The concept of social values shaping technology design seems oddly out-of-place to many. Isn’t the design of technology the province of engineers? Aren’t values and technology and other social issues really outside the scope of engineering? Engineering decisions are not, after all, based on philosophy and sociology some would argue. Efficiency and economy are the objective criteria for making design decisions and these can be determined through a relatively precise calculus. Making these determinations is an objective engineering task not a matter of subjective preferences and interpretation. There is error, of course, and unintended consequences are inevitable, but these are matters to be corrected by better science and engineering. Following in this vein, one might argue that the link between technology design and quality of worklife is even further removed from the concerns of engineering. Technology is delivered “as is” and the work organization must accommodate it. Perhaps technology can be fiddled with at the margins for better ergonomics for example, but again, the essence of design is independent of quality of worklife concerns. To take this argument a step further, it is commonly stated that, for most people, work is not an activity for pleasure but for sustenance. We may wish it were otherwise, but it just isn’t so. Changing technology or other aspects of worklife is, therefore, of limited value in improving the human condition. (In fact, if changes made for worklife improvements decrease productivity, they could be detrimental by lowering prosperity and thus the quality of life outside of work.) One engineer (Florman, 1981, p. 103), writing that “blaming technology” is an “irrational search for scape goats,” states that “alienation cannot be cured by a fascinating job any more than it can be cured by a clean apartment.” Engineers should thus concentrate on designing technology the best they can and leave social issues or workplace concerns to others. It is only the application and implementation of technology that is relevant for social science. So runs the argument in many a discussion about how technology should be designed for the workplace.