Signs of Our Time: Time-Use as Dedication, Performance, Identity, and Power in Contemporary Workplaces

Abstract

Time-use refers to the amount of time spent working and how that time is allocated over a particular period. A growing number of scholars are considering how social context—people’s immediate social environments (e.g., colleagues and managers, norms, work groups, and nonwork demands)—shape time-use. However, this research is fragmented across disciplines, methods, and levels of analysis. To integrate and advance knowledge in this area, we review empirical studies that inform current understanding of social context and time-use. In doing so, we develop a framework that reveals how the extant literature coalesces around four taken-for-granted social meanings: time-use as dedication, time-use as performance, time-use as identity, and time-use as power. These four meanings are anchored in broadly shared societal ideologies but are enacted and interpreted locally as people engage time in a specific context. Looking across the four social meanings, we discuss how they are interconnected, and identify overarching themes that unite them. Building on these insights, we suggest important directions for future research on the social context of time-use.