Whether to reduce their carbon footprint, invest hours into hobbies and well-being, or avoid crowds, workers are increasingly aiming to make the most of time spent working.. Working while moving also invites us to consider the acceleration of activities. Moments that were once spent staring out a window are now spent responding to and propelling the synthetic situations that comprise our working day.
Working while Moving
The picture features the laptop landing on the train table while the participant of our study registered an important component of hybrid working - using commutes to find quiet, to break away from the response systems of online work - and distancing themselves from the noises of home and office that call them to action in a way that the sounds of strangers do not. . While short journeys imply getting updated about the destination and preparing for action, longer journeys offer the opportunity to work on more attention-intensive activities, especially when connectivity is reduced. These experiences invite us to think about how impersonal spaces support attention, and how pockets of disconnection both frustrate and facilitate work efforts.
Credits: Working on the Train © 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.
