The Unpredictable Clock: The Time of Knowledge Work

Abstract

In the last chapter, we examined quantitative measures of working time: How long is the working week? How often do people work outside standard working hours? We found extended flexibility and unpredictable working hours. The following chapters will ask: why is this the case? The first step on this exploration requires us to consider the work-process itself and the way in which it frames time. In the first chapter, we detailed how working time came to be measured by the clock. However, we also saw that while time can be understood and experienced as something that is quantifiable, there are many other types of time. Neither the long-term prisoner for whom the long days are emptied of content (Medlicott, 1999), nor the climber about to reach the summit of Everest (Schneider, 2002) experiences time in terms of hours and minutes. This chapter uncovers both the times of the clock and the ‘other times’ associated with knowledge work. It shows how there is a dual temporal existence in organisations. On the one hand, time in organisations is quantified, decontextualised, rationalised and commodified. On the other hand, for individuals, it is lived, created, and generated (Adam, 1995).

Yet again it has taken me a full day to do a particular task that should only take an hour or two. It takes a full day every month, admittedly but I can’t bring myself to accept that that’s just how long it takes so I am surprised and frustrated every time.

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