Normalität in Bewegung: Beschäftigte zwischen erweiterter Erreichbarkeit und digitaler Konnektivität

In this text, initially variations of digital boundary blurring between work and life domains are differentiated. The term digital connectivity emphasizes that these boundary blurrings are not only due to external demands but also to the employees’ actions themselves who access data in order to fulfill job tasks from outside the office. This is discussed against the backdrop of former strict demarcations between domains and their contradictory implications: on one hand they conceded protective spaces for employees, on the other hand they were organized at the cost of women’s autonomy. Our empirical study shows that the use of digital connectivity varies both with the necessity of physical presence for the concrete job task and with the degree the employees are in charge of family care work. Notwithstanding these differentiations, some employees approve of digital connectivity because they can optimize their personal interests and arrangements and gain short-term relief from everyday work intensity. From interdependencies between this positive attitude and increasing performance demands, a dynamic increase of mutual expectations on workrelated availability arises. Although digital connectivity generally enables new arrangements of wagework and family care work, a new mode of individualization of responsibility for family care work can be observed.