Making space for time: Strategies for the design of time-aware hybrid work

Abstract

Time is central to many debates about hybrid work- the impact on speed and productivity, commute times, and synchronisation of work. However, we argue that time is often over-simplified in extant hybrid work literature and tends to ignore many temporal concepts that capture the inherently complex, multi-faceted, subtle, and socially embedded nature of time. To address this issue, we conducted studies of five hybrid work teams across two large organisations. The paper contributes to current research on hybrid work by (i) illustrating the various temporal concepts that may be considered in the design of hybrid work environments, as well as the impact of considering or not considering them; (ii) illustrating how these temporal concepts in a physical space can be augmented in the digital space, rather than assuming the digital space should simply represent the physical; and (iii) providing a framework for the consideration of time–aware hybrid work. We hope to spark scientific interest in studying the temporal nuances of hybrid work but also the temporal aspects of design in other areas.