Abstract
Software development engineers are voluntarily absorbed in their work at their places of employment, where engineers' autonomy is respected until they become the victims of burnout syndrome. Such voluntary hard work has been considered to result from normative control; engineers internalize and follow the cultural norms designed by the company they work for. This paper, based on the author's interviews with engineers, depicts “the code,” which is the cultural norm prevailing at the workplace of X company. It seems that engineers' narratives of their voluntary hard work were narratives that followed the code.
However, this paper clarifies the meanings of engineers' narratives beyond following the code by analyzing their narratives from the viewpoint of “folk sociology.” Engineers did not become absorbed in their work as a result of internalizing the cultural norm uniformly. On the one hand, they interpreted others' speech by constantly referring to the code; on the other hand, they continued to pursue their own interests by speaking the code. Through such interaction and with common sense knowledge specific to their workplace symbolized by the code, engineers were able to cooperate with others and become imperceptibly involved in hard work, which likely caused them to experience burnout.
