The directors at Tech Co. were hoping that the company would survive the negative phase it was going through and would become more resilient in the process. They were aiming to do so by keeping costs down, diversifying the markets and finding new ones so that they would not have to make anyone redundant. Furthermore, they were planning to restructure the company in order to improve customers’ expectations and amongst other things they were hoping that workers would start delivering more in shorter periods of time. On this, the Manager in the Business Application Unit (George) said:
George: Increasingly we have pressure from all directions… Anna: And how do you resolve that?
George: We have to keep finding ways to deliver the same amount of quality in a shorter amount of time…
Anna: If … you have a job and you need to finish it, are people expected to, I don’t know, to stay on? Is that paid time?
George: It’s not quite defined to be honest, but in general, ermm, people get paid, for instance when some customer requires that the work has to be done specifically at the weekend … But in general the staff have a good package, and when there’s a deadline approaching, people after all are called, sort of, to put in extra effort to meet it.
Whilst confirming that ICT workers in general are expected to put in extra effort because they tend to be well paid (Valenduc & Vendramin, 2004), here it
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becomes clearer that because of increased pressure brought by the financial crisis, workers at Tech Co. were now expected to do even more with less and to make an extra effort because of the difficult financial situation. Here, it is pertinent to point out that several studies show (Griffith & More, 2010; Gill, 2002; Henwood, 1993) that workers operating in the ICT sector are conscious that their work is not like an eight-to-five job, but can often spill over into their personal time during the evening and sometimes the weekend.
The pressure around working time in ICT companies may be cyclical and tied to specific jobs (Whitehouse & Preston, 2005), and according to the Manager of the Software Development Department (David), at Tech Co., in practice this could mean:
David: Working till seven for practically six months, including weekends sometimes…
The Implementation Consultants who worked in the Business Application Unit faced different challenges due to the fact that they had to travel regularly and typically worked abroad in Libya, the UK and in other parts of the EU. Some workers spent long periods abroad and, for example, George (Manager), said that workers who operate with the oil and gas industry generally work for:
George: twenty four hours, so we have someone who practically spends his life in the desert. So, he spends a month there - not his life, he spends a month there and a month at home.
Although this did not affect all the team members, regular travelling and working abroad is challenging and has a bigger impact on the personal side of life.
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When workers spend periods away from home, on their return they generally have to cram all their errands in the little time they have left, thus reducing their free time even further. It is interesting to note that out of the seven original team members working in the Business Application Unit that I had interviewed in the early stage of this research (2008-2009), only two remained with the team by 2013. Of the current team (2013) made up of three women and ten men (including the manager), only one male member of staff has children (and these are grown up). The others, who are younger in age, do not have children and hence it is important to assess the sustainability of work in such a demanding environment over the long run, especially for men and women who want to have a family or those who have other commitments outside work.
The work-life conflict seemed more acute for workers who worked directly with clients. This typically brings more pressures to deliver on time, especially when systems crash or when urgent maintenance is needed and can mean that work has to be done at night, during the weekend and even during holiday periods. For example, some of Tech Co.’s clients operate in the health, finance and the security world and so, immediate attention must be given by the Implementation Consultants when malfunctions develop. Being on call to attend urgent calls can disrupt their personal time and raise more challenges for workers in such situations (Bailyn, 2006a; Bailyn et al., 2005).
During a focus group session held in 2013, members of the Business Application Team complained that in the last years, since the economic crisis, workers who left the unit were not being replaced and hence they had to take
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on jobs previously done by their colleagues on top of their already substantial workload. This meant that some workers had multiple projects running simultaneously. For example, Kevin (Senior Implementation Consultant) remarked:
Kevin: I am working on overseeing seven maximum projects. I am seeing them one at a time … so at the moment, if I work one hour a day on each project, my time is full.
Apart from handling multiple projects, Kevin’s work also entailed travelling to the north of Europe on a regular basis to work on site. The combination of handling multiple projects and regular travelling may give an indication of the commitment required and how this could possibly exacerbate the work-life conflict. In fact, when I asked Kevin, who is married, whether he would want to continue travelling as he was doing now if he had a young family, he replied:
Kevin: Definitely not, because you are travelling so much you have so little time when you come back home … it will be impossible to do so.
Here Kevin highlights the work-family conflict of workers who work abroad regularly and how such workers anticipate that they may have to choose between family and work in this context (Single Agenda Logic). Clara, who works in the same team as a Senior Implementation Consultant, also spoke about the unreasonable expectations and how these affect work-life issues:
Clara: Because we are quite busy and we lack resources, some of the expectations on the workers are becoming a bit unreasonable, because...like I get emails coming in on the week-end expecting me to, things I choose to do as part of my job, but … getting an email Thursday night telling me to deliver a report by Sunday is
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unreasonable by anything … I shouldn’t even be reachable … I mean I shouldn’t even be on email on the weekend, but because of the pressure of the work, the demands …. it becomes unrealistic, a sign of the times, but it becomes frustrating … until we get more people, we have to … it falls on us.
Whilst complaining about the unreasonable expectations, Clara here seems resigned about work pressure and dismisses it as a sign of the times (Lewis, Brannen & Nilsen, 2009; Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2010b). Yet, she also makes it clear that its effect was not cost–neutral on her.
5.1.3. Increased Controls on Time and the Introduction of