In this study, we examine how workers resist management controls in the home workplace. Drawing on Scott's (1985, 1990) theorization about the everyday forms of resistance, especially his seminal concepts of infrapolitical resistance and hidden transcripts, and mobilizing a netnographic approach, we examine the comments posted on Reddit during a 10-month period, in which workers talk about their resistance to the ways in which they are controlled in the home-based work environment. We uncover six hidden transcripts representing workers' infrapolitical resistance to management control in the home workplace, which we categorize into two sets: resistance thoughts and beliefs and individual acts of resistance. Home office workers describe and discuss their resistance attitudes and ideas around 1) the new limits of acceptable levels and types of controls, 2) the very worth of the managerial role, and 3) employers' cultural controls. Also, home office workers resist via their actions by 4) performing “empty labor; ” 5) quitting their job in response to return-to-office mandates; and 6) selectively meeting productivity-related controls. Bringing a new empirical site − the home as a workplace − to the management control literature, we theorize about the ways in which home office workers transform productivity into a site of resistance, turn the control gaze back on the managers, and use the home office to resist controls.

Abstract Although the community of tax professionals is a key actor in the tax realm, its nature continues to remain elusive in many countries. Using a qualitatively driven mixed‐methods approach that integrates the insights obtained from in‐depth interviews and the results of a survey of practitioners, we examine the Canadian tax field. Although tax work has traditionally been dominated by lawyers and accountants, our study finds that a distinct expert occupation has taken shape, as evidenced by the collective identification of those working full‐time in the area. Theoretically, we show how individuals can effectively generate an occupational community through their collective identification with it and how professions that do not fit the ideal type or that are in the process of emerging may be understood. The concepts of boundary erasure and boundary emergence are introduced as variants of boundary blurring and boundary making to explain how boundaries in a professional field may be reconfigured, allowing for the emergence and informal closure of occupations. Advancing the understanding of occupational groups that have not yet embraced the professional project, our study offers insight into why some forms of expertise might not professionalize in the traditional way. Overall, the findings have implications for research on tax professionals as well as for efforts to govern their work.