Corporate smart phones: professionals' conscious engagement in escalating work connectivity

• Published in: New technology, work, and employment Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 72 - 87
• Main Authors: Cavazotte, Flávia, Heloisa Lemos, Ana, Villadsen, Kaspar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Accessibility; Brazil; Connectivity; Consciousness; control; dis-identification; Employee management relations; Employees; Flexibility; Hours of work; Interviews; Justification; Law firms; Mobile phones; Narratives; Perception; Qualitative analysis; smart phones; Smartphones; Social context; Studies; Technology; work intensification; work/life balance; Zizek; Brazil
• ISSN: 0268-1072; 1468-005X
• DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12022

This article explores how the adoption of company sponsored smart phones inflicts upon the lives of professionals. Drawing upon qualitative interviews at a law firm in Brazil, the experiences of new smart phone users are reported upon in detail. Increased accessibility, accuracy and speed in exchanges gave the users a sense of autonomy and flexibility. However, the technology also helped to intensify the organisation's hold on employees outside of regular working hours, reaching into new settings, time slots and social contexts. Employees expressed concerns regarding demands from superiors that negatively affected their private spheres, yet many of them paradoxically requested more efficient smart phone connectivity. The article focuses on the justifications, the different narrative strategies, employed by professionals for their conscious engagement in escalating work connectivity. It is suggested that these justifications display users' attempt to ‘dis‐identify’ with the role and practice they perform.