Rethinking Work-Life Balance in an Accelerating Society
Digitalisation has made it possible for many of us to work almost anywhere and at any time. By eliminating the daily commute and providing greater flexibility over when and where work is performed, working-from-home could give workers more control over their time and create opportunities to slow down. But does it really? Or does this flexibility simply allow us to fit more work, care and other activities into already busy lives, further accelerating the pace of everyday life?
This interactive session starts from new evidence collected within the Horizon Europe project WinWin4WorkLife. Detailed time-use diaries allow us to compare how hybrid workers organise and experience their daily lives when working-from-home and when travelling to their usual workplace. We explore how working-from-home reshapes paid work, care, leisure, mobility and rest throughout the day; how workers experience these different uses of time; and for whom working-from-home contributes (or fails to contribute) to greater time autonomy, well-being and work-life balance.
Building on these findings, a fishbowl discussion will bring together perspectives from policy, employers, employees, gender and civil society. Moving beyond the question of whether working-from-home is simply “good” or “bad”, we will ask when flexibility genuinely allows people to slow down, what organisational, household, spatial and institutional conditions are needed to make this possible, and who is responsible for creating them. We will also consider potential rebound effects: could the time gained through working-from-home ultimately lead us to do more rather than live better?
Ultimately, the session asks how working-from-home can contribute to a genuine right to time in an accelerating society, and what employers, policymakers and society need to do to make that happen.
