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IntroductionThe article aims to shed light on the process of shaping the relational space of work in the service triangle through the progressive digitalization of work in retail banking industry. It addresses the following research question: how do technological shifts affect the relationships and interactions (a) between employees and supervisors, and (b) between employees and customers? Through a close examination of the redesign of the interpersonal relationships from the subjective viewpoint of front-line workers across these two levels, the paper contributes to advancing the understanding of the impact of technologies on surveillance practices, work identity and professional ethics in a key working sector with regard to digitalization and changes in professional requirements.MethodsThe question is addressed through a qualitative case study of retail banking in Italy. In the (retail) banking sector, the redesign of the relations between supply and demand for services is more sensitive to the changes afforded by digitalization and learning algorithms. The study was conducted with the involvement of workers and trade unionists, with whom we embarked on a constant work of re-articulation through data collection, analysis, and conceptualization. We collected a multiplicity of data for triangulation: interviews, focus groups, documents, and ethnographic notes.ResultsData analysis shows how work processes and interpersonal relationships start to be redesigned across the two levels. At (a) level, two main aspects are found: the measurement of individual performance within the logic of quantification, which reduces employees to a set of measured dimensions, pushing workers into conditions of stress and competition; new surveillance practices and forms of organizational control enabled by technologies and learning algorithms. At (b) level, from being an expert with specific knowledge in the financial sector the bank employee turns into a kind of seller of any product that the algorithm decides to sell, thus ignoring the value of situated experience held by embedded, embodied social actors. Moreover, algorithms enter jurisdictional spaces traditionally controlled by knowledge workers and produce unknown outcomes concerning to whom to sell which products that cannot be clearly understood by workers.DiscussionTechnology contributes to engendering complex identity constructions to maintain, protect, and revise professional identity.

L’articolo si interroga sulle condizioni per la realizzazione della strategia di Europa 2020. La situazione complessiva degli stati appartenenti all’unione presenta non poche difformità, determinate dalle trasformazioni demografiche, sociali, produttive ed economiche. Ogni nazione, inoltre, organizza il proprio welfare anche in base a tradizioni radicate e difficilmente omologabili. Tuttavia, vi è una importante spinta verso un modello unitario di stato sociale attivo – active welfare state – centrato non sull’assistenza ma sulla responsabilità individuale e sull’occupazione retribuita, come garanzia del suo funzionamento, in risposta ai mutati equilibri competitivi determinati dal processo di globalizzazione e internazionalizzazione dei mercati, come anche dalle profonde trasformazioni che investono fattori quali i sistemi di produzione e il mercato del lavoro, la struttura della famiglia e la composizione della popolazione. Una possibile sinergia fra l’active welfare state e la strategia per una crescita “intelligente” “sostenibile” “inclusiva” propugnata da Europa 2020, può fare perno sull’educazione permanente alla cittadinanza attiva favorendo la responsabilizzazione dei singoli in un’ottica di uguaglianza e parità e sottraendo la conoscenza e l’apprendimento alla strumentalizzazione del profitto e la solidarietà e i legami sociali alle leggi di mercato.