Changing Times

This article explores the effect of telework on the experience, calculation and use of time. Telework is said to offer professional and clerical workers flexible time to synchronize work, domestic and leisure activities. Telework is predicted to produce greater productivity and work satisfaction through autonomous time management. This report of a small-scale research project suggests that teleworkers rarely work flexibly during conventional work times, and work increasingly in the evenings and at weekends. More important is the finding that, isolated from the office and colleagues, they recalculate time in relation to an optimally productive hour. Telework is characterized less by time flexibility than increasing work periods.