From 9 to 5 to 24/7

Telework in the 21st Century

“…Nevertheless, the argument for an ICT-driven evolution from the first generation of telework to the second can be made by considering two different but connected developments. First, it is important to mention that telework was constantly evolving towards a flexible work arrangement with, and not as a total substitute to, traditional office work (Duxbury and Neufeld 1999;Duxbury et al 2006;Hartman et al 1992;Kurland and Bailey 1999;Venkatesh and Vitalari 1992). Second, the mobile office was located in a different sectoral and organizational context than the home office.…”

“…Here the virtual office, accessible through portable devices, is described as an 'emerging work form' (Hill et al 2001, p. 51), but not yet conceptualized in a coherent way. The major interest in new ICTs as a tool for work away from the employer's premises came into play with a broad and still ongoing discussion about work intensification (Chesley 2005;Dery et al 2014;Duxbury et al 2006;Green 2002Green , 2004Green and McIntosh 2001;Mahler 2012;Richardson and Benbunan-Fich 2011;Towers et al 2006;Tu et al 2005;Van Yperen et al 2014). This debate is focused on the reorganization of work towards mostly informal work arrangements outside regular working hours.…”

“…This term is frequently repeated in public and academic discourse, since it pinpoints the turn from old to new ICTs. It has inspired the creation of a wide range of other neologisms, such as e-nomad (Parent-Thirion et al 2012), job 2.0 (Williams 2010), new ways of work (new WoW) (Popma 2013), workscapes (Felstead et al 2005), work-extending technologies (Duxbury et al 2006), location independent living (LIP living), 9 e-work (Lister et al 2009), and so on. In these terms we can already identify the three key conceptual elements of telework.…”

“…A different view of the subject is to extend the perspective from a focus only on flexible workplaces to flexible working time arrangements, and thus to work organization as well. As Duxbury et al (2006) conclude, in their study of Canadian knowledge workers, new ICTs are often used as work-extending technologies (WETs). Not only is the traditional workplace altered by the new technologies, but so are standard working time policies, work schedules and, consequentially, work-life balance.…”

“…Scholars are thus increasingly concerned with telework as a supplement to, instead of a substitute for, traditional office work. Central to this concern is the scholarly work of Linda Duxbury and her colleagues on work-extending technology in the Canadian public sector (Duxbury and Neufeld 1999;Duxbury et al 1998Duxbury et al , 2006Duxbury et al , 2014.…”