Considering the micro- politics of times and spaces through the re-regulation of work-life balance in the context of the (post-)covid hybrid work

The generalization of fulltime telework and later on hybrid work from the Covid-19 crisis onwards deeply challenges our understanding of work-life balance arguments associated to telework. In this context, the present contribution shows how work-life balance is the result of a continuous re-regulation process of private and professional norms, going beyond the concrete level of re-regulated spaces, activities, roles and times. Using a longitudinal qualitative method made of interviews and self-reported diaries of 13 employees and managers on a one-year period, we seek to understand how this re-regulation may also be understood as part of a resistance process aiming to accommodate work and private duties and concerns “at the right place” and often “at the right distance” but also “at the right time”. To do so, we analyze the making of these re-regulations, addressing the following question: how work-life balance is shaped and re-regulated in the covid-19 work context (including micro-politics of the workplace – home - and of working times)?