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Guided by Screens

What kind of workers are we? Knowledge workers? It is difficult to label what defines our work but how we work is at the university united by a common technology: the screen. The people we studied have many different roles but all can be considered to be ‘screen workers’. A multiplicity of screens call for our attention, requiring monitoring, response, action.

Hybrid working highlights the popularity of screens and how they expand our universe through our hands and eyes. Touch remains important, although repetitive. Vision is central and is intensively stimulated: eyes flutter between devices, tabs, windows. Increasingly we listen to colleagues over headphones and speakers. The set of pictures in this section invites you to consider: how do screens participate in the situations you are part of? Do they draw you into situations or distract you from them? Is there a workplace beyond or without screens? Let’s navigate through the ‘waves’ of the sea of screens.

Between papers and screens

This first picture was taken by one of the project researchers and has an interesting story behind it. The interviewer and interviewee, let’s call them Betty and Maria, were walking through the corridors of one of the university’s departments. The interview had just finished, and Betty kindly offered Maria a tour around the facilities. As they advanced, they found colleagues on the way, and Betty was friendly in introducing Maria to everyone, giving her the floor to explain the research further and take pictures. The room was busy. People working side-by-side were disrupted and kindly asked to leave their stations so that Maria could take a photograph. Bodies moved, but objects remained. Objects were present as participants of the scene while the humans were protectively removed from it.

Mobile screens are essentially the heart of hybrid working. They bounce from one corner to another and guide our eyes into a route distinct from the one where our body is. They define our path, our views, and our actions. Yet, we rarely see them.

What caught your attention first? Do you also use several screens to do your work? Do they complete or compete with each other?

Credits: Shared screens © 2023 by Hybrid Working Project VU Amsterdam is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Note that we intentionally don’t show people in this image.

Perspectives on Hybrid Exhibition

Discover the changing landscape of what, why, when, where, and how we work

Shared screens

Shared screens

“I have a good experience with hybrid working. For example, there were some students from University. They asked me to help with the programming. They could share their screen and I could tell them, ‘you need to type in this because I see an error there’. And then it really works quite well. But I would say if the students could come to the campus and be in a practical room, it would be much easier to just walk to them and look at their screen.”

Navigating in-between the screens

The second picture of this set was taken by one of the participants of our study. We asked them to take photos of moments in their working days that were representative or had a strong meaning for them regarding hybrid working. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, most interviewees shared pictures of their desks, turning the focus to the screens. As we explored the pictures during interviews, participants would often start the conversation: ‘Well, as you see, my work is not that exciting when you see it from the outside’. The diverse types and formats of screens taking part in the work scene accentuate our availability to a myriad of situations that are unfolding at once. People will often have different situations unfolding on different screens. A desktop is devoted to the work task at hand. Another, often the laptop or ipad, hosts a document, email account or instant communication apps. A smartphone keeps people posted about the events of their world through notifications. Nevertheless throughout our studies we saw the paper notebook participate in this party of screens, often forming a bridge between all available information in the form of notes, summaries, and to dos.  

Credits: Guided by the Screens © 2022 by Hybrid Working Project VU Amsterdam is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Note that we intentionally don’t show people in this image.

My Precious Screens

My Precious Screens

“I use the laptop as a second screen and the large screen is the main one, which I do prefer if I have to compare documents and work on data. The iPad works well for reading, grading thesis and papers because I have my pen for the tablet.”

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