‘Working the time’: Time self-management practices of remote workers

Claire Estagnasié ()
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Claire Estagnasié: UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, LabCMO - Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, CIRST - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie - UdeM - Université de Montréal - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, RECOR - Groupe de recherche sur la Communication Organisante

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Abstract: The large-scale implementation of remote work appears as a fundamental shift into the traditional understanding of the relationship between time and work. Drawing on sociomateriality literature and more especially on the concept of temporal structuring, this chapter suggests that remote workers ‘work the time' by different practices, to (re)create adequate temporalities to work. The analysis results from an exploratory qualitative study conducted between May 2020 and April 2021 in Montreal with 17 remote workers who were already working remotely before the Covid-19 pandemic. It gives an overview of the temporal practices of remote workers, who are mainly blocking time (i), navigating between temporalities (ii) ritualizing them (iii) or an interwoven of all of them to try to create time to work (and thus, for non-work as well). It appears that remote workers work the time to be flexible. However, they still do it in the clock time of organizational life. They also experiment with temporal tensions, which leads them to exercise a fourth practice that is indispensable to the other three, that of labeling times. In all cases, these temporal practices represent individual metawork, a work which enables work to take place, benefiting the employer.

Keywords: Time; self-management; practices; remote work; sociomateriality; Working time arrangements; Time self-management practices remote work sociomateriality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-07-03
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04450916v2
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Published in Cambridge University Press. Organization as Time: Technology, Power and Politics, pp.185-210, 2023, 9781009297257

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