“Mummy is in a Call”: Digital Technology and Executive Women’s Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Research findings confirm the contradictory impact of mobile technology on work–life balance, as these tools both guarantee greater flexibility and contribute to blurring boundaries between private and working spheres. Several articles have been published on women executives’ work–life balance in Western countries; however, their usage of mobile devices remained almost unexplored in the post-socialist region, where in the wake of the transformation not only the unquestioned neoliberal change of the corporate sector but also refamilisation took place. This article gives an overview on the issue of how women executives make use of mobile technology during their everyday activities in Hungary, where not only are the signs of ‘corporate colonization’ present, but also motherhood plays an important role. Based on twenty semi-structured interviews with Hungarian women in senior management positions carried out in 2014 and 2015, the article discusses the perceptions and narratives explained by these women. Results contribute to the ongoing debate on the paradoxical impacts of modern technology on work–life balance and its specificities in the post-socialist context.

Division of Labour, Work–Life Conflict and Family Policy: Conclusions and Reflections

“…A series of contributions in this thematic issue put forward that preferences in labour division do not always match with practice (Bornatici & Heers, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). This is attributed to restrictions imposed by the work place, be it the difficulty for men to reduce their work percentages, availability of technical tools to increase flexibility to be productive during care time or the persistence of the "ideal employee" norm (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020).…”

“…A series of contributions in this thematic issue put forward that preferences in labour division do not always match with practice (Bornatici & Heers, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). This is attributed to restrictions imposed by the work place, be it the difficulty for men to reduce their work percentages, availability of technical tools to increase flexibility to be productive during care time or the persistence of the "ideal employee" norm (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). There is also an interaction between the meso and the macro level in the sense that policy can shape values in companies and the economic and political situation can turn countries into victims of globalisation when employers can put pressure on employees to be ever more committed to work, which can lead to stronger corporate "colonisation" where employees can be always reached and work time expands into private time due to technology (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Ukhova, 2020).…”

“…Does the latter rather put migrant women into dependencies or empower them to be more independent (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2011;Lutz, 2002)? Does technology facilitate a reconciliation between family and career or rather simply increase corporate colonization (Nagy, 2020)? Can technology help involve men more in family matters or is it rather used to increase female labour participation while keeping them doing the care work?…”

“…Rather, policy must at the same time work on improving father's opportunities in taking a more important role at home (Aidukaite & Telisauskaite- Cekanavice, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020) and include models enabling parenting and being successful at work for both genders. Technology can be a facilitator in reconciling work and family demands but can have adverse effects if corporate colonisation is not countered (Nagy, 2020). Second, families are fragile environments and worklife conflict is very context-dependent.…”

“…Having more autonomy on working hours might help reconcile work and family demands but this comes most likely with pressures to be always reachable. Tools to counter work-life conflict might differ between different levels of jobs: While technology might help managers to keep contact with their family, it might rather lead to corporate colonisation, i.e., expanding working time into family time, in so-called sandwich positions where workers take responsibility but do not have full autonomy (see Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020). Reconciliation measures should therefore take such different working conditions into account and tools should be available for all positions, also at the highest level, both to increase the female share in such positions and also to enable fathers in such positions to take responsibility in family matters.…”