The life eclipse: When work moves to your home
(2021) BUSN49 20211Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly transformed the world of academia, forcing many academics to begin working remotely, disrupting their work-life balance. Late-career academics are under-represented in the literature when it comes to their understanding of work-life balance and remote work. For this reason, we decided to combine the concepts of work-life balance and remote work, and explore the perceptions of late-career individuals on the concepts in a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 academics employed at one university in Sweden. Their answers are presented in a thematic analysis containing the main themes derived from the interviews.
Our study showed that the academics’ work is to a large extent... (More) - The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly transformed the world of academia, forcing many academics to begin working remotely, disrupting their work-life balance. Late-career academics are under-represented in the literature when it comes to their understanding of work-life balance and remote work. For this reason, we decided to combine the concepts of work-life balance and remote work, and explore the perceptions of late-career individuals on the concepts in a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 academics employed at one university in Sweden. Their answers are presented in a thematic analysis containing the main themes derived from the interviews.
Our study showed that the academics’ work is to a large extent their life, therefore their perception of work-life balance is rather unique, often choosing work over private life. Remote work brought a lot of flexibility, which was generally found problematic, as it intensified work and prolonged work hours. It even encouraged the academics to prioritise their work over their life as they chose to work while ill. Hobbies, commute and family members were often shown to be the most effective boundary creators between the work and life domains. Even though technology posed a great struggle, late-career academics demonstrated willingness, initiative and
substantial effort in gaining new skills. Most of all, late-career academics showed that even in the highest peak of their career, they do not slow down, but work tremendously on completing their tasks with the highest degree of quality.
Our findings can be used as a base for further research of the work-life balance in the view of late-career professionals. We also strived to open up future practical implications as remote work might become a new standard. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9048670
- author
- Dankova, Karolina LU and Ahmethodzic, Amila LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- A qualitative study of late-career academics’ perceptions of work-life balance while working remotely
- course
- BUSN49 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- academics, late-career professionals, remote work, work-life balance
- language
- English
- id
- 9048670
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-22 14:24:58
- date last changed
- 2021-06-22 14:24:58
@misc{9048670,
abstract = {{The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly transformed the world of academia, forcing many academics to begin working remotely, disrupting their work-life balance. Late-career academics are under-represented in the literature when it comes to their understanding of work-life balance and remote work. For this reason, we decided to combine the concepts of work-life balance and remote work, and explore the perceptions of late-career individuals on the concepts in a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 academics employed at one university in Sweden. Their answers are presented in a thematic analysis containing the main themes derived from the interviews.
Our study showed that the academics’ work is to a large extent their life, therefore their perception of work-life balance is rather unique, often choosing work over private life. Remote work brought a lot of flexibility, which was generally found problematic, as it intensified work and prolonged work hours. It even encouraged the academics to prioritise their work over their life as they chose to work while ill. Hobbies, commute and family members were often shown to be the most effective boundary creators between the work and life domains. Even though technology posed a great struggle, late-career academics demonstrated willingness, initiative and
substantial effort in gaining new skills. Most of all, late-career academics showed that even in the highest peak of their career, they do not slow down, but work tremendously on completing their tasks with the highest degree of quality.
Our findings can be used as a base for further research of the work-life balance in the view of late-career professionals. We also strived to open up future practical implications as remote work might become a new standard.}},
author = {{Dankova, Karolina and Ahmethodzic, Amila}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The life eclipse: When work moves to your home}},
year = {{2021}},
}