To Örebro University

Continuities and disruptions of daily work, as well as boundaries between work and the rest of life, are key issues in the contemporary working life, and the so-called 24/7 society; yet this specifi c type of “boundary work” remains neglected in studies of work and organi-zations relative to research on other forms of boundary work.

The paper arises from the Academy of Finland-funded project, Age, Generation and Changing Work-Life Balance Boundaries, which explores how different age and generational groups of professionals in mul-tinational private sector enterprises encounter chang-ing work-life balance in their everyday lives (Kelly et al. 2008). It examines how age-related and genera-tion-related dynamics, processes and practices in organisations impact on women and men and their changing work-life balance and boundaries (Fineman 2011; D’Amanto and Hertzfeldt 2008; Crampton and Hodge 2007, 2009). In this, age and generation inter-sect with other social divisions in women’s and men’s working life and work-life balance, via changing work-life boundaries of time and space, roles and spheres.

The data comprises interview material with knowl-edge workers in the mobile work of business consul-tancy working with client organisations around the world, in different time zones and with high availability. Additionally, we examine self-reported data of disrup-tions of the knowledge workers’ working days from the private spheres of their lives, as well as disrup-tions in the knowledge workers’ leisure due to work issues. Along with individual experiences within these organisational contexts, we address organisational re-sponses to work-life balance challenges and retention of women and men in different ages/generations and career stages.

Overall, the paper highlights the importance of ex-amining and developing better understanding of the blurring boundaries of knowledge work, as well as the clashes between, on one hand, the importance of in-dividual leisure time, and, on the other, the ever inten-sifying work culture with expectations of 24/7 availa-bility in global settings (Heiskanen 2004; Pyöriä and Blom 2005). Finding new ways of managing blurred boundaries is an important societal issue, not least as the lengthening of careers is seen as necessary at the macro European socio-economic policy level.