Digitalization of Work

1“Spillover” Work via Technology: Organizational Antecedents and Health Impacts

1.1. What is spillover work?

When we talk about “spillover” work, the first thing we think of is the number of hours of overtime worked per week, compared to what is set out in the employment contract. With work mediated by information and communication technology (ICT), many companies are promoting, or even encouraging, flexible spaces and flexible working times (Taskin 2006; Peters et al. 2009; Allen et al. 2013; Grant et al. 2013). Asynchronous remote working means that the employee can work outside the premises of their company (space flexibility – we obviously think of home-based teleworking, or coworking spaces). But asynchronous remote working also means that the employees can choose their own working hours: working within a flexible organization might suit them better than working traditional office hours (9 am to 5 pm), since it allows them to juggle different constraints or preferences, especially family ones (starting work in the morning before taking the children to school, leaving the office earlier, going shopping outside of “rush hour”, resuming work in the evening, in a quiet place, after the children have gone to bed, in order to “make up” their hours, etc.). In other words, with the new work organizations made possible by technology, the notion of spillover can no longer be understood solely in terms of a traditional working schedule carried out on the company’s premises. The “calculation” ...