Towards a ‘vulnerable co-presence’ for hybrid ways of working: Recasting the nexus of co-presence and vulnerability with Merleau-Ponty and Butler

Abstract

While hybrid working offers many benefits, its individualizing inclination creates ‘new vulnerabilities’ by making social ties and work collectives more precarious. A growing number of studies have referred to co-presence to examine how hybrid work arrangements reshape sociality and togetherness at work. However, most consider co-presence as fundamentally distinct from vulnerability, creating a common divide between the two phenomena. This conceptual article posits a normative argument that recasting how co-presence relates to vulnerability should help to address the ‘new vulnerabilities’ at stake in hybrid working. After briefly exploring how the literature examines the interplay of co-presence and vulnerability, I draw on existential phenomenology – in particular, the ontological arguments of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Judith Butler – to develop the notion of ‘vulnerable co-presence’ before introducing three points of attention, namely how it is (1) ‘intercorporeal’, (2) ‘temporo-spatial’ and (3) ‘ethico-political’. I then outline the two main implications of this framework. First, it lays the groundwork for repoliticizing the hybrid workforce. Second, it offers practitioners a perceptual basis for imagining and learning new skills to ‘hold the collective together’ in hybrid organizational contexts. Finally, I present this article’s methodological contributions and suggest some avenues for future research.