“The Usual Antisocial Protocol”

Narrative Positioning in the Swedish Office-life

Abstract

This article considers experience narratives of “dålig stämning” (bad atmosphere and unease) in Swedish workplaces. The aim of this article is to show how office-employees in Sweden experience, negotiate and understand bad atmosphere and unease in their working life. By analysing personal experience narratives, collected through a qualitative questionnaire, through the lens of narrative positioning (Hynninen 2017; Pöysä 2009; Bamberg 2003; Harré & van Lagenhove 1999). The article shed light on how an uneasy atmosphere is defined and experienced in a Swedish office workplace environment. By analysing narratives collected in the qualitative questionnaire through close reading (Pöysä 2010) concentrating on positions, or who the narrator positions him/herself to be, I conclude that the narrators narrate an experience of lack, and that office unease can be viewed as the attunement phase of a conflict taking place or a call to action to resolve the lack.