In addition to humans giving technology roles (ex. answering machine), technology also gives human roles.
Winner states "Now one can ask: Is a person's guiding hand required for the system to function? Does the human give orders or receive them? Is the person active or acted upon? What social qualities accompany the human presence?"
Winner gives an example of a woman (Maevon Garrett) who had been a telephone operator for 18 years and was called into her supervisor's office and abruptly fired. "She was informed that a computer had been installed to monitor the performance of telephone operators and that data gathered by the computer showed that she was less efficient than the average worker in processing phone calls." Ms. Garrett pointed out that she spent some time each day talking with people who call an operator because they are "lonely or in distress", such as elderly or "latchkey children." Ms. Garrett stated she would not hang up on such people to meet an hourly quota. (Her job was restored after a union protest)
This type of electronic supervision has given a supervisory role to computers and relegated humans to being underlings of the supervisor (the computer). The term "regime" is applied to such systems by Winner because of their political nature
This is true for simple as well as complex technology. Winner describes
an example of a hoe that is used with a short handle. Even though it is
more comfortable to hoe standing up, this hoe makes the worker stoop down.
This is so a foreman can see who is working and who is not. Those standing
up are obviously not working because the length of the hoe handle prevents
this.