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Making work visible

Open access
Suchman, Lucy·1995·Communications of the ACM
DOI 10.1145/223248.223263
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Abstract

How people work is one of the best kept secrets in America."This provocative statement by David Wellman, a sociologist of labor, can be read as a kind of challenge to work researchers.The sense in which it rings true is particularly remarkable given the large and growing body of literature dedicated to work-flow modeling, business process reengineering, and other methods aimed at representing work in the service of transforming it.At the same time that we take Wellman's statement as a call to action, however, we need to reflect carefully on the kinds of secrecy that surround specific knowledges and experiences of working practice and the implications of making them visible.The notion of secrecy implies things known differentially among different actors, usually because those who hold the secret deliberately withhold it from others.Without taking over the connotations of collusion in this sense of secrecy, we can ask why it might be not only inevitable but also valuable that members of an organization know their own work in ways that others positioned differently in the organization do not.The premise that we have special authority in relation to our own fields of knowledge and experience suggests we should have the ability to shape not only how we work but how our work appears to others.Self-representation on this view is a form of empowerment.

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  • Representations are fundamental tools for knowledge work used by employees to manage information and carry out tasks.

    “Such representations are fundamental tools for knowledge work [14, 15, 37, 38, 57, 65, 68] used by employees to manage information and carry out tasks [27, 37, 68].”

    From Accessibility-Driven Information Transformations in Mixed-Visual Ability Work Teams (2026) · cites this paper as [68]

    In “Video's openness to multiple viewings and interpretations” (page unavailable), Suchman says representations embedded in work are useful tools for organization members’ practical reasoning and action. “Representation and Control” describes airline workers using them to coordinate and report on plane movements. The paper does not establish the broader claim that representations are fundamental tools for knowledge work generally or that employees use them to manage information generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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  • Once they reach higher education, neurodivergent students are marginalised by the learning experiences themselves and are expected to perform additional invisible meta-work beyond that expected of typical students.

    “However, once they reach higher education, neurodivergent students are marginalised by the learning experiences themselves 2 , and are also expected to perform additional invisible 'meta'-work (or 'access labour' [15, 75, 78], see Footnote 1), beyond that expected of typical students.”

    From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]

    The Abstract (page unavailable) says that some forms of work are less visible to those who benefit from them, supporting the general idea of invisible work. The paper does not address neurodivergent students, access labour, or whether they perform additional work compared with typical students. The separate claim about marginalisation by learning experiences is attached to citation 2, not this source. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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  • As a result of barriers in digital systems, many neurodivergent students create their own coping strategies, contributing yet more to their invisible work.

    “As a result of the barriers present in these systems, many neurodivergent students create their own coping strategies, thus contributing yet more to their invisible work [15, 75, 78].”

    From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]

    In “Representation as Stereotyping” (page unavailable), Suchman describes work overlooked by technology designers; “Work” (page unavailable) notes that service work can be less visible to those who benefit from it. These passages support the general idea of invisible work, but the paper does not establish that digital barriers lead neurodivergent students to create coping strategies. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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  • Our findings demonstrate that the process of being a student itself constitutes a form of access work, requiring significant cognitive, emotional, and administrative effort.

    “While higher education is often framed as a pathway to professional work, our findings demonstrate that the process of being a student itself constitutes a form of access work, requiring significant cognitive, emotional, and administrative effort [15, 53, 58, 75, 78].”

    From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]

    In “Representation as Stereotyping” (page not provided), Suchman shows that work dismissed as mindless can require interpretation and judgment. That supports the broader framing of overlooked effort as work, but the paper does not address students, access work, or the claimed emotional and administrative effort. The finding about students is presented as the citing authors’ own. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • When accommodations fail, students face a difficult choice: either take on additional invisible labour by advocating for their accommodations to be properly implemented or forgo the support they need and struggle with unfair academic disadvantage.

    “When accommodations fail-whether due to bureaucratic inefficiencies, technological flaws or institutional oversight- students face a difficult choice: either take on the additional (invisible) labour [15, 75, 78] by advocating for their accommodations to be properly implemented or forgo the support they need and struggle with unfair academic disadvantage.”

    From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. [4]4. Blomberg, J., Suchman, L., and R. Trigg. Reflections on a work- oriented design project. In PDC '94: Proceedings of the Participa- tory Design Conference, (Palo Alto, Calif.)
  2. [7]7. Bowers, J., Button, G., and Sharrock, W. Workflow from within and without. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Comput- er-Supported Cooperative Work (Stockholm, Sept. 11-15) 1995, to be published.
  3. [10]10. C COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM September 1995/Vol. 38, No. 9
  4. [12]12. Hales, M. Where are designers? Styles of design practice, objects of design and views of users in computer-supported cooperative work. In Design Issues in CSCW, D. Rosenberg and C. Hutchison, Eds. Springer-Verlag, London 1993, 151--177.
  5. [16]16. Muller, M., and Kuhn, S., (Eds.) Participatory Design. Commun. ACM 36, 4 (June 1993).
  6. [25]25. Watson-Verran, H. Including other voices in knowledge pro- duction. Presented at the Melbourne Conference on Sex/Gen- der in Technoscience Worlds (1993). Dept of History and Philosophy of Science, Univ. of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Australia.

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Authors
Suchman, L.
Affiliations
Palo Alto Research Center (US)
Corresponding author
Suchman, Lucy
ORCID
Suchman, Lucy
Venue
Communications of the ACM
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Published
1995-09
Volume
38
Issue
9
Pages
56-64
ISSN
  • 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
  • 1557-7317
DOI
10.1145/223248.223263
OpenAlex
W2095270559
Cited by
991
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 54 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 30
FWCI
71.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy#Background (vor)
Locations
  • Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
  • Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
  • Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
  • Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Innovative Education and Learning Practices
Keywords
work practices, visibility of work, self-representation, empowerment, workflow modeling, business process reengineering, sociology of work, organizational knowledge

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