“I have to be always on” – managerial role and experience of work-life balance and regeneration practices during remote work

“I have to be always on” – managerial role and experience of work-life balance and regeneration practices during remote work Katarzyna Mikołajczyk, Dorota Molek-Winiarska, Emily Kleszewski International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The main aims of the paper were to explore the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in shaping the work-life balance of managers working remotely and to identify individual recovery strategies and organisational interventions to support digital managers. The theoretical background was based on the work-family border theory and the effort-recovery model.A semi-structured individual in-depth interview (IDI) was used as the research method. The research group consisted of 13 managers from companies in Poland representing various industries. In all, 560 min of recordings and 201 pages of text were obtained and subsequently coded and categorised.The results showed that remote managers struggle with the work-life imbalance and blurred boundaries between work and private roles, as well as difficulties in maintaining digital hygiene. The use of ICT enables high flexibility but contributes to work-life conflict. Managers who work from home experience a constant workload and suffer from impaired recovery. The use of ICT creates a need to recover and maintain digital hygiene. However, there are constraints that impede managers' recovery attempts. Many feel that their work does ...
Source: International Journal of Workplace Health Management - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Source Type: research