Purpose-The rise of knowledge work has entailed controversial characteristics for well-being at work. Increased intensification, discontinuities and interruptions at work have been reported. However, knowledge workers have the opportunity to flexibly adjust their work arrangements to support their concentration, inspiration or recuperation. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the experienced well-being of 46 knowledge workers was subject to changes during and after a retreat type telework period in rural archipelago environment. Design/methodology/approach-The authors conducted a longitudinal survey among the participants at three points in time: one to three weeks before, during, and two to eight weeks after the period. The authors analyzed the experienced changes in psychosocial work environment and well-being at work by the measurement period by means of repeated measures variance analysis. In the next step the authors included the group variable of occupational position to the model. Findings-The analysis showed a decrease in the following measures: experienced time pressure, interruptions, negative feelings at work, exhaustiveness of work as well as stress and an increase in work satisfaction. There were no changes in experienced job influence, clarity of work goals and work engagement. Occupational position had some effect to the changes. Private entrepreneurs and supervisors experienced more remarkable effects of improvement in work-related well-being than subordinates. However, the effects were less sustainable for the supervisors than the other two groups. Originality/value-This paper provides insights into how work and well-being are affected by the immediate work environment and how well-being at work can be supported by retreat type telework arrangements.

Lived experiences in organisational liminal spaces 'betwixt-and-between' have begun to attract scholarly attention, but the full potential of liminal spaces in contemporary mobile and fluid working life has remained unexamined. This article contributes to theory by showing how a liminal experience in an alternative work environment is created via three dimensions: the aesthetic experience of a different environment, situated practices and changes to work and life rhythms. Interview material was gathered from creative professionals working temporarily in a rural archipelago environment. The results suggest that the contrast of working in a calm natural environment supported experimentation with work practices, nurtured the formation of a communitas and spurred imagination and reflection. The arrangement's temporary nature heightened the intensity of participants' experiences. However, this intensity varied depending on work community configurations and participants' personal needs for change. This study deepens the current understanding of liminal spaces by showing how the nuances of physical and social spaces contribute to liminality and how liminality alters work rhythms. Future research should focus on how liminal workspaces can be created for individuals seeking a change in routine and increased community support.

Ambiguous liminality used to exist ‘in between’, in a transition to a new social-structural order, but recently, it has gained a more permanent and normalized presence in working life, where existing boundaries are becoming blurred. However, liminality as a continuous state can be individually demanding. This paper elaborates upon a theoretical understanding of permanent and temporary liminality in working life and examines possible measures to tame excessive liminality. To illustrate the theoretical development, forms of permanent and temporary liminality in the lives of three professionals are analyzed. We found that dealing with multiple and complex work roles independently could be conducive to fracturing work routines, which we identify as habitualized, permanent liminality. Withdrawal to an alternative work environment – a rural Finnish archipelago – formed a liminal space in its original sense, a creative and reflective phase that illuminated work-related challenges. It is suggested that such spaces are designed to achieve simplicity.

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Using Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the flesh as rhythm, this article examines how lived dynamics between embodiment and space construct distinct modes of togetherness and learning in working life. Workspaces are becoming increasingly hybrid collections of various physical and virtual spaces. Contemporary workspace ideals embrace openness and a collective ‘buzz’, but this can also be disorientating. This article examines how different spaces could be combined to create spatial rhythms that balance collective working and learning with more silent types of understanding and reflexivity. The article suggests that we need both intimate and open spaces, as well as transitional spaces in between, to nurture learning and togetherness. First, spatial withdrawal can help people to connect with their earlier work history and dreams, sustaining openness of perception. Second, rhythmic movements between different spaces create a transitional experience of different worlds overlapping and a fertile condition for immediate communities. The article suggests that both approaches to space can assist in opening personal registers that are often suppressed: imagination and lived past. This article illuminates how reflexively created hybrid spaces can support personal grounding, spur learning opportunities and actualise novel modes of being together.