This book records, analyses and attempts to understand the multiple levels of meaning which people attach to work today, and the role which work plays in peoples lives. By looking at call centres and software development, the book also critically evaluates some of the claims made for the knowledge economy. The authors find that today's employees are no more work-centred or organizationally committed than their parents' generation, but that changes in the contemporary workplace have made it a more unstable environment than we have been used to for some time. In particular, intensified performance targets and huge variations in patterns of working time make defining the work-life boundary a constantly recurring problem for many workers.