Working at Home in Relation to Institutionalised Individualism : - A Critical Master’s Dissertation

Sammanfattning: Globalisation, internet and digitalisation has given cause to vast changes in society, where the individual is to an ever greater extent extradited to oneself through individualisation, flexibilisation and informatisation. Taken together this known as institutional individualisation. Globalisation, internet and digitalisation has facilitated a plethora of possibilities for remote work, i.e. white collar work that is not confined to a dedicated office area, but rather being undertaken on the go, at home or in a hotel lobby. As the global spread of Covid-19, office work has taken on new dimensions forcing employees to conduct their work within the context of the private sphere, thus altering working fromhome (WFH) into working athome (WAH). This is here researched, using a combination of critical theory and social critical realism.            In this master’s dissertation, WAH full time due to Covid-19, has therefore been set in relation to institutional individualisation and its incusing on contemporary society. Thus, against the background of individualisation, flexibilisation and informatisation, and how they together comprise our everyday working lives in the organisations where we, by means of making a living, every day partake, the changed nature of the relation between the private and the professional sphere has here been investigated. Eleven semi structured in-depth interviews, in addition to four confirmatory interviews, have served to give new insights on the social im­pli­cations of WAH. These are presented in six verified hypo­thesises, with subordinate clauses. Taken together, these in turn serve to illustrate a catalysed institutionalised individualism, and a usurpation of the private sphere, by the pro­fessional sphere, while simultaneously instigating a perceived free will, making the trans­formation a choice of the employee him- or herself.