Work Hard - Play Hard

The movie depicts one particular strategy for maximizing performance on the job that happens to be en vogue, in particular for the management of highly qualified, privileged workforces: Tuning all aspects of the working environment in such a way as to provide surrogates for all aspects of private life. At work, people shall feel at home and like to be there, shall feel passionate about their work and like to do it, shall develop a team spirit to the point of feeling among friends at work, shall trust their superiors and HR to the point of openly discussing the most intimate aspects of the development of their personality with them, shall identify with the company to the point of founding their very self-concept on their company role and career perspectives.

Of course, for this concept to indeed maximize performance on the job, all aspects of making work seem like home and personal fulfilment need to have clear limits that, looking more closely, radically pervert the emotional concepts being exploited. You are supposed to feel at home, but never so much that you could ever relax completely - what kind of home is that? You are supposed to feel passionate about your work, but never so much that you ever follow your own, personal goals, rather the company goals have to direct all your efforts - what kind of passion is that? You are supposed to fully trust the company to optimally nurture your talents, personality, and career, knowing that they will drop you as soon as others prove more useful for them - what kind of trust is that? And so on and on...

These techniques are presented in a potpourri of supposedly documentary scenes so gross and glaring that the atmosphere of the movie regularly verges caricature - or rather, real-life satire, as there can be little doubt that such things do really happen.

Understanding the mechanisms at work, their means-end rationality and functionality as well as their inherent contradictions, is severely hampered by a tendency of the movie to dwell on the surface, in particular when showing long stretches of the typical new-speak management jargon that is regularly pronounced to obscure what is actually happening in a company, spreading a positive mood by making a lot of euphemistic words without actually saying anything at all. Besides, at least according to my taste, various scenes are quite long drawn-out, reducing artistic quality as well.

So i guess in the end, most spectators will be left in a state of diffuse indignation - "It's revolting how those management swine are manipulating and exploiting their staff!" - but the movie is so bewildering and confusing that few people will, right after seeing it, be able to quite understand the essence of the concepts shown. Let alone be able to come up with counter-strategies... What might be done about all this, and by whom, would be an interesting question that, unfortunately, the movie hardly even alludes to.

If you are interested in the consequences of modern human resource management techniques, you should probably go have a look at this one, but without expecting too much. In any case, don't expect any help for countering them.

Documentaries about the working environment is interesting, to see how the employees get the job, after they have concluded their study. Some of these stories would show the positive side, about how the most qualified people can move forward with their job. Other stories would show the negative side, about how the most qualified people get lost, when they do stuffs without understanding the reason they are acting for. The documentary filmmakers interview the employers, by asking them specific questions about how they qualify the employees to get active in the job. Some employers would give interesting answers to be convincing, by encouraging the employees as much as possible. Other employers would give unexpected answers to be completely pointless, without realizing they are not helpful for the employees. The filmmaker Carmen Lossman seems interested to release a documentary, which explores about the modern working environment. After a long time of research, in 2012 came out Work Hard - Play Hard by Carmen Lossman. The movie's plot: An exploration of the modern working environment, on how the employees feel about being active in the job, how the employers explain their process and the reason about when the employees do their job. The documentary seems to be interesting, by talking about the modern working environment. As the audience would be intrigued to see, if the working environment has more or less improved, through the years. Especially to see how some employees would be considered qualified enough for certain jobs, while others cannot be considered good enough with what they are getting asked for. Instead the movie does not get the point, about why some working environments are either good or bad. It does not even explain if through the years, there have been more or less improvements in the working environments. The camera shots some scenes without explaining, what is happening in some specific situations. As it is absolutely needed to let the audience understand, why certain moments are more or less pointless. The editing worked out well by briefly creating interesting moments, rather than with a longer time as it could be expected. Especially to see what the employers think about, when they interact with the employees. These technical aspects cannot justify the problems, which the movie has from the beginning to the end, as it would be considered boring and pointless. Especially for how the narration's rhythm does not get point, with some important arguments which could be explored, with important details to be explained. The score was elaborated with musical notes, to be not compatible with the specific moments of the movie. Work Hard - Play Hard is one of the worst documentaries, which does not explore enough about one of the most important topics.