Office at home: bliss amid the storm

Attitudes towards hybrid working vary, even within the one person. The flexibility it affords brings crucial questions to the fore. It raises contested issues such as how we should/could/must be involved in family life, when and how much we should work, or even what a successful life looks like.

The pictures featured in this section shed light on the distinctive priorities people establish while performing their work.. It explores the crossroads employees find themselves in every day when they make choices in working out what it means to ‘balance’ work versus family, hobbies, leisure, and so many other things we do in our lives. The distinction between public and private first made in the 20th century, now, faces new provocations.

Is it a blessing?

The picture is one of the few that captures people. Though we were careful in selecting inspiring photos, we were also concerned with our interviewees’ privacy and anonymity. Yet it is important to acknowledge how hybrid working addresses the ‘hybridity’ of roles that employees occupy. Working hybrid allows people to respond and be present to calls from both work and home demands. This is both freeing and overwhelming - one of the many paradoxes of the layered way of living and working that hybrid working invites.

Credits: Working from Home 3 © 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/

Perspectives on Hybrid Exhibition

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

“I think it captures the good parts and the bad parts of working at home. You can be with your family, but you also get interrupted by your family. I think it's the best in the worst. It shows me in work mode but also dad mode and it allows me to have that time. I hope when my baby gets old enough, she'll appreciate the fact that even when daddy was working, she was sitting in his lap, which was very different from when I was growing up.”

Are we privileged?

The second picture in the section invites us to think about differential access to the potential benefits of hybrid working. After all, can we see and discuss hybrid working from similar perspectives? Some have the resources to build a ‘small heaven’ we can call a home office. Some more easily decide to be present digitally but not physically, confident that their position is secure. We are invited to consider our agency here, also in relation to the material environment - to what extent are we able to mold the conditions of our own work? Finally, this picture invites us to consider ‘the other’, our colleagues, and their different needs. While flexibility in when and where and how we work serves many, working hybrid should also make us aware of the distinct realities each of us is embedded in and make us more flexible and open to our coworkers’ lived realities.

Credits: Working from Home 4 © 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.

“My partner and I share the office, and this is for me the most comfortable setup for work. Also, the kitty bed is there. When I take a break, I walk into the room, I get a coffee, I go on the balcony and get some air, some oxygen, go pat the cat. We are in a privileged position because our house is quiet and we don't have children, so we can actually work from home more productively. I also acknowledge that it's also a contextual thing.”

Office at home: bliss amid the storm

Is it a blessing?

Working from Home 3

Working from Home 3

Are we privileged?

Working from Home 4

Working from Home 4

Quick links

Study

Featured

About VU