankton” Uncle Vasya, who goes to the factory every day and dumps all the work on the young. But all this, I mean, the very expression "Office worker" began to acquire the wrong, negative connotation. Plankton is a certain category of employees who sit out work time from nine to six, from Monday to Friday, just to get paid and make it to retirement. In general, they drift with the flow in the office ocean. The saddest thing is that here you can observe the Pareto Law in action: 80% of the work is done by 20% of employees. Accordingly, the remaining 80% of employees are predominantly office plankton, for which there is not much work left.

How to recognize office plankton:

Danger to the personal "I".

... a gloomy gray multi-storey building, crammed full of dead souls, briskly tapping on the keys of countless computers, unfortunate creatures condemned to eternal hellish boredom from dull, monotonous, meaningless work, only occasionally interrupted by short breaks, during which you can exchange a couple of words with your neighbors or hear a new obscene anecdote ...

— Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley, "If you're out of luck with Faust"

If you do not have a specific goal and do not engage in self-development, turning into plankton is a matter of time. The beginning of the process is easy to notice by external signs:

You are promising and talented, but still at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. And you are sure that this is absolutely not your fault, the whole point is that you are too young or have recently joined the organization, a couple of years ago. After all, others sit longer ...

If such thinking began to form in your head, it's time to start acting. Do anything, otherwise the harmful planktonism virus will get to the vital organs and you will begin a long and sure path to degradation.

What dangers are fraught with planktonic existence.

Plankton are not born - they are made! And this happens by no means by the will of fate, but solely because of the internal predisposition of a person to an aimless existence. Such ballast is dangerous for the company, and therefore for you. With staff reductions, which is now not uncommon in Russia, under the fashionable name "Reorganization", plankton leaves first! More precisely, "he is leaving." Ultimately, companies need employees who are willing to take responsibility. Amoeba here in flight.

Let's say you don't face layoffs, and you continue to work in your usual manner: from coffee to coffee, in between browser games and entertainment sites. This, my friends, is the beginning of the oppression of one's own "I".

"The pursuit of excellence is inherent in human nature" - Thomas Frey (Founder of the Da Vinci Institute).

Maintaining such an extraordinary existence destroys from the nutria and leads directly to prolonged depression. It is especially easy to get it with such a senseless waste, not only of your own career, but of life in general.

“It was not me who was given fifteen days.

They gave us fifteen days!”

From the movie “Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures”

The most difficult thing and where to start is simply to get away from the gray-mass “we” to the individual “I”. With collective responsibility for work, you will not learn anything. Plankton is not responsible for anything. If you are assigned to curate or develop a new project, never refuse. All this can be the first step in career growth. Take responsibility for what you do, don't be afraid to knock on the doors of your superiors with new ideas.

"Life is not fair. The world doesn't care about your self-respect. The world expects you to achieve perfection in something before you are completely satisfied with yourself.”

Bill Gates

Don't be afraid to ask if you don't know something. Those who pretend to be experts, while remaining illiterate specialists in the lower echelon of the company, look much more stupid. Read, not stupid jokes and entertainment magazines, but what can help you in self-development. Make a selection of blogs of people who are knowledgeable about the issues you are interested in and subscribe to them, this will help you save you a lot of time. Search forums and resources on your topic. Always be aware latest news in your activity. Do not neglect English-language sources.

Specialists in their fields, as a rule, did not teach at the institute what they actually do in their working days. All knowledge comes with experience and hard daily work. Your brain deserves the same training as your body. Do you go to fitness? If not, then in gym you can sign up. This will save you from degradation and wallowing on the couch in the evenings. The TV, by the way, can be thrown away. Spend this time reading a book, jogging, or preparing healthy meals.

- Have you betrayed your dream?

- Not. Dream changed!

k / f. "Queen of the Gas Station"

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to find an interesting job the first time. Often, daily activities do not coincide with the cherished dream. But this is not a reason to turn into plankton. Get everything that the company can and cannot give you from working for the company. Get better in your industry. Do it for yourself first. By the way, your superiors will definitely notice this. The straightened shoulders stand out very strongly against the background of the oppressed-hunched mass. Who knows, maybe this is where your career growth or your own business will begin.

Finding office plankton today is quite easy.

Any small office or a huge company is crammed with offices or open spaces with translucent partitions. Everywhere tables with computers and nearby chairs with people sitting on them. The constant tapping of fingers on the keyboard, or the sound of the mouse wheel moving up and down. The serious look of these people, staring at the screens of their monitors, reflects on their faces something like a complex calculation. algebraic equation. V general concentration - against the background of total idleness.

Term office plankton implies by itself - groups of workers associated with intellectual work, which does not involve creative manifestation. It is also a category of people conducting most of their lives in offices, most often just sitting out working hours, eight hours a day, Monday through Friday, paycheck to paycheck.

Although, you can not go into the office to see the so-called clerks. It is enough to go out into the street between eight and nine in the morning, to stand at the intersection, which during this period of time literally comes to life with hurrying, half-awake pedestrians, as well as multi-colored middle-class cars crowding on the roads. Most likely, at any other time of the day, this very intersection does not represent any mess, whether it’s morning, rush hour.

In the morning, all these machine-people run to work, and most, large majority of them, erasing tires and heels on the asphalt, rushes to the office. They need an office.

History mirror repeats itself in the evening. Approximately from 17:30 to 18:30. If you go to the same intersection, you will see the same people striving for reverse direction- from work - home, to their tiny rent or mortgage cells, on their shiny compact cars, borrowed.

Office plankton or office workers – this concept appeared in Russia in the nineties, when the country was beginning to make the transition to market economy. Currently, more than one third of the population of our country, that is, about 40-45 million citizens, is employed in office structures. By itself, the definition of plankton in short time entered the vocabulary, and if at first it had an unemotional coloring, then later it began to be identified under the minus sign.

And the whole point is that office plankton it is customary to compare it with a faceless gray mass that lives according to the principle - home, work, gym, credit, mortgage, family, children, vacation every six months, home, work again. And so on until retirement or death.

Many do not even think that there is a way out of this vicious circle, but the saddest thing is that most people simply do not need this very way out. office plankton tends to to stability, and this is probably key concept in his vocabulary.

What is meant in this case under stability, the answer is simple - just read the description of any open vacancy on a job search site. As a rule, plankton is led on such conditions as registration according to the Labor Code, a stable white salary, good team, comfortable workplace, meals at the expense of the company, plus sometimes the provision by the organization of the opportunity to visit the gym on favorable terms for employees.

On the one hand, everything looks even chic. Go to work according to the schedule - perform the actions required of you and get paid for it. On the other hand, do it only as it was originally prescribed - from 9:00 to 18:00, five days a week. If you do your work earlier, you still sit until the end of the day, because that's how it works system. The bottom line is that office plankton cannot go against this system, they don’t know how and don’t even want to.

And what actually happens? And the fact that employees working in the office, as a rule, do really simple work, do not like to take on additional tasks, hide behind constant employment, concentration, and a serious look. So stability turns into closedness from development, and as a result - v degradation.

Everyday life boils down to having a fun working day on the Internet, chatting with colleagues or friends online. in social networks, read articles on the Internet that have nothing to do with the activity, and quite casually engage in the direct fulfillment of the duties assigned to you by the company.

A separate topic for office workers is Friday - the time to mark the end of an exhausting week. At the end of the month, plankton, with bated breath, waits for news of a salary increase or dreams of a bonus, simply because he gets up every morning for work and spends the whole day on it.

As a rule, such workers receive an average salary, they always hope for its increase, while most of them do not take any action to develop and improve their working skills, and in which case they always strive to change one office for another - analog, where they supposedly pay more .

Based on average statistics, we can say that office clerks change jobs about once every three years, most often for the sake of increasing earnings and moving up the career ladder. In fact, a clear change concerns only the chair and table at which the person sits, but he also continues only imitate stormy work activity.

Why office plankton is good for companies so it is with its systemic slavish thinking. Such employees are easily vulnerable and manageable. They always have something to punish or fire, because they themselves dig a hole for themselves - attacks on the Internet during working hours, negligent performance of duties and absolute inertia. They are inert in the sense that Search new work in the case of the cherished stability on the existing one, it causes a latent rejection- it is difficult to switch even to a new "chair" in almost the same office. That is why such a mass - nothing more than gray - is quite easy to manage.

Obviously, of course, and how unprofitable plankton companies. In fact, this is 80% of average-capable personnel performing some specific actions entrusted to them at the same average level. That is, people who are not responsible for the global operations that take place in the company, easily replaceable and excluded "puzzles".

Due to the bloat of teams, the owners of such organizations often spend excessively on maintenance of office plankton. Here are the notorious computer tables with chairs, and renting large rooms where they are all located, and paying for electricity, the Internet, and taxes for white wages, vacations, sick days, corporate parties, in general - impressive expenses.

Why do we need mediocre workers, but in such numbers, basically, in vain sitting out working time for today's companies?

Based on some observations, it can be said that office plankton no matter how useless it may seem, performs still duties entrusted to him, though without enthusiasm, but works to get their cherished banknotes.

As for bloated organizations, the accumulation of clerks in them most often occurs because the company does not imply a clear division of responsibilities among its employees, and also does not have the ability to reliably assess the quality of the activities being implemented. That is, roughly speaking, big number office workers can be seen where traced the inability of the authorities to distribute responsibilities among employees.

Based on this, we can say that the formation of office plankton occurred due to the fact that they themselves employers do not clearly know what they want from their subordinates, and therefore inflate the state.

With cuts in such companies, the business, as a rule, does not suffer at all., because it turns out that most of the laid-off workers did not do anything really important. But directly for plankton, this topic is, of course, very painful. Downsizing for an office person is something akin to an explosion atomic bomb- "I'll have to look for new office, new stability, a new "chair", paying a mortgage, repaying a loan, and so on.

The problem is that people themselves, who are considered to be office plankton, are looking for stability in a world that is changing every second, entrusting their own life system so selflessly that they completely forget about what they really want, about their vocation and true goals.

It turns out that much it's easier to become a gray mouse of the system, to sit out the time according to the schedule in the office “cage”, imitate an active life outside of it, get up on an alarm clock, rush in a meaningless stream in the subway, than throw it all away and find something in yourself that is really important and valuable.

Today being an office plankton means living on schedule built by the system. Compromise for the sake of stability or choose something that captures and really fascinates - everyone's personal choice. If you still do not understand what kind of people are office plankton, then just go to the subway at 8:50 am or 5:50 pm and look at the people around you.

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Related comments

Yakushev Danil 10/18/2013 at 20:22

I also relate, so to speak, to office plankton. Working according to the regime does not bother me at all, because I simply can’t work in another way, depression sets in and I don’t have time to do anything. I tried myself both in work at home and in a shift schedule - my whole life goes upside down: you relax - others work, or vice versa. Working from home is a complete nightmare, I can’t organize myself, I don’t feel the time at all. The most important thing is to love your job (what you do), strive for career growth, higher wages, respect for colleagues, etc., then any routine work will be a joy. For example, I have a cheerful and friendly team, we constantly arrange themed holidays, we hold competitions, while all this is encouraged by our superiors. Our life is such that already from birth we are brought up in a regime, to live according to the schedule, in society - this is given to us from childhood. For me, the main thing is that in the evening my beloved family and children are waiting for me at home, and on weekends there are meetings with my beloved friends!

Aleksandra 18.10.2013 at 22:39

By the nature of work, I consider myself an office plankton. I can't say that I don't agree with this article. I want to say a few words about the "imitation of violent work activity." We often have to work 12 hours a day instead of the planned eight, as the employer seeks to ensure that minimum number workers performed the maximum volume of tasks. It often happens that it's not that. that it is not possible to communicate with colleagues, and there is simply no time to go to the toilet or drink a glass of water. Internet access is also strictly limited in our office. Our administrator has the ability to control which sites a person visits during working hours. In addition, each employee is allocated a limit in megabytes for the Internet. Also, regarding the company. in which I work, the director clearly sets goals and requires their maximum achievement. But our team is extremely happy that they have the opportunity to work in this company. Guaranteed social package, holidays and salary, depending on the ability of each employee to work, encourages you to work perfectly. Personally, I am proud to work for this company.

Juli 10/19/2013 at 10:32 am

Regrettably, but after reading the article, I realized that I am an office plankton ... And all my employees, apparently, too. That's right. We are really a gray mass of our companies. They came in the morning, buried themselves in their computers, and so on until the evening. No talking, no discussion. I have been working in the company for more than a year, there are 20 people in the office, and I don’t know everyone by name! Where are we rolling? That's right, everyone is on social media. Because, there you can speak to everyone and about everything, but with your colleagues only about work. There is practically no live communication. All amorphous, lack of initiative, boring. I'm not sure that everyone right here is "burning" at work, indeed, they stupidly fulfill their immediate duties. And rarely anyone seeks to grow in career terms. Not a single attempt in a year! And we are quite satisfied with the leadership. The thing is being done. Albeit slowly, but in the right direction, without rush and fuss. It somehow became disgusting. So life will pass: home-work-shop-home ... And so every day. No, you need to change something, you can’t live like that!

Varvara 10/20/2013 at 22:20

the main idea the author - how embarrassing and shameful to be an office worker! Office workers are presented as one, boring, gray mass who only want to receive a big salary and do nothing. I also consider myself an office plankton and I can say that this article is not about me. Yes, indeed, I have a stable working day from 9 to 6. Firstly, I don’t see anything wrong with this: it’s better than working overtime, at night, in different shifts, etc. Second, if I have free time, I spend it on self-development: I study English language or read literature. At home I don't have time for this: I have two children. My team consists of people, mostly versatile, almost all of them are fond of something, have hobbies. We share impressions with each other, tell something interesting, and have intellectual disputes. We are not interested in gossip and talk at the level of the yellow press. In addition, I love my job and I constantly have to learn something new, to study new software products. That is, the brain, as they say, "does not dry out." In general, stability in life is more important for me than throwing from one extreme to another.

Oleg 10/20/2013 at 23:08

And what's wrong with being an office plankton? It's just that everything is presented here so that people do nothing. Cut it in half and the firm won't suffer. It may be so, but I do not consider myself to be part of this gray mass and I believe that by losing me, the company will lose something. Therefore, I have a decent income and appreciate me.
In addition, currently not developed, say, remote work. Many of these plankton need a constant kick. If you don't kick, it won't fly. In principle, my opinion is that such people should not be kept at work. But the question of personnel lies with every leader.
Someone is simply not ready or cannot pay everyone high salary, and therefore manages with what is.
However, there are people who come out of this state, but not so many. Someone opens their own business, someone successfully invests, which is also a kind of business. Another issue is that not everyone can do it.
I see this as the fault of the system and education itself. We are taught from childhood that stability is good, that we should find a specialty for ourselves and become a professional there.
Where is it to become an independent person?

Zinoviev Vitaly 10/21/2013 at 10:14 am

Why did you sum up all office workers with the same brush? I have been working among, as you say, "plankton" for the fourth year. Yes, there are people out of work and looking forward to Friday, whom the management does not trust anything serious. But the majority are professionals in their field, who bring good results with their achievements. The management values ​​them, stimulates them with bonuses and fees. And believe me that it is not necessary to become the head of a department or regularly go on business trips abroad, it is important to love your job, for the fact that it brings satisfaction, for the fact that you are valued, listen to your opinion and respect. I am not plankton, I value my work not for light labor but for stability, confidence in the future. And why are you talking about it with such disdain. For the well-being of the family and the future of children, in my opinion, this is important. Then you will be sure that you will be able to pay for the education of children, medical care and much more.

Alina 10/21/2013 at 11:38

Once again I was convinced that I am not the only one who has such thoughts. Office plankton is indeed a rather negative phenomenon in the labor market. Especially because the process of work dominates there, and not the result. And even an active employee in such a system quickly loses motivation. So people sit out for 8-9 hours, falling asleep from boredom. I respect office workers for whom the result is important, who really work throughout the working day, having completed the work ahead of schedule, can be free, and from wage corresponds to the results of the work performed. As for stability, in our country I would not use this word at all. You just need to live, work and develop, commensurate with the possibilities and needs, since caring for a "foggy stable future" can turn into a loss of the meaning of life in the present. There is nothing better than realizing your own freedom, when you understand that at any moment you can take on more work for more pay or slow down a little for the purpose of some rest.

OMAG 21.10.2013 at 13:33

Remember the movie Office Romance? So, office plankton existed in Soviet times. And it appeared much earlier than the nineties. Only then people communicated more with each other. Today, of course, we sit more in offices and communicate on the Internet. For example, I have done my main work and read useful articles. I'm self-taught, so to speak. And I don't see anything wrong with that. And I'm sure all my colleagues do the same. And what's wrong with stability? Many only dream about it! And about systemic slave thinking, I do not agree. Everything depends on the leadership. If the boss is a despot, then it is unlikely that you can fix it. We have a very good boss. Maybe just lucky. He himself offers to arrange corporate events, and on Fridays we have gatherings at the end of the working day. So, office plankton is not at all a gray mass. You can also find your advantages in routine office work, there would be a desire to diversify life yourself!

Rodion 10/22/2013 at 04:50

By the way, I consider myself quite a suitable employee for the term "office plankton" and I do not take offense at this. Yes, we sit at work from 9 to 6, wait for Fridays, often sit on the Internet, but this does not mean that my work is useless and unnecessary. The term itself does not seem offensive to me, it’s just that everywhere there are uninitiated and lazy people who only sit through the working day from call to call and quickly go home to TV.
But on the other hand, there is some kind of stability, uniformity in life, and this generally suits me. Not everyone needs to make some kind of discovery and strive into space, for example, someone needs to work in the office.
And by the way, the article is offensive, the car considers everyone a gray mass who work without due enthusiasm, but this is not true. Of course, there are enough such people, even in my company, but, I repeat, one cannot equalize everyone. For example, I have been working in my company for 15 years, of course, sometimes it gets boring and the routine gets stuck, I want something new and interesting, but on the other hand, I have a stable salary, confidence in tomorrow and I look to the future with optimism. So I think the conclusions from this article are too general.

Disparaging expression "office plankton" has long been firmly established in our lexicon. Do you work in an office from nine to six? So you are plankton, part of a faceless gray mass. But in fact, not every office employee belongs to the category of office plankton.

To determine what type of workers can be attributed to office plankton, let's turn to the concept of plankton in biology. Plankton- this is a collection of heterogeneous small organisms that are unable to resist the flow and therefore drift freely in the water column.

This is a category of employees who serve their working hours from nine to six, from Monday to Friday, just to get paid and make it to retirement. In general, they drift with the flow in the office ocean. Sometimes office plankton even work - in between tea parties, smoke breaks, playing solitaire and reading entertainment sites.

For the most part, such workers do not have subordinates, they do not perform the most important and urgent work and receive not particularly high wages, which allows them to neglect their work duties without remorse. Pareto's law in action A: 80% of the work is done by 20% of the employees. Accordingly, the remaining 80% of employees are predominantly office plankton, for which there is not much work left.

Office plankton is not always recognizable at first sight: such workers are very fond of imitation of violent activity, giving the appearance of work. They go from office to office with documents and folders in their hands, fill up their desktop with them, look at the solitaire game "Klondike" as seriously as if it were an annual financial report, and periodically sigh, as if complaining about the back-breaking work that has fallen on them.

Of course, it cannot be said that office plankton does not work at all: they value their calm and dust-free work too much to openly do nothing. They're just trying not to push themselves too hard.. Many of them are in good standing with their superiors - also due to the ability to present their achievements in a favorable light, even if there seems to be nothing to represent.

Is office plankton dangerous for a company? At first glance, no. There are such people in almost every company (with the exception, perhaps, of the smallest ones). They do not seek promotion, do not try to actively fight for their rights. True, they do not work too hard, but the work entrusted to them is not so important and urgent that its untimely or poor quality performance could bring some damage to the company.

But let's look at office plankton from the point of view consumption of company resources. Each employee is an expense item for the company: salary, vacation pay, sick leave and benefits. In addition, workers use the telephone, the Internet, electricity, office equipment and consumables… The list goes on and on and the employer pays for it all. By reducing the number of office plankton, you can reduce the cost of it - and the company's profit will not decrease, because the office plankton did practically nothing anyway.

What are employers doing to get rid of office plankton? Most often, office plankton "nests" in those companies where there is no clear distribution of duties and responsibilities, clear criteria for evaluating the work performed. Unambiguously allocating responsibilities and introducing transparent evaluation criteria professional activity, it is possible to identify those workers who do practically nothing, and receive a salary for this.

The employer then determines How many people does he need to complete his daily workload?, and the "ballast" ruthlessly dismisses, either reducing the staff, or recruiting candidates who are really interested in the work instead of plankton.

But there is no need to blame office plankton for all troubles: most often it is not a cause, but a consequence. Most office plankton in those companies where bosses don't know how to allocate responsibilities and load employees really important and interesting work to motivate them to professional activity.

If each of us had the opportunity to find an interesting and exciting job according to our vocation, then there would be less office plankton. Let's hope that someday everyone will have such an opportunity, but for now - it is in our power to do everything possible so as not to turn into an amoeba, living from solitaire to smoke break.