Where Does Work End and Home Life Begin?

Abstract

Many years ago, it was a commonly held belief that technology would improve industries and service professions, which means that people could work shorter hours and their employers would make just as much money. Essentially, this is the central myth of modern capitalism. Modern technologies are the shackles that bind today’s employees to their jobs long after they get home from work. Beginning in the 1990s, technology made working from home possible for a growing number of people. At first this was perceived as the era of great things to come. At home many people had personal computers connected to their corporate network. It quickly became clear that telecommuting and the rapidly proliferating “electronic leash” of cell phones made work inescapable in the 24/7, on-demand work accessibility (Curry, 2003). Today, almost half of America’s workforce is using computers, fax machines, e-mail, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones during what is supposed to be non-work time, according to the Families and Work Institute (Galinsky, Kim, & Bond, 2001).