The round-the-clock portable job

Mobile technologies offer choices over when, where and how to work.

Tensions may arise when `anywhere, anytime' becomes `everywhere and all the time' warn researchers.

Has mobile technology created a workforce that never stops working? For many of us, work is no longer where the office is, it's wherever we are - at home, in the car, at an airport, a cafe, or with a client. And while some of us set boundaries around where and when we work, for others the margin blurs, leading to increased hours of business and interference with personal and family time.

Recent research by the New Zealand Work Research Institute (NZWRI) at the AUT Business School shows properly managed "anywhere working" can improve well-being and work-life balance, boost productivity, save office space, provide business continuity during disruptions, and reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions.

However, a project being undertaken by NZWRI researchers Dr Laurie McLeod and Professor Bill Doolin reveals that "anywhere, anytime" working can create tensions for those involved. At a recent Anywhere Working Network Day hosted by AUT University, McLeod and Doolin outlined the project's findings to date.

The pair has reviewed prior studies on telework, the use of mobile technologies, and new ways of working to identify a number of tensions or paradoxes that they believe are potentially inherent in anywhere, anytime working.

"The use of ICT can become a double-edged sword for workers where 'anywhere, anytime' becomes 'everywhere and all the time', and individuals remain tethered to their work by an 'electronic leash'," said McLeod. "This can pose a tension between work satisfaction and detrimental effects on well-being, such as anxiety or stress, for example when work-related ICT use interferes with personal or family obligations."

McLeod also pointed out the predicament individuals may face between flexibility in work-life balance offered by anywhere, anytime work and the need to impose some structure in order to maintain the boundary or separation between work and non-work.

In her presentation, the BNZ's diversity manager, Debbie Teale, reported that individual choice comes into work-life balance at the BNZ, and her team accounts for that. Her own approach is: "seven days a week - it doesn't matter. If it crosses my mind, I'll text or I'll ring. I might email at 10 o'clock at night, but that's my style." One of her colleagues, however, made it clear to the team that when she goes to work, she does her work at the office and there is no "after hours". "That is her preference and we respect that," said Teale.

There is little doubt that modern mobile technologies offer great freedom in terms of choices over when, where and how to perform work. Yet these freedoms are not completely unfettered, McLeod noted. Anywhere, anytime work may be constrained by the limitations of battery life, broadband coverage, data limits or security requirements, as well as the escalating needs and skills of technology users. Tension may exist between users' expectations about technology and disillusionment with the actual performance of that technology.

McLeod reported that an important benefit of anywhere, anytime working is personal autonomy.

Attainment of personal objectives and personal control of work, such as choosing when, where and how to work, can lead to worker empowerment. But at the same time, tensions may arise in relation to organisational demands for worker accessibility and availability. There may be difficulties in ensuring co-worker relationships are maintained and that communication occurs.

"Work away from the main office is often suited to activities that can be performed in isolation," says McLeod. "Technology is increasingly enabling virtual teamwork and collaboration. The goals and work routines of such teams may conflict with those of the individual. Moreover, working away from the office can impact on co-workers remaining there or on how an individual identifies with the organisation."

Working flexibly typically requires management by results or performance. However, workers in such situations may feel marginalised or overlooked due to a lesser physical presence in the main office.

For salaried flexible workers, trust can be an issue. How is an employer to know how much of an employee's time away from the office is actually spent on work activities? Professor Jarrod Haar from Massey University's School of Management says: "Work-from-home options typically stall around issues of trust between the manager and employee, but in the future, workplaces will be so highly wired that monitoring employees will be easy, no matter where they are."

McLeod and Doolin will continue to examine the extent to which tensions exist.