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<p>This article investigates cyberslacking in contemporary China through the lens of time moralization, framing it as a morally contested response to capitalist temporal regimes, rather than mere individual deviance. Drawing on 35 semi-structured interviews within the Douban group “Office Slacking Squad,” the study identifies three interrelated mechanisms of temporal alienation—time monetization, surveillance ethicalization, and rest stigmatization—which together constitute a moralized value system linking money, labor, and time. Within this framework, cyberslacking emerges in differentiated forms and crystallizes around two central tensions. First, a discursive conflict between “time theft” and “energy recovery” structures how cyberslacking is morally evaluated: Avoidant cyberslacking is typically framed by organizations as illegitimate time appropriation subject to regulation, whereas adjustive cyberslacking acknowledges work obligations and serves as a short-term strategy for energy restoration. Second, these competing interpretations give rise to an ethical tension between organizational efficiency and individual autonomy, revealing how workers negotiate moral responsibility under intensified temporal control. By foregrounding workers’ efforts to reclaim fragments of time as lived experience rather than monetized input, the article reveals a latent shift from “time is money” toward “time is life”, and calls for a rethinking of workplace temporal ethics.</p>

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From “Time is money” to “Time is life”: cyberslacking and the moralization of time in contemporary China

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

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  • Xiao Chen,
  • Chaojin Wu

摘要

This article investigates cyberslacking in contemporary China through the lens of time moralization, framing it as a morally contested response to capitalist temporal regimes, rather than mere individual deviance. Drawing on 35 semi-structured interviews within the Douban group “Office Slacking Squad,” the study identifies three interrelated mechanisms of temporal alienation—time monetization, surveillance ethicalization, and rest stigmatization—which together constitute a moralized value system linking money, labor, and time. Within this framework, cyberslacking emerges in differentiated forms and crystallizes around two central tensions. First, a discursive conflict between “time theft” and “energy recovery” structures how cyberslacking is morally evaluated: Avoidant cyberslacking is typically framed by organizations as illegitimate time appropriation subject to regulation, whereas adjustive cyberslacking acknowledges work obligations and serves as a short-term strategy for energy restoration. Second, these competing interpretations give rise to an ethical tension between organizational efficiency and individual autonomy, revealing how workers negotiate moral responsibility under intensified temporal control. By foregrounding workers’ efforts to reclaim fragments of time as lived experience rather than monetized input, the article reveals a latent shift from “time is money” toward “time is life”, and calls for a rethinking of workplace temporal ethics.