Understanding the Role of Social Workplace Activities on Performance in Intellectual Labor : A Case Study of Celiac Disease

This paper explores the relationship of the (un)healthy body and the performance expectations of social interactions at organizations. Through oral history interviews with Celiac afflicted individuals who work in intellectual labor settings, we illustrate that accountability and performance measures in organizations are imbued with requirements that go beyond what we may usually think of being included in performance management. For this illustration, we concentrate on the way that employees socially interact. The paper explores how social activities and socializing are implicated in performance measurement in immaterial labor and highlights the exclusionary impact that social activity expectations have on those with the autoimmune disorder celiac disease. In response to this, we argue, employees with celiac disease attempt to embody an able body, hiding experiences with the disease. Our findings show that these employees become socially controlled and have to outperform healthy colleagues due to the stigmatization and ignorance surrounding the disease. We contribute to a growing body of literature in critical accounting that researches the way that accounting practices restrict the experiences of the embodied self. In particular, we focus on the often hidden social conditions of workplace roles that are required to be accountable and perform well in organizations. We extend such efforts by exploring the impact of accounting practices in the area of long-term health and disease management at work