You are on page 1of 5

Peer Coworker Stereotypes Go Unquestioned in "The End"

Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris is a novel about peer coworker relationships after the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000's. This paper will use Ferris' novel and critical theory as a framework to examine how peer coworker relationships evolve using the premise: peer coworker narratives promote socially constructed stereotypes that become natural and unquestioned by both supervisors and subordinates. Critical theory, which is based in the social construction theory, exams organizational power by focusing on the "relationships between communication, power and meaning" (Mumby, 2001, p.595). The four defining themes of critical theory include reification, suppression of individual interests in favor of managerial goals, the dominance of technical rationality as the primary form of organizational reasoning and consent (Deetz, 2005, p. 95-97). These themes will serve as the basis for our exploration. Reification, the first theme, is the process by which socially constructed stereotypes become natural and unquestioned by coworkers. Using the reification process, we will examine how peer coworker interaction through narrative discourse "type casts" or creates stereotypes of individual employees. The second theme is the universalization of managerial interests. This theme is defined as the suppression of individual interest in favor of managerial goals. Critical theory explores how this concept marginalizes subordinate employees. Universalization will contribute to the analysis of Ferris novel by aiding our understanding of how an office environment can create problematic peer relationships. The third theme is the dominance of technical rationality. Technical rationality is the process of reasoning that is only concerned with efficiency and the outcomes. It is this "means-end control" that has marginalized other forms of reasoning such as empathy, intuition and understanding making them appear irrational. Technical rationality will illustrate what happens when socially constructed stereotypes and suppression of individual employee interests combine in and office environment. Consent, the final theme, is the process by which employees agree to be controlled in unobtrusive ways. Due to "deeply rooted assumptions of formal rank and power," employees consent to abuse unknowingly. The theme of consent will provide clarification around why coworkers assent to peer assumptions that have been reified, universalized and technically rationalized. Then We Came To The End is set in an advertising agency right after the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000's. Ferris uses a third person narrator to describe the stories. The narrator takes on the persona of the collective group as events in the story occur. Being in marketing and advertising and having just experienced the mortgage crisis, Then We Came To The End was a very natural novel selection. In addition, the main themes of critical theory provide the perfect analysis tool to understand how narrative discourse allows organizations to twist facts by marginalizing individuals through technical rationalization, thus creating new socially constructed realities. These new realities are unquestioned by employees to the point that they even consent to respond to them in ways that further management goals. The relationship we are going to explore in Then We Came To An End is the relationship between Tom Moto, an employee of an advertising agency which is also the setting of the novel, and his coworkers. Tom's peer coworkers are Benny, Marcia, Karen, Hank, Janine, Chris, and Carl. A partner in the agency and day to day manager is Lynne and the teams supervisor is Joe. Ferris introduces all of the characters in the novel through short narratives. Readers first engage with Tom

as they learn about his company polo. The shirts were given to everyone during the "golden years". After a bitter divorce and to the puzzlement of his coworkers, Tom resumes wearing his several years later. When Tom wears the shirt every day for a month his peers realize that it is the beginning of Tom's "campaign of agitation" with their company. "You ever going to change out of it?" asked Benny. "I love this shirt. I want to be buried in it." "Would you take mine, at least, so that you can switch off? "I would love that!" said Tom (Ferris, 2007, p. 10). However, Tom didn't switch off with Benny's polo. Instead he wore Benny's on top of his own. In fact he solicited all of his team members for their cast off company polo shirts and proceeded to wear them all every day one on top of the other. Sometimes he would wear a green one on top, sometimes the red or blue one. "Lynne Mason's starting to ask questions," said Benny. "Company pride," said Tom. "But three at a time?" "You don't know what's in my heart," said Tom pounding his fist against the company logos three times. "Company pride (Ferris, 2007, p. 11)." In chapter two layoffs begin to hit the company. When Tom Moto is laid off, Benny is the first one in his office. Ferris describes Tom and Benny's relationship this way "Benny wasn't like a great friend of Tom's or anything, but he was the guy who on occasion would have lunch with Tom and report back to the rest of us (Ferris, 2007, p. 16)." The reader then learns about Tom Moto's layoff just as if they were a coworker of Tom's, through the eyes of Benny. Benny explains to his peers, who are all huddled into his office "killing an hour", that Tom was pacing in his office much like the time he went to the Naperville house with an aluminum bat. Benn's coworkers did not know the story of Tom and the aluminum bat, so Benny proceeded to tell them both stories. The story of the aluminum bat is the story of how Tom, after his divorce is final, arrives at his old home and wrecks havoc by going inside and destroying everything with an aluminum bat. Ferris wanderingly weaves these stories together as he discusses the topics of layoffs and other coworkers. Before Benny tells the story of Tom's layoff fully, Ferris introduces Janine's murdered daughter into the book. Janine is also a peer coworker whose daughter was recently murdered. "You have never seen someone weep until you have witnessed the mother at the funeral of her murdered child... To watch Janine at the funeral surrounded by pictures of Jessica, her family trying to hold her up even Tom Moto's heart broke. We were outside the funeral home, afterward in the parking lot speaking somberly to one another, when Tom began to beat on his 94 Miata... He hit the windows with his fists and let out terrible cries of "Fuck!"... He kicked the doors and the tires. Finally he collapsed near the trunk, wracked with sobs... We were a little surprised that Tom appeared the most affected... We assumed in part that his behavior had something to do with his ex-wife taking his kids to Phoenix (Ferris, 2007, p. 18)." Toward the end of the story you learn that Tom paints over the missing billboard that they bought for Janine when the company found out her daughter was missing. The billboard owner refused to

remove the photo even after Janine's daughter was found dead. Passing the billboard every day was too much for Janine and so Tom takes things into his own hands and paints over the image. When Benny finally tells the story of how Tom was laid off, he describes Tom as a stocky bull dog in khaki's who should have been fishing in Alaska instead of having lattes and discussing ad copy. Benny explains how Tom tries to throw his computer out the window, but opts not to since he is afraid it will not break the glass. Instead he cuts his shirt sleeves off, rips his khaki pants to make shorts and stands at the elevator asking people as they exit for change by waving a mug and saying "Hey, help out the jobless (Ferris, 2007, p. 20)." Benny asks him what he is doing, and Tom says, "Listening to what Emerson said. For all of our soul destroying slavery to habit it is not to be doubted that all men have thoughts, it is not to be doubted that all men have sublime thoughts. They never knew me, they never did (Ferris, 2007, p. 22)." Amber, another peer coworker, responds to Benny's description of Tom's layoff by saying she believes that Tom is going to come back here and open fire because he has seriously come undone. The other coworkers ask if Amber seriously thinks Tom capable of a blood path and she emphatically responds "Yes, he is a mad man (Ferris, 2007, p. 23) ." Amber's peers spent some time trying to reassure her that things like that did not happen here. Tom was just a clown and that he cried at Janine's child's funeral and that certainly proved he had a heart. Amber was unconvinced. After Amber voices her fear, the book describes an altercation with Tom and Joe in front of his coworkers. Before Tom was laid off, Joe reprimanded Tom harshly for gossiping inappropriately about being homosexual. Tom argues back with Joe and Joe tells him that he needs to learn how to deal with his anger. This concept upsets Tom, and he proceeds to ask his peers what Joe means by "Your anger." Remembering the incident with Joe helps confirm Ambers fears and she continues to mention that she is worried about Tom coming back to the office. Meanwhile, Tom learns of his coworkers new ad assignment of creating a campaign about women and cancer from Jim. He emails Benny about how his mother died of cancer and explains her story. The email ends with "Use any of this in your ads you want, and hello to all those fucks. Tom (Ferris, 2007, p. 181)" Benny forward the email around the office and reports to Joe that he received and email from Tom. Joe requests that Benny read the email to him. His response after the reading focuses on the subject line: "Jim tells me you are working on pro bono cancer ads (Ferris, 2007, p. 180)." Not long after the Tom's email, several laid off employees return to the agency to see coworkers. Lynne Mason requests additional security sighting the reason as that she just cannot take any more chances with laid off employees entering the building. As the reader learns more about different coworkers, particularly Carl, they learn that Tom tried to help Carl when he became depressed and was stealing antidepressants from Janine's office. Carl, who tries to commit suicide, is saved by Tom who calls Carl's wife and an ambulance. Tom and Carl stay in contact more often than his other coworkers. Near the end of the story before the agency finishes laying off everyone, Tom Motto returns to the agency. He comes into the building dressed like a clown, and he shoots one employee. He then goes floor to floor shooting other employees. Coworkers panic and hide in closets or head down the emergency stairs. Tom's shooting spree winds up at Joes office and before he fires a shot at Joe he asks him if he can take him to lunch. Right at that moment everyone realizes that the shots he has been firing are with a paint ball gun filled with red paint balls. Tom's peer coworkers socially construct an image of Tom as emotionally volatile using reification. The social construction of this reality occurs through the use of narrative. The reader and Tom's peer coworkers learn about Tom's behavior primarily from stories shared between coworkers and the comments made by the collective "we" narrator. Tom's crazy antics interspersed throughout the book even once he exits the story physically because he provides entertainment and interesting

conversation for his peers. He is fascinating to the group because he does not conform to the norms of a universally marginalized environment. As the stories about Tom are told and retold, the perception that he is emotional volatile begins the reification process. The more often people share the stories the more likely people are to believe the perception that Tom is emotionally volatile. You see the reification process in action as Tom's peers begin taking the stories out of context. In the beginning they mention or reference his divorce as possible reasons for his behavior. By the end of the story, however, the recounts of the events no longer contain context and are told as if they are everyday occurrences in Tom's crazy life. A great example of this is when Amber discusses her fear of Tom coming back to the office and shooting them. Whenever she discusses her fear, she recounts small, factual pieces of narratives about Tom's life. These facts are strung together to help her prove that her fear is valid. However, each one of the "facts" she uses is taken out context because she does not disclose the situation in which the event occurred. Additionally, Tom helping his coworkers by removing the billboard of Janine's murdered daughter and saving Carl are not discussed and, therefore, are not included in the reification process. Instead, these events are glossed over and seem not to touch his peers' perception of him. It is at this point that the reification process is complete and that Tom Moto becomes synonymous with the stereotype of an emotionally volatile person. Through the socially constructed reality that Tom's peer coworkers have created, Tom himself becomes to believe that he is emotional volatile. This stereotype is reinforced through Tom's coworkers interactions with him once he has been laid off. Ferris illustrates the reification process using the third person collective "we" narrator. Interestingly enough, Ferris does not allow the reader to see Tom through first-person narration until the very end of the novel. Technical Rationality is another aspect of critical theory that will help our understanding of how the stereotype of Tom as an emotionally volatile, or crazy, coworker was developed. After layoffs began, several former employees would come back to the agency. They did so to see friends, for personal belongings or out of a sense of grief for their lost jobs. Lynne and the other partners became concerned about the former employees lack of rational behavior. Instead, of seeing their visits for what they are, and emotional reaction to a hard decision, Lynne and the partners instead put in safety measures to ensure that former employees contact with current employees was nonexistent. They even go as far as to request that emails from former employees be sent to management. Management's use of technical rationality furthers the reification process that Tom is an emotionally unstable person that should be feared. Universalization of management and consent put the final pieces into place for the reaction to the paint ball incident. Once management requests to be notified of all former employee communication it reinforces fear. Despite the fact that the email Tom sent Benny was to help him with research for an ad campaign and does not appear to pose any threat, Benny forwards around the office and furthers management goals by consenting and notifying them about the email. Once management receives the email they use technical rational to conjecture that Tom poses a potential threat, and they increase security. The increase in security furthers the agency partners goal of ensuring a safe work environment, but it also reinforces employees fear of former coworkers. The end of the novel involves Tom, dressed as a clown, returns to the agency and shoots his coworkers that he did not like with a paint ball gun. This part of the novel is told from Tom's perspective. He is angry and upset about some of what Carl has shared with him regarding what people there told him. He is angry that Benny never responded to his heart felt email about his mothers cancer. He stops in Carl's office before he finishes his paint ball spree and tells him. "You know what clowns do Carl? They are so down and out. They play pranks to make themselves feel better (Ferris, 2007, p. 316-317)." The actions of Tom are the perfect illustration of how peers can socially construct realities that undergo the reification process and become natural and unquestioned by even the individual begin discussed. Tom believed his peer coworkers socially constructed reality

enabling him to carry out a form of their worst fear. Although, he did not kill anyone, he was arrested for the stunt he pulled. Through the use of narratives employees at the advertising agency, particularly Benny, socially construct stereotypes that became natural and unquestioned by everyone. Workplace safety is extremely important, and in some instances employees do show signs that are imperative to report to management. However, in the case of Tom Moto everyone knew so little about his authentic self that they believed that he would return to kill them. Peers and managers overlook how Tom stood up for people and the kindnesses that he continually bestowed on his coworkers. Instead, they focused on his wild antics because they made more interesting stories. Ferris' book illustrates the need to stop and evaluate communication that is occurring in the office environment. In doing so, you may be able to prevent socially constructed realities from creating peer coworker conflicts. In the end, questioning socially constructed realities will ensure that peer coworkers are better understood and more likely to be treated with equity and empathy.

You might also like