Open AccessREMOTE WORK BETWEEN NARRATIVES OF INDIPENDENCE AND FRACTURED EXPERIENCES. A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DURING THE PANDEMIC CRISIS.
Author(s) -
Elisabetta Risi,
Riccardo Pronzato
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12234
Subject(s) - work (physics) , distancing , everyday life , government (linguistics) , enthusiasm , narrative , public relations , social distance , sociology , space (punctuation) , subjectivity , covid-19 , political science , engineering , psychology , social psychology , computer science , mechanical engineering , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , law , infectious disease (medical specialty) , operating system , epistemology
This paper focuses on how remote workers experienced their job andeveryday life during the Italian lockdown imposed by the national government to contain thespread of COVID-19. Specifically, this contribution focuses on the interdependence of workand everyday life, and the role of digital devices and online platforms during thehome-confinement period, and it explores the consequences of social distancing measures onremote workers and on their working and personal conditions. The study draws from 20in-depth semi-structured interviews with remote workers, i.e., individuals which could workfrom home through digital technologies during the national lockdown. Results highlight thatduring the lockdown, some participants attempted to cope with the unprecedented triumph oftechnologically mediated work, others described remote work as liberating and attractive, asit avoids commuting and allow people to organize their activities autonomously, withoutconstraints of space and time. However, their initial enthusiasm decreased after a few weeksof domestic confinement. The experience of remote workers that emerges is a “fractured” one,which appears as a characteristic feature of forced and continuous remote work. Indeed, thecoronavirus crisis has accentuated the infrastructural role of digital platforms andintensified the ‘deep mediatization’ of social life and labour, thereby normalizingtransmedia work and the ‘extension of already media saturated workingconditions’.