The Staff Room Of Masters Home Improvement At Parkinson

This essay will describe, analyse and provide theoretical commentary for the staff room of Masters Home Improvement at Parkinson. Access and analysis of this consumer space was able to be conducted over a period of one month prior to the report being written, and is based on first hand experience as an employee of Masters. The essay will consider the space from a cultural anthropological view as it observes staff conduct and the motivations behind the behaviours. The report will then consider the semiotics of the space in regards to signs and symbols and how staff members respond to their impressions of these messages. Finally the essay will discuss critical theory and Marxism in relation to the political economy of the space (Brennan,†¦show more content†¦Staff use the space to relax away from customers and other work activities, and to discuss personal and work related themes with colleagues. As with most of society, it is commonplace to see staff members sitting in sile nce together as they utilise their time to check messages, etc., on their mobile phones (Slate, 2013). The space is made available to lower-level and management-level employees, however few managers choose to spend time in the space, preferring instead the administration office. As a result of the absence of managerial staff, most employees using the space see it as a safe environment to contribute to conversations surrounding personal dissatisfaction within the workplace and/or with other staff. It was observed that few management-level staff remained in the space after retrieving their lunch from the refrigerator. Of those who did stay, half chose to sit with other managers with the remainder choosing to sit with lower-level staff. When managers remained in the space (for whatever reason), conversation was muted and limited, however when no management was present in the space the conversation was louder and encompassed all aspects of work including dissatisfaction within the company. In light of this, it could be said that the concept of management became an object of consumption (Kleine Kernan, 1988; Baudrillard, 1996).