First of all, doing a digital map over my online activity was somewhat of a wake-up because I never consider myself as someone who is very active online, but as the four squares of the map started to fill up with lots and lots of online activities, both in residential and visitors mode, as a professional and a civilian, I had to reconsider my previous perception (White 2011). I have Instagram, Whatsapp, Linkedin, e-mail, a blog, online shopping, web pages connected to my institution, participation in pod casts and the list goes on. For some reason I have previously thought about online activities as posting stuff on Facebook and Twitter, for which I am not active at all.
Secondly, it also got me thinking about my own online boundaries and barriers. I have a very clear cut line between professional online activities and personal online activities. For instance, I have a private Instagram account which is only visible to closest friends and family. Here I would never share things related to my work, like a paper I published. Such information I would instead post on my Linkedin page, were I in turn never would think about posting something personal. I have a separate e-mail for work and one for personal use which I don’t like to mix up. This reflects a strong voice constantly heard in my head (with a very negative tone) saying “who would be interested in reading/knowing about this!!?”. Concluding that, I don’t think that my family would be really interested to read my published papers (it is a bit far from their reality) and I don’t think that my co-worker goes on Linkedin to hear about my latest physical activity or my baby’s new tooth.
Interestingly, the way I act online is in complete contrast to my everyday life for the past six months where I work from home, sometimes with not-so-sick kids around. I alternate my day between doing a puzzle with a three-year-old, analyzing some field data, playing a board game and writing e-mails. Recently, I simultaneously was comforting a screaming baby, discussing the latest lab results with a PhD-student on the phone and helped my oldest with her technical problems with a tablet. No boundaries there! According to numerous studies such as Kadir et al 2020 and Fontinha et al 2019, this is not an advisable way to create a good work-life balance. However during these past six months the game plan has changed and some concepts may need re-evaluation in a post-pandemic perspective.
David S. White and Alison Le Cornu (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement, First Monday, vol 16, num 9 – 5
Fontinha, R., Easton, S., and Van Laar, D. (2019). Overtime and quality of working life in academics and nonacademics: The role of perceived work-life balance. International Journal of Stress Management, 26(2), 173–183
A Abdul Kadir and F Ismail, (2020). The role of job performance towards flexible working hour and work life; Balance among women academician, Journal of critical reviews, 2020, vol 7, issue 04
Hi Cecilia! I agree. It is not easy to maintain a work-life balance. What I've been noticing is quite similar: the boundaries are disappearing. A colleague of mine just set up Messenger and WhatsApp groups via our private accounts to discuss a research project. She wants us to read and to reply to her messages regardless the time of the day or the day of the week. Although I understand the reason (people getting overwhelmed with emails and not having opportunities for chats in the office), I still don't like this. Is there anything that we can do against this, or shall we just join this trend?
SvaraRaderaVery interesting post, thanks.
SvaraRaderaI was caught by your argument for why not work (professional) och leisure (private) should be mixed when sharing, as your argument was reflected in what the reader should be interested in or not. I rather read it as it is your expectation of what other people are interested in and a line you wish to draw, excused by sparing groups from the "wrong" information. What You don't want to know from others, in other words.
Most of the time we are taking care of our social networks by doing just this, we filter in various ways to make sure we don't "flood" them with what we believe, at a particular time, is unnecessary for the relationsships to work well, in our perspective.
Judit's reflection in her comment refers to situations (perhaps more common now when physical meetings to mediate the process are fewer) where it seems as if these "rules" are out of synk, or looking for a new balance. In private flows, we can most often turn things off, but at work it is not always that easy to do. Is it ok to tell a colleague what you think in regard of the rules of engagement? Yes, I believe it is!
Finally, something from your post I will stay with for a while; how the multi-tasking "priv-pro" person illustrated by the last six months experiences might be a path towards a new "normal". We'll see.
Sorry, I became unknown in Blogger. The reply was from Lars Harrysson.
RaderaThanks for sharing - my thinking is in line with yours here. I also separate work from private, I'm not even friends with most of my colleagues on Facebook. On the other hand I sometimes allow work to seep into off-duty hours and honestly don't mind (e.g. I've previously had ONL PBL groups in the evening). Also, some of my best friends are colleagues and obviously then it's hard to say what's what. These last few months for me has, among other things, meant I don't spend 1+ hour a day travelling between home and work. I take the dog out for a walk instead and really enjoy not having to engage in rush-hour traffic🙄
SvaraRaderaI have also very similar experiences where the boundaries are blurring more and more, especially in the home-office period forced by COVID19./Maya PBL5
SvaraRadera