Synchronizing time for work and family: preliminary insights from qualitative research with mothers

Abstract

The workplace and the home are commonly seen as conceptually separate or even opposing sites, reflecting public and private spheres that conflict when mothers (representing the home and the private sphere) carry out workplace commitments. But how temporally separate are these sites? Findings from preliminary qualitative research of employees at a hospital in Canberra highlight the inadequacies of a dualistic approach because it renders invisible the synchronized experience of time that mothers report. This ability to synchronize time does not reflect structural harmony between the workplace and the home, but rather is evidence of the work mothers must do to maintain their attachments to both.