In other words, the relationship between technology, pace, and connection is much more rich and complex than previous studies have shown. ICTs actually have an ambiguous relationship to the pace of work flow, both impeding and propelling, depending on a variety of local, human/machine contingencies.
I was intrigued to read a study of heavy BlackBerry users that highlights what the authors term the “autonomy paradox.”32 The corporate lawyers, venture capitalists, and investment bankers interviewed overwhelmingly regard “anytime, anywhere” mobile e-mail as enhancing their flexibility, control, and competence as professional workers. Yet, this same pattern of compulsive connectivity also heightens expectations of availability and responsiveness, reducing their personal downtime and increasing stress. The authors explain this paradox—that mobile e-mail both increases and diminishes professionals’ autonomy—in terms of the unintended consequences of collective use. While individuals derive substantial benefits from their mobiles, monitoring and controlling the timing and location of work, the shared practice of continual connectivity fosters expectations of accessibility, escalating engagement with work at all hours of the day and night.33
Consistent with my argument, the authors show how, over time, the collective trajectory of ICT use shifts norms of how work (in this case, professional work) is and should be performed: redefining “what it means and what it takes to be an efective knowledge professional in an era of ubiquitous, always-on, mobile technologies.”34 In contexts where perpetual availability via multiple gadgets is a significant part of professional self-esteem, it may well be experienced as a positive attribute.
Judging how digital technologies will be incorporated into work processes merits continuous inquiry, especially as their very meaning changes over time as people innovate and modify them in their usage. For example, e-mail has already become a less urgent, asynchronous way of communicating, compared to when it was first adopted. Shifting between synchronous and asynchronous modalities, people are developing multidimensional time practices, creating new rhythms of work. The traditional concept of work intensification cannot fully capture this dynamic coconstruction of ICTs and the temporalities of work.
Working with Constant Conne c tivity
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