Pacesetters in contemporary telework: How smartphones and mediated presence reshape the time–space rhythms of daily work

Abstract

We examine how mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs) and mediated interaction transform daily work activity in contemporary, extended telework. We expand on the concepts of mediated bundles and pacesetters to understand how the rhythms and employee control of work activity change. We draw on in-depth interviews with 22 teleworkers with varying skills and work tasks. We find that mobile technology not only relaxes the time-space constraints of telework but fosters countering processes of recoupling and fixity. New ICTs shift the relative importance of individually defined and work-related pacesetters. The rhythm of daily work is increasingly set by horizontal interaction between spatially dispersed coworkers. It is informally regulated through practices of the continuous-mediated interweaving of workflows and synchronised responsivity in relation to changing work intensity. Highly qualified teleworkers more often signal that they are in control and setting the pace compared to less qualified.

Changes in Everyday Internet Use and Home Activity During and After Pandemic‐Related Lockdowns: A Case Study in Shuangjing Subdistrict, Beijing

“…Families have obtained digital equipment, adjusted home structure and changed their daily routines to enable studying, working, shopping and social and leisure activities from home (Cuerdo-Vilches et al 2021;Li et al 2021). These changes will certainly support new digital and home-based routines in the longer run as well (Thulin & Vilhelmson 2022).…”

“…Increasing activity at home, supported by more Internet use, changes the entire activity-travel pattern. Increasing home activity could reduce the time-space constraints on daily activities and the need for travel, while potentially also creating new constraints, for example, blurring the boundaries between work, family and other daily activities (Manzo & Minello 2020;Cuerdo-Vilches et al 2021;Thulin & Vilhelmson 2022). It is important for future research to investigate how the pandemic-induced enhancement of online activity and activity at home is associated with increased or relaxed time-space constraints and with conflicts between spheres of daily activities and household members; it is also important to explore how people cope with such problems.…”

“…2021). These changes will certainly support new digital and home‐based routines in the longer run as well (Thulin & Vilhelmson 2022).…”

“Diorama, Path and Project” to Understanding Everyday Life and Urban Space in Transitional Chinese Cities

“…First, more effort should be invested to understand everyday activities from the project perspective of project, which could be even proposed as an "activity-project" system. Second, due to the extensive and profound impact of ICTs, time geography has great potential to update our understanding of the virtual and physical activity as a holistic activity system (Thulin & Vilhelmson 2022). We try to propose a time-geographical analytical framework of the digital transition of everyday life with the core of physical-virtual hybrid activity system.…”

Urgency at work: Trains, time and technology

“…However, they also increase expectations that such possibilities are speedily fulfilled and, as a result, we experience time as being squeezed (Rosa, 2017). Studies have yet to explore the role of such technologies in producing situated workplace temporalities (Thulin & Vilhelmson, 2022). Adopting a sociomaterial lens, a further aim therefore is to understand how the entanglement of workers and technologies is implicated in local workplace temporalities.…”