My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

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doi:10.5477/cis/reis.150.189

     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and
                     Work in Spanish Companies
           Mi trabajo es mi vida. La incrustación de los mundos de la vida y del
                                                  trabajo en empresas españolas

                                      Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygada and Francisco Cruces

Key words                    Abstract
Job Attitude                 This paper analyses emerging forms in which life and work are interwoven,
• Organizational             based on 20 ethnographic studies conducted in enterprises in Spain.
Change                       Whereas after the Industrial Revolution work processes tended to be
• Ethnography                autonomous from the living environments of production agents, in recent
• Job Satisfaction           decades a trend in the opposite direction has been observed in some
• Working Time               companies. This re-articulation takes place at several levels: a) through the
• Daily Life                 blurring of the boundaries that separate work and everyday life, b) through
                             the reintegration of affective dimensions into work processes, c) in
                             promoting reciprocity and sociability in the economic sphere and d) in the
                             production of meaningful experiences at work. Are we witnessing an
                             emancipating balance between life and work? Or, on the contrary, is private
                             life being colonized by the sphere of production? In this paper we seek to
                             explore a third form of analysis, that of reflexive modernity.

Palabras clave               Resumen
Actitud en el trabajo        En base a 20 etnografías realizadas en empresas españolas, este texto
• Cambio organizativo        analiza formas emergentes de imbricación entre los mundos del trabajo y
• Etnografía                 la vida. Si a partir de la Revolución Industrial se da una tendencia a la
• Satisfacción en el         autonomía del proceso de trabajo con respecto a los entornos vitales de
trabajo                      los trabajadores, actualmente se observa una tendencia inversa en ciertas
• Tiempo de trabajo          empresas. Esta rearticulación se produce en varios sentidos: a) en el
• Vida cotidiana             desvanecimiento de la frontera que separa el trabajo de la vida cotidiana;
                             b) en la reinserción de dimensiones afectivas en los procesos laborales; c)
                             en el fomento de la reciprocidad y la sociabilidad en el ámbito económico;
                             y d) en la producción de experiencias significativas en el trabajo. ¿Nos
                             hallamos ante una reconciliación emancipadora de la vida y el trabajo? O,
                             por el contrario, ¿se trata de una colonización del mundo de la vida por el
                             mundo productivo? Proponemos explorar una tercera vía de análisis, la de
                             la modernidad reflexiva.
Citation
Valenzuela, Hugo; Reygadas, Luis and Cruces, Francisco (2015). “My Job is my Life. Overlap
between Life and Work in Spanish Companies”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas,
150: 189-208.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.150.189)

Hugo Valenzuela: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona | hugo.valenzuela@uab.es
Luis Reygadas: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (México) | lrrg@xanum.uam.mx
Francisco Cruces: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia | fcruces@fsof.uned.es

                                  Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
190                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

Re-building the relationship                                      exception.
between life and work1                                                 The end of the twentieth century saw a
                                                                  significant shift towards a balance between
The concern about the split between perso-                        the two spheres, encouraged by several inte-
nal life and work is as old as the Industrial                     rrelated factors. First, due to the crisis of the
Revolution itself. In 1815 Robert Owen pos-                       Fordist paradigm, which began to be percei-
tulated that a genuine care for workers                           ved as being too rigid in the context of an in-
(whom he dubbed living machines) would                            creasingly competitive global market, focused
result in an increase in business profits (Don-                   on quality and diversification (Boyer, 1991).
nachie, 2000). Marx had similar concerns                          Second, due to the increasing entry of women
when he dealt with the alienating nature of                       into the labour market and the consequent
industrial work; as did Durkheim, in his war-                     challenges this posed for the balance bet-
ning that social bonds would be eroded by                         ween home and professional life (Pleck, Stai-
the modern division of labour.                                    nes and Lang, 1980; Hochschild, 1997, 2012).
                                                                  Third, because in the emerging knowledge
    In the early twentieth century the distance
                                                                  economy (Machlup, 1962; Drucker, 1968) it
between work and home life was markedly
                                                                  became evident that the processes of crea-
greater. Taylorism significantly increased pro-
                                                                  tion and innovation, as strategic resources,
ductivity, and took the decomposition of
                                                                  required the reshaping of production models
tasks to the extreme (Coriat, 1991). The en-
                                                                  and flexible, communicative and experimen-
suing rigid system of time and motion trans-
                                                                  tal work environments, where workers feel at
lated into a meaningless work routine for
                                                                  home to express their subjectivity (Lloveras, et
workers. Later Fordism exacerbated the ten-
                                                                  al., 2009). To create value, the collaboration
dency to dehumanise work, since operators
                                                                  networks between consumers, users and
toiled at repetitive motion activities, and
                                                                  workers, the expert systems that blend the
every avenue for creativity and enhancing
                                                                  human and the technological (Cruces et al.,
their capabilities was annihilated. The arm
                                                                  2002; Latour, 2008), and the information about
and mind were radically divorced from each
                                                                  the everyday life of the new generations of
other and, with this separation, work became
                                                                  consumers become strategic fields.
distanced from everyday life. This trend did
not even change with the post-war economic                            From 1960 onwards, the centre place
boom, when attempts were made to mitigate                         taken by knowledge in the production pro-
workers’ harsh conditions by increases in                         cess marks a profound transition from a so-
wages and other labour incentives. In this                        ciety based on predetermined occupations
context, organisations concerned with im-                         to one based on occupational choice (Druc-
proving the working environment were the                          ker, 1968)2. At the start of this century, con-
                                                                  trary to the industrial process, the brain and
                                                                  social relationships played a greater role than
                                                                  the machine (Bell, 1973: 20; Overell, 2008:
1  For a collective ethnography of the 20 companies, see
Reygadas, Luís; Francisco Cruces, Hugo Valenzuela et              28; Castells, 1996: 476). On the one hand,
al. (2012). We are indebted to our colleagues that colla-         ubiquitous technology increased the need for
borated on this work (Humberto Matas, Nancy A. Kon-
valinka, Irene Estrada, Diego Herranz, Sandra Fernández,
                                                                  skilled workers who would be able to apply
Montserrat Cañedo y Carlos Montes), as well twenty                their reflexive, creative and tacit knowledge
organisations that opened their doors to us to carry out
this study. The research is part of the Sectores de la
Nueva Economía 20 + 20, project funded by the Schol
for Industrial Organisatio (EOI) as well the projetcs             2  As Clifton says, whereas in the industrial era “people
CSO2009-10780 y CS02012-33949 del Plan Nacional                   followed jobs”, in the post-industrial society “jobs fo-
de I+D+i del MINECO..                                             llowed people” (2008: 63).

Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    191

to the process of value creation. And on the                   Florida, the blurring of the boundary between
other hand, the connection between informa-                    life and work enables workers to display their
tion technologies, cooperative work and so-                    talent in a meaningful activity and therefore,
cial capital revealed a new appreciation of                    the traditional management model, vertical
the human dimension in production proces-                      and hierarchical, is dispensed with in favour
ses (Lin, 2002; Benkler, 2006; Botsman and                     of self-discipline and peer pressure. Classic
Rogers, 2010; Girard, 2009; Leadbeater,                        examples of these new work situations are
2008; Tapscott and Williams, 2009).                            leading-edge companies such as Google
    These changes meant that, for certain                      and Apple (Girard 2009; Hamel 2007).
sectors, work became an inseparable part of                        This enhancement of life by work is often
one’s personal project (Overell, 2008: 31).                    is attributed to the new technologies. It is
This meaningful work is the result of the ex-                  claimed that computers and the Internet, un-
tension of academic and vocational training                    like the old assembly line, promote collabo-
(Martin, 2000), and of the search for additio-                 rative work and dissemination of information
nal post- or extra-materialist motivations that                (Benkler 2003, 2011). This new work culture,
go beyond maximising income. These moti-                       playful and carefree, is associated with the
vations (self-realisation, recognition and ex-                 counterculture and the hacker ethic (Brooks,
pression of subjectivity), together with the                   2000; Turner, 2006; Himmanen, 2002) and,
increasing relevance of empathetic, emotio-                    while it does not exclude hard work, it de-
nal and social skills and dispositions (Pine                   parts from the Protestant ethic whereby work
and Gilmore, 1999; Scace, 2002: 86-87), give                   was considered an obligation devoid of plea-
work a new central place in the identity cons-                 sure. Instead, an exciting and enjoyable job
truction of the modern individual, which in                    translates into long hours that go beyond the
turn profoundly influences the balance bet-                    work schedule and office space, extending
ween life and work .                                           over free time, holidays and weekends. This
                                                               type of work “keeps me at my keyboard for
                                                               hours, hardly noticing that it’s long past bed-
Is private life enhanced or                                    time” (Florida, 2010: 146).
colonised by work?                                                  A second perspective argues, however,
                                                               that what we are witnessing is a process of
Despite a relative consensus on the blurring of                colonisation of everyday life by work. Cogni-
these boundaries, discrepancies exist about                    tive work remains essentially an activity su-
its scope and consequences. Three broad in-                    bordinated to the extractive logic of capita-
terpretations are found here: a) life is enhan-                lism: it is stressful, under surveillance and
ced by work; b) life is colonised by work; and                 alienating, even though it is workers themsel-
c) there are contradictions inherent in work                   ves, or their peers, who guarantee the inten-
subjectivities within reflexive modernisation.                 sity of the production activity (Ross, 2003).
These will be analysed in more detail below.                   From this perspective, the outcomes of their
    Many agents related to the knowledge                       ingenuity (information, creativity and ideas
economy welcome the erosion of the old ba-                     produced within and outside working hours),
rriers between work and life and maintain a                    as well as the workers’ leisure time and emo-
normative discourse on the virtues of a type                   tions are re-appropriated by companies that
of work that provides greater significance,                    make enormous profits (Fumagalli, 2010).
interest, freedom and equality (Scace, 2002).                  The company ends up defining the worker’s
The concept of the creative class coined by                    life and blurring the difference between work
Richard Florida (2010) is a clear example of                   and personal creativity (Ross, 2003). In this
this thesis that life is enhanced by work. For                 context, only a minority have leeway to deci-

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192                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

de the pace and shape of their work, since                        ployers and supervisors has been internali-
most are under pressure, with demanding                           sed. It is a normative, intrinsic or “soft”
deadlines and instability (Ross, 2001: 79).                       control, but a form of control nonetheless
Employees, to alleviate this uncertainty, opt                     (Kunda, 1992; Florida, 2010). Businesses pro-
for obtaining increased visibility by extending                   ject a seductive personal ethics, a version of
their working day (Scace, 2002: 110) submit-                      the technologies of the self through personal
ting themselves to stressful processes of                         management and body policies that reflect
constant learning (Benner, 2002: 203).                            the internalisation of capitalist logic (Rose
    In an analysis of mid-management in Nor-                      1999; Donzelot 1991 in Rowan, 2010: 69).
th American companies, Jill Fraser (2002)                         This phenomenon is typical of the transition
showed how white-collar workers have seen                         from disciplinary societies to control socie-
their free time reduced, largely due to perso-                    ties, in which mechanisms of open, conti-
nal computers, mobile telephones and bee-                         nuous monitoring gain greater relevance,
pers; how stress has been exacerbated by a                        where the panopticon is internalised by sub-
Big Brother-type surveillance exercised by                        jects themselves (Deleuze, 2005). Through
the monitoring of their telephone calls, emails                   self-management, employees become their
and computers; and how privacy has been                           own employers, perhaps the most deman-
diminished by the use of offices with open                        ding ones, who self-impose labour control
cubicles. For these reasons, Fraser (2002)                        both at home and in their spare time, neglec-
called these corporations white-collar sweat-                     ting their personal and family life (McGuigan,
shops. The work conducted by call centre                          2009). This results in health problems, subs-
employees and software programmers en-                            tance abuse, mental breakdown or suicide
dorse this thesis. Many of these employees                        (Kunda, 1992). These processes demonstra-
carry out non-manual tasks, but they are so                       te, in the words of Lukács, the corporate co-
routine and repetitive that they provide no                       lonisation of the last bastion of personality:
intellectual challenge (Bain and Taylor, 2000;                    the feelings and ideas of the employee (Sie-
Castillo, 2007; Cousin, 2002; Moss, Salzman                       vers 1994: 4), leading to emotionally and phy-
and Tilly, 2008; Micheli, 2007). The conse-                       sically crippled employees because they give
quences of outsourcing the less creative                          too much to their jobs (Fraser, 2002: 158).
work has contributed to the emergence of a                            A third perspective considers that con-
form of peripheral cognitive Fordism (McCall,                     temporary changes in the boundaries of life
2001: xi) and the emergence of a new infra-                       and work express the contradictions of re-
class (Hodgson, 1999) that is significantly                       flexive modernisation (Bauman, 2005;
feminised and ethnicised (Robinson, 2003;                         Giddens, Beck and Lash, 1994; Beck, Bonss
Morini, 2007). In this context, for example                       and Lau, 2003). To that extent, they are
Chinese teenagers are found who are glued                         neither positive nor negative per se; they
to their screens testing video games in 12-                       constitute an ambivalent response to a mo-
hour rotating shifts, 7 days a week (who in                       dernisation process which leads to the criti-
turn informally subcontract other minors to                       cal questioning of some of its original funda-
complete the lower levels of difficulty) (Bar-                    mentals and institutions (such as the
boza, 2005, Toscano 2007: 10); or young se-                       traditional family, bureaucratic organisations
cretaries in Barbados performing office tasks                     and trade unions). Subjects are asked to
piecework under the relentless monitoring of                      choose and foreshadow their destiny outside
the number of key presses which determine                         the constraints inherited by class, gender or
their salary (Salzinger, 2003).                                   ethnicity (Beck, 1992: 135; Charles and Ha-
   Even in the most creative work, it is ar-                      rris, 2007: 278). A good example would be
gued, the surveillance once exercised by em-                      the “negotiated family” in which the roles and

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                     193

TablE 1. Companies analysed and their fundamental traits

     Organisation                    Activity              Location         Size                       Key
 Designit Madrid           Consultancy, design and        Madrid         Medium        Sophisticated internal learning
                           innovation                                                  system
 CuldeSac                  Design                         Valencia       Medium        Cross-pollination of knowledge
                                                                                       and community creation.
 The Hub Madrid            Social Innovation              Madrid         Medium        Recreation of ‘environments’ rela-
                                                                                       ted to ideas about well-being.
 Vizzuality                IT Consultancy                 Madrid         Medium        Production of the visual sphere as
                                                                                       knowledge to be communicated
                                                                                       to others.
 Agencia de Arqui- Architects                             Madrid         Micro         (Post-demiurgic) restatement of
 tectura ELII                                                                          the role of the architect.
 Investic                  Free-software develop-         Pamplona       Small         Symbiotic relationship with open
                           ment                                                        networks, combines work and
                                                                                       friendship.
 CC60                      Architects                      Madrid        Small         Flexibility and adaptation to per-
                                                                                       sonal development.
 peSeta                    Design                          Madrid        Small         Satisfaction in using artisanal
                                                                                       methods and producing signifi-
                                                                                       cant products
 Funky Projects            Consultancy and Innova-         Bilbao        Small         Stirred-up, people-centred inno-
                           tion                                                        vation
 Conexiones improb-        They link companies, arts       Bilbao        Micro         Narrative imagination: stories that
 ables                     and humanities                                              bring together disparate actors
                                                                                       under uncertain conditions.
 e–cultura                 Cultural intervention for       Mérida        Medium        Holism, virtuous circles of satis-
                           local development                                           faction-productivity.
 Monvínic                  Restaurant and wine bar/        Barcelona     Medium        Passion and experience as a link
                           store                                                       between suppliers and custo-
                                                                                       mers.
 Aceite Las Valdesas       Olive oil producers             Córdoba       Medium        Traceability and empowerment of
                                                                                       producers and consumers.
 Milhulloa                 Dehydration of agricultu-       Lugo          Small         Ecological, experimental control
                           ral products                                                of the agricultural process, using
                                                                                       artisanal methods.
 Terra Madre               Distribution of ecological      Madrid        Small         Reflexive work and creation of
                           food                                                        new types of relationships bet-
                                                                                       ween producers and consumers.
 Espinoso Rural            Alternative Tourism             León          Small         Identity and local sustainability-
                                                                                       based project.
 Comunitae                 Finance                         Madrid        Small         Disintermediation: liberalising len-
                                                                                       ding decisions.
 Verkami                   Crowd-funding                   Barcelona     Small         Crowd-funding and artistic reci-
                                                                                       procity.
 Aula Coeducativa          Playful education               Cáceres       Micro         Play centre and community net-
                                                                                       works.
 Instituto Madrileño Assisted reproduction                 Madrid        Medium        Humanisation          of   medical
 de Fertilidad       centre                                                            treatment.

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194                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

chores are regularly reviewed (Beck and                           the trust, loyalty and commitment typical of
Beck-Gernshein 2002: xxii). However, at the                       traditional companies. When this is taken to
same time, this growing autonomy of the in-                       the home the question is, how can family re-
dividual entails greater vulnerability and ins-                   lationships be protected so that that they do
titutional dependence.                                            not succumb to short-term behaviour, thin-
     Until recently the worlds of life and work                   king only about the immediate, and a lack of
were defined by their opposite: the world of                      loyalty and commitment characteristic of
life used to be all that took place away from                     modern jobs? (Sennett, 1988: 25).
work time and space. Today the same work/                              Ultimately, the increasing permeability bet-
life duality has been shaken by the processes                     ween the spheres of work and life, compared
of individuation and late-modern globalisa-                       to the industrial era (Walkerdine, 2006; Casti-
tion. On the one hand, new technologies and                       llo, 2007), creates new ambivalences. Nip-
flexible working makes it possible to extend                      pert-Eng (1996b), by relying on the symbolic
the boundaries of time and space in salaried                      approach of Mary Douglas’s purity/pollution
work, potentially allowing more people—es-                        duality, showed how the seemingly stable ca-
pecially those with responsibilities for caring                   tegories of “home” and “work” result from
for others—to champion a reduction in gen-                        artificial constructs arising from everyday de-
der inequality (Reynolds 2005: 1313). Accor-                      cisions. While work in the industrial realm is
ding to Reeves (2000), it is sometimes wor-                       defined by its opposite (business/home, work/
kers themselves who choose to do interesting                      leisure, etc.) and the artefacts from each realm
work instead of watching “junk programmes”                        were clearly established—by the uniform, the
on television, doing house chores or taking                       technologies used, the workspace and sche-
care of their children (in Perrons, 2003: 70).                    dules—in meaningful work they are exchan-
Those committed employees who work in                             ged and continuously (con)fused. However, as
friendly contexts, despite their longer wor-                      the categories are perceived as being less
king hours, not only tend to perceive their                       exclusive, the less “disorder” (pollution, con-
companies’ life-work balance policies positi-                     flict) is generated by the intermingling of home
vely (Berg et al., 2003; Perrons, 2003: 81                        and work artefacts (1996: 580).
-82), but they also have better physical and                           What contradictions and challenges are
psychological health than other workers (Mi-                      generated by these re-articulations, and for
rowsky and Ross, 2007). However, at the                           whom? How are they resolved? Our goal is
same time worrying processes such as                              to explore these issues in light of ethnogra-
stress, excessive working hours or the ex-                        phic data obtained from 20 companies, by
propriation of cognitive and emotional values                     relying on the theoretical approaches of so-
arise. According to Castells, “never before                       ciologists of reflexive modernity. We believe
was work so central to the process of value                       that this third way is more cautious, but also
creation. But never before were workers,                          more fruitful, than the optimism of “life being
despite their skills, more vulnerable to the
                                                                  enhanced by work” and the pessimism of
organisation, since they have become indivi-
                                                                  “life being colonised by work”.
duals embedded in flexible networks whose
whereabouts are unknown even to the net-
work itself” (1996: 278-9). The world of work
                                                                  Methodology. Recent
is exposed to greater risks, stress (Beck and
                                                                  experiences in Spanish
Beck-Gernsheim 2002; McGuigan, 1999,
                                                                  companies
2009), speed and change (Thrift, 2000). Ac-
cording to Sennet, the mantra of late capita-                     During 2011 and 2012 a team of ten anthro-
lism—nothing long-term—ends up corroding                          pologists undertook a project to ethnogra-

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    195

phically analyse these processes (Reygadas                     on access to workers and their workspaces.
et al., 2012). The sample included 20 Spanish                  Sampling of individual respondents prioriti-
SMEs selected on the basis of one or more                      sed diversity in terms of sex, age, seniority,
of the following criteria:                                     rank and experience. In most small busines-
1.	They recruit professionals who incorpora-                  ses it was possible to observe and interview
    te the realm of their personal life into the               all of the individuals working in the compa-
    process of value creation (artists, desig-                 nies.
    ners, anthropologists, philosophers, etc.)                     Given that this was a prospective investi-
2. They develop processes to improve inter-                    gation, the data came from participant ob-
   nal labour relations (horizontal structures,                servation performed in companies (by one or
   participatory methods, teamwork, etc.).                     two ethnographers for at least three working
3. They promote social capital (networks                       days); secondary data (HR reports, statistics,
   among workers, users, customers, etc.)                      business plans, balance sheets ...); and a to-
   to create collaborative environments.                       tal of 67 in-depth interviews with founders,
4. They are sensitive to employees’ personal                   employees, HR managers and technicians3.
   life sphere in the suitability and design of                Ethnographers accompanied them in their
   the product, spaces, technology and                         daily work tasks, prioritising a diversity of
   work processes.                                             perspectives (employees of different rank,
                                                               technicians, interns, founders of companies,
5. They encourage autonomy, responsibility
                                                               etc.). In the workplace they had access to
   and freedom in the workplace.
                                                               formal meetings (group meetings, client
                                                               meetings ...), seminars, job interviews; routi-
   The following table summarises the main                     ne and extraordinary tasks (creation proces-
characteristics of the companies studied, in-                  ses, events, client visits) were unobtrusively
cluding a brief description of some of their                   observed; informal conversations were held
key features and idiosyncrasies.                               with users, workers (of different ranks) and
    The companies are part of the sectors of                   founders. The research could not analyse the
the knowledge economy, design, culture, al-                    domestic sphere of the subjects—this is the
ternative consumption or financing methods,                    usual bias in analyses of life and work balan-
and care and personal services. In the selec-                  ce (Perrons, 2003; Hoschchild, 2012). Howe-
tion there is a bias towards smaller compa-                    ver, ethnographers also conducted partici-
nies, from the advanced services sector                        pant observation in informal venues (bars,
(consulting, innovation and technology), and                   meeting rooms, restaurants, etc.) and the
start-ups in which the influence of avant-                     domestic dimension was explored in inter-
garde models such as IDEO, Apple or Google                     views. Researchers subsequently maintained
is perceived. Although there is no general                     contact with members of some of these
consensus on its exact definition, we could
                                                               companies and during 2012 and 2013 ad-
say that these companies come under the
                                                               dressed more specific issues related to the
umbrella of the New Economy (Perrons et al.,
                                                               worlds of work and life.
2005).
    After selecting the sample, a first contact
was made with the companies in order to ex-                    3  The interview in all cases addressed issues such as
plain the nature of the research and its objec-                company history; description of the business; business
tives. This allowed for the possibility of repla-              project; business model; work processes; value network
                                                               of the company; innovation plan; values; daily work dy-
cing some companies that did not meet the                      namics; organisation and relationship model; personnel
sample criteria and minimising the limitations                 and learning devices.

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196                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

Blurring of spatial, temporal                                     integrating both the work team and clients,
and emotional boundaries                                          who are frequently invited to have lunch in
                                                                  the company as a way to start a more relaxed
There are currently many people who expe-                         business relationship. During these meals,
rience an increasing blurring of the bounda-                      participants (often corporate managers or
ries between work and non-work time, bet-                         representatives) are encouraged to loosen
ween home and work, including hobbies and                         their tie and relax in a friendly, family-like at-
obligations, and between professional iden-                       mosphere. Communal dining here takes on
tity and other roles. Those areas are interwo-                    its deepest anthropological sense: comensa-
ven, starting with the organisation of the spa-                   lium, a ritual of communion around the totally
ces, in a way that is far removed from the                        social fact of sharing the table and eating,
factories and offices of the industrial era.                      which constitutes the very substance of kin-
Now they are bright, friendly and playful spa-                    ship (Mauss, 1966; see also Carsten, 1997).
ces that foster communication and invite one                      Not surprisingly what is known as the art of
to stay. There is often the impression that not                   hosting (or art of being a good host), is based
much work is being done there, but it encou-                      on traditional models of care, and is an effec-
rages constant face-to-face interaction to                        tive way used by some companies of coun-
solve problems and generate new ideas                             tering the stress of intensive innovation pro-
(Scace, 2002: 88). A worker at Designit, when                     cesses.
she had just joined the company, actually                             In the EWLII Agency of Architecture the
stated: “But no one works here, everyone is                       office is, de facto, a quasi-domestic space
having fun, with a chat application open,                         which is connected by corridors to the home
wasting time ...” The Hub Madrid, for exam-                       of one of the partners. In CuldeSacTM a fur-
ple, operates in a loft in which there is a tube                  nished flat to accommodate visitors wishing
similar to that found in fire stations, and loc-                  to stay in the business is adjacent to the han-
kers created out of fruit boxes reminiscent of                    gar that serves as an office.
a nursery. The kitchen occupies the spatial
                                                                      The notion of time and space is flexible
and symbolic centre. It is designed to encou-
                                                                  and malleable, and the concept of “mobile
rage contact, to share and make people feel
                                                                  work”, made possible by information techno-
at home. There is a weekly sexy salad made                        logy, communications and travel, is added to
with the ingredients brought by each person.                      the open-plan, interconnected environments.
This establishes a new link between the                           Given that work is based on projects and ob-
post-industrial economy, based on spatial                         jectives, with flexible hours, it is not unusual
flexibility, and attention to a specific physical                 to be absent from the office or work from
space, the atmosphere of these new forms of                       home. However, the abuse of such freedom
organising.                                                       is not common. Instead, employees tend to
   In CuldeSac everybody works in a large                         overwork because the important thing, be-
open room in which all kinds of creative sti-                     yond complying with a schedule, is “doing
muli are scattered around: a guitar, red                          things well”. The use of time is more intensi-
boards, prototype sketches drawn in char-                         ve than extensive, due to a discontinuous
coal, etc. The small kitchen, as in other com-                    and fragmentary work effort that encourages
panies analysed (such as Funky Projects),                         multi-tasking and entails considerable stress
plays a central role here. People have                            peaks when there are tight deadlines. In Viz-
breakfast and lunch together. There is a deli-                    zuality, a company engaged in the develop-
berate effort to maintain this practice, and                      ment of visual interfaces for databases, “we
they have a rota for shopping, cooking and                        try not to have deadlines (and) do not have
setting the table. This practice is essential to                  fixed working hours. If I do not feel like ha-

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    197

ving fixed hours, why should others have                       conventional financial brokers and encoura-
them? And if you can work without a set                        ges connecting people who need money
schedule, why have one?” That does not                         with others who can lend it to them. In Desig-
mean that they are slow: they often work un-                   nit Madrid divergence is a vital phase of the
til they find a solution. This way of (dis)orga-               creative process and peSeta is defined as
nising time generates periods of inactivity                    being “out of the ordinary and outside the
where they connect to the Internet for so-                     mainstream”.
mething that provides income—in India or                            From the perspective of the anthropologi-
elsewhere remote—until another project                         cal literature it is not difficult to identify in
worthy of their time comes along. The very                     many of these events the mark of what Victor
idea of disorganisation operates in relation to                Turner called, in the context of ritual, limina-
space and processes, constituting a form of                    lity, anti-structure or communitas. The liminal
anti-paradigmatic philosophy (in the Kuhnian                   tones of these gestures and practices refer
sense) which is effective for creative purpo-                  to ancestral human forms of ritual and play,
ses.                                                           but without sacrificing significant and trans-
    This disruptive and iconoclastic logic per-                cendental work. Most founders claimed to
meates everything, from the work wear (ca-                     have created the company to do something
sual, informal), brand names (Funky Projects,                  they felt passionate about and endowed with
Conexiones Improbables—Unlikely Connec-                        meaning. “Stories that matter” is the kind of
tions—, CuldeSac), the design of their busi-                   project that Vizzuality undertakes. In Monví-
ness cards, the leadership styles and the                      nic “we do what we want... The key to any
day-today language (trendy expressions                         job is to do what one likes”. Some use uto-
such as “guay”—cool—, “molar”—be cool—                         pian terms to describe the balance between
and “tío”—mate— were frequently used ex-                       work and life aspirations.
pressions). While old Spanish organisations
sought to ooze solemnity, homogeneity and                      We thought at first about the possibility of creating
tradition, we now find a taste for the bohe-                   like a marriage between work and human beings,
mian and the iconoclastic. Styles that were                    as if they were a unit. Let’s say this is like a teena-
once seen as the antithesis of business are                    ge dream. - (Espinoso Rural)
now in the core of organisational culture, in-
                                                                   I arrive every morning and I look at the arbore-
terweaving digital and counter-cultural uto-
                                                               tum where we have been planting olive varieties
pias (Brooks, 2000; Turner, 2006; Frank,
                                                               that we have brought from our travels here and
1997). Funky Projects boasts using stirring-
                                                               there, and I feel as if I were in my own backyard. I
up as a working method to promote new
                                                               imagine how these trees will grow, just as I imagi-
ideas, and announce their revolutionary bu-
                                                               ne how my children will grow.- (Las Valdesas)
siness consultancy with the provocative leit-
motif “we sell smoke.” Investic is strongly
committed to geeks, communitarians and
the anti-copyright hacker ethic (Himmanen,                     The production of significant
2002). It promotes open-source software and
                                                               experiences and the importance
solidarity-based economy. Aula Coeducativa
                                                               of the emotional dimension
uses the concept of game as part of an anti-
corporate, anti-capitalist utopia. Vizzuality                  The style and atmosphere of these compa-
refuses to accept projects that only serve to                  nies invites workers to become engaged in
increase the profits of large corporations. e-                 their work, to understand it as a rewarding
Cultura supports counterculture and alterna-                   activity that enables self-realisation. Although
tive ideology. Comunitae takes distance from                   there will always be routine tasks, in some

                                     Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
198                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

cases it has been possible to make work an                        Funky Projects), but the activity, usually in-
enjoyable and playful activity: “There are lots                   tense, is conducted within a community that
of laughs here” (CuldeSacTM); “[We love] do                       contains emotional links where the company
things with joy” (Conexiones improbables);                        is perceived as a family—but not necessarily
“If you are happy, your customers are happy”                      in the old-style corporate and hierarchical
(e-culture). According to the founder of Funky                    paternalist way (Archer, 1992; García, 1996).
Projects, “if we do not innovate, we will enjoy                   In many companies there is no clear division
ourselves less, we will make less of a contri-                    between work colleagues and friends: they
bution to society, and intellectual growth and                    have a beer together (Funky Projects) or “go
development will be poor.” In CuldeSac, the                       out for a bite” (Investic). In CC60 the busi-
criteria for selecting innovations and projects                   ness partners usually go out to dinner to-
are related to their “magic” and their “ability                   gether with their significant others; and in
to make people smile.” Nevertheless, there is                     CuldeSacTM some workers regularly go on
no irresponsible behaviour there. Rather, in                      trips together. This integration of the emotio-
these environments high levels of productivi-                     nal dimension into labour relations generates
ty and responsibility are achieved. Contrary                      a form of an “emotional division of labour”.
to the theses of Daniel Bell, who advocated                       At The Hub, if someone has a bad day, others
the erosion of the work ethic due to the ad-                      will step in for them, or help them; at Aula
vancement of a hedonistic culture (Bell,                          Coeducativa, Milhulloa and CC60, personal
2006), the companies under study suggest                          aspects are considered when allocating
that permeating work with playful connota-                        tasks. At CuldeSacTM “we help one another
tions increases productivity and strengthens                      when someone is having difficulties, because
the work ethic.                                                   here we are all equal, we are all friends.” The
    In the context of meaningful work, these                      incorporation of humanistic knowledge,
companies place learning at the heart of their                    communicative and emotional skills (em-
philosophy, both in the work process and in                       pathy, kindness, collectivism, etc.) to the va-
activities designed expressly to promote it. In                   lue chain is, in fact, a fundamental feature of
Vizzuality members spend much of their time                       these companies, which reproduces a sense
conducting research. The five architects of                       of cohesion and cooperation, “a company
CC60 are organised so that each of them can                       where we all feel at ease” (Investic),“I find
devote a certain number of hours to research.                     people very fulfilling: we all row the boat
“This is the most important Master’s that you                     here” (CuldeSac), “we look for people with
can do,” said one worker at CuldeSac, whe-                        expressive ability, empathy and listening
re courses, workshops and lectures by                             skills, perception, understanding and self-
guests or employees are promoted on a wee-                        expression” (Funky Projects). According to
kly basis. A similar practice exists in Designit                  the founders of the CC60 architectural stu-
Madrid, based around lunch or “refectories”.                      dio, they have developed a “domestic”, “fa-
Such activities reflect open management                           mily-style” management that allows them to
models in which knowledge circulates in all                       intermingle throughout the years their perso-
directions, making work more attractive                           nal development with that of the organisa-
through the on-going processes of teaching/                       tion: “This company has been made to mea-
learning that provide personal and professio-                     sure for us ... in terms of personal and
nal challenges and satisfaction.                                  professional development. It’s like a suit.” In
    The continuity between the time and spa-                      practice, an allocation of duties is under-
ce of life and work has emotional implica-                        taken that takes into account the individual
tions. Not only does one “become very invol-                      life cycle of each partner. In their meetings
ved on a personal level” (female worker,                          they are used to “talking about everything”

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    199

- they talk about both business and personal                   local agricultural knowledge; Monvínic ex-
issues.                                                        plore traditional recipes; CuldeSac and
                                                               Funky Projects include in their methodology
                                                               the views, opinions and knowledge of custo-
Fostering reciprocity and links                                mers and other secondary agents in the
                                                               creative process.
Without the need to abandon the commercial
contract that regularises relationships with                      The organisations studied seek to promo-
customers, suppliers and employees, most                       te horizontal relationships. In Milhulloa, an
of these companies are surrounded by a net-                    agro-ecological Galician cooperative com-
                                                               posed of three partners, everyone does all
work of key links, such as reciprocity, em-
                                                               manual, intellectual and managerial work. In
pathy and cooperation, which sustain a mo-
                                                               Vizzuality, relationships between the eight
ral commitment (or dense trust in Simmel’s
                                                               programmers and designers are egalitarian,
terms). Reciprocity is the operational basis
                                                               and while some are entrepreneurs and others
for Verkami (and the engagement between
                                                               employees, in the work dynamic edges are
artist and patron), Comunitae (and their cre-
                                                               blurred.
dit systems), Conexiones Improbables,
Funky Projects, The Hub Madrid, Designit                           In the discourse, leadership becomes a
and CuldeSacTM (regarding the dissemina-                       collective issue: a “pack of cyclists” (e-cultu-
tion of ideas in the co-creation processes),                   re), a “flock of birds” (Designit) or “rowers”
Terra Madre and Monvínic (and their defence                    (CuldeSacTM). They share the idea that in
of local networks and fair price) and Vizzua-                  creative work, authority and rigid structures
lity and Investic (in the context of networks of               are more of a hindrance than a help. The
free software and open source). In these                       creative moment is most successful when all
companies the widespread suspicion of indi-                    can throw ideas into the ring without feeling
vidualism is striking and in contrast, the va-                 self-conscious,—or protected— by their po-
lues of humility, cooperation, emotional inte-                 sition in the structure. A paradigmatic exam-
lligence, relational capital and confidence in                 ple of this creative democracy is the design
the group are exalted: “we looks for nerds,                    process at CuldeSac:
not sharks...” (Designit). Or: “If we want a
multi-faceted study, it makes no sense to                      Meetings are like playing a game of cards, and you
have it presented by only one or two faces.                    see how the ideas are knocked around. At the
Even the photos portray us as a group” (Cul-                   creative level hierarchy doesn’t matter, everyone is
deSacTM).                                                      on the same level. ... In CuldeSac no one decides;
                                                               everyone around the table have to almost “taste”
     This emphasis on the logic of reciprocity
                                                               it, they all have to smile for a project to go forward...
relates to a reflexive modernity which, rather
                                                               we can really “taste” it ... We see the client’s eyes
than being monological in nature, attempts
                                                               sparkle.
to enter and exit expert knowledge in order
to communicate with other types of knowled-
ge: that of workers, customers, suppliers,                          Reciprocity and the flow of social capital
consumers and prosumers (Cruces et al.,                        require active social networks and virtual
2003). “Listening to others” is a fundamental                  platforms to manage them. Social networks,
principle. CC60 try to understand those who                    in the broad sense, become central: relatio-
will use their properties; in Investic “everything             nal skills and the different actors (creators,
is discussed”; Designit Madrid seek ideas                      technicians, designers, geeky programmers
among users of digital devices; Terra Madre,                   ...) and stakeholders (from small producers to
Milhulloa and Aceite The Valdesas recover                      mobile users and industry giants, artists or

                                     Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
200                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

creditors) are integrated into the production,                    ce between social innovators and compa-
distribution or creation process, by a kind of                    nies.
citizen science that unites expertise with                            The embeddedness of personal and
specific knowledge. This is how Conexiones                        work life is also evident in the fact that many
Improbables—specifically referring to one of                      of these new entrepreneurs brought their
the companies—are compelled to generate                           passions to their business, and developed–in
products, ideas or processes that are difficult                   their own words—“a life project”, “a personal
to obtain by using conventional methods.                          goal”, more than a business. In some cases
Clear examples were found in Funky Projects                       this was possible thanks to the financial sup-
(“stirring up social change”), and in Monvínic,                   port from their partners or family members:
Terra Madre and Milhulloa, which create food                      “We were living off our wives” salary for
products at the same time as promoting                            about two years (founders of CuldeSacTM).
partnerships with local producers and con-
nections between producers, consumers,
                                                                  For us this is not a business, it is our life, we live it
communities and technologists.
                                                                  and try and make them (all) live it as well. You have
    Nevertheless, the generational nature im-                     to understand CuldeSac as a way of life. Whoever
posed by the explosion of digital culture                         understands it as a job is dead.
translates into a true revolution in the use and
                                                                      If I’m at home, it is more than likely that I will
operation of virtual social platforms. The im-
                                                                  doing what I’m doing here, because it’s my hobby.
portance of the Internet here is its potential
                                                                  The first thing I do when I get home is turn on the
for disintermediation: a more plural and di-
                                                                  computer. (Vizzuality)
rect participation than that of conventional
                                                                      This is more than a job; it is now a way of life.
intermediaries. Participating in the “wealth of
                                                                  I don’t know if I am an entrepreneur or a farmer, I
networks” permits the creation of gaps in the
                                                                  am Milhulloa, and that’s all.
value chain, positioning them near the end
                                                                      The work is an aspect of you, when I come
consumer (Benkler, 2006). For some of the
                                                                  here I am doing what I think I should do. - (Espino-
companies analysed, promotion and network
management is at the core of their business                       so Rural).
model. Comunitae is a financial intermediary
which, using an online platform, connects                             The compatibility between work and life
people who need credit to people willing to                       is a matter of concern for all of the compa-
lend. Verkami connects artists with patrons.                      nies analysed. Most show a reflexive dis-
Conexiones Improbables obtains public fun-                        course in this regard: at e-culture and Comu-
ding for joint projects between companies                         nitae, the human dimension is contained in
and arts and humanities professionals. In all                     their business models; the philosophy of the
three cases we find newly minted intermedia-                      ELII architectural studio is based on their at-
ries that create supportive environments for                      tention to life details; the founding principles
connection and obtain their income from ma-                       of Improbable Connections and The Hub
nagement fees. In all other cases, use of the                     Madrid explicitly referred to their concern
Internet and social networking is inherent to                     about balancing the worlds of life and work,
their activities: Investic coordinate and use                     etc. Many companies give importance to
production networks for the production of                         quality of life, which translates into living near
free software; Designit generate small cogni-                     work or having their extended family availa-
tive networks; Funky Projects retrieve infor-                     ble nearby: the five members of staff of the
mation from users and experts for disruptive                      company Terra Madre share a residence in
interventional work; and The Hub Madrid, as                       the same town, and the founders of CuldeS-
its name suggests, is an interconnection spa-                     acTM decided to set up in Valencia because

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    201

their families were there. However, while                      forward) in which they included the figure of
some companies choose to merge both                            the “house mather”, a woman of a certain
spheres, others opt to clearly delimit both                    age who plays the role of mother in the com-
worlds, to prevent the “colonisation of life by                pany , cooking, taking care of customers
work.”                                                         when they visit the company, etc. In many
     In some companies it is impossible to se-                 cases leisure becomes a significant work-
parate life experiences (friendship, affection,                related activity: “Work is also the hobby”
companionship, solidarity, enjoyment, leisu-                   (Monvínic). Travel, pass-times, conversations
re) from labour experiences because they are                   with friends and cinema, music or theatre are
the same thing. In these cases we noticed a                    at the service of nurturing creativity, whether
diffuse hybridisation of labour and life ele-                  at work or away from it:
ments. In this context, talking about the
worlds of work and life as autonomous sphe-                    There is no problem when people combine their
res may even be meaningless, since spaces,                     work with other activities, whether they be recrea-
times and roles are blurred and liquid (Bau-                   tional or personal (sending personal emails, shop-
man, 2000; Castillo, 2007). The emotional,                     ping online, joking, playing on the computer, orga-
psychological and social are brought into the                  nising extra-work activities, etc.). (Designit)
field of work and, conversely, projects, pro-
duction and work self-realisation are carried
                                                                    However, companies with more “traditio-
over to the domestic and family domain, for-
                                                               nal” management models (Instituto Madrile-
ming a single, indivisible identity.
                                                               ño de Fertilidad and Monvínic) choose preci-
                                                               sely the opposite: to establish clear
Here we find companies created by parents and                  parameters between the world of work and
children (Verkami), couples (Aula Coeducativa,                 life, to preserve the invasion of one sphere by
ELII) or friends that operate “as a marriage” (C60,            the other. In Investic “we do not like to work
CuldeSac, Espinoso Rural).                                     hard, only from 9:00 to 3:00.” Their salaries
     At first we believed that it would be possible to         are modest, they prefer to have a “quiet life”
form a marriage between work and human being,                  than to work to excess. In Monvínic they
as if they were a unit. Let’s say this is like a teena-        have decided to abandon the practice of
ge dream. (Espinoso Rural).                                    keeping the uncivilised work times in the res-
     When you do a job you like and enjoy, which               taurant industry: they are not open on wee-
absorbs you, well… we took our baby to the works               kends and the kitchen has strict closing ti-
when he was three months old ..., you do not dis-              mes.
tinguish between your personal life and your pro-                  The confusion of the space/time limits
fessional life, it is all in the same package.- (CC60)         between one world and the other—not
                                                               knowing where one begins and the other
    In Aula Coeducativa, for example, “one                     ends (Hochschild, 1997, 2012)—is a bree-
does not know what free time and work time                     ding ground for the proliferation of workaho-
is”, time is flexible to suit the needs of balan-              lics and perfectionists. Furthermore, since an
cing work and housework, which are nego-                       important part of that work is mental (cogni-
tiated ad hoc.                                                 tive), the limits of work become even more
    Other companies deliberately choose to                     blurred: is it not work to reflect or think about
blur boundaries and standardise both worlds.                   a project? This excessive effort is sometimes
At e-cultura they look for inspiration in formu-               encouraged by the company - “We look for
las of domesticity and feminisation, citing as                 great people ... Reinvent yourself in Funky
their reference point a Dutch company (Fresh                   Projects: Minimum 5 years” experience, avai-

                                     Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
202                                                     My Job is my Life. Overlap between Life and Work in Spanish Companies

lability to travel internationally, excellent                     in the company (intern, owner, founder, coo-
English, 150% involvement, continuous lear-                       perative member, etc.), seniority, experience
ning, resilience to stress” - but what is most                    and the type of contractual relationship.
common is that people themselves tend to                          However, the profile of worker/employer
do so by choice: “Here you are the one who                        most commonly found in these businesses is
wants to stay until it is perfect and the boss                    a young person, single, highly educated and
says don’t” (Vizzuality); “no one is more de-                     Western (Adkins, 2002; Beck and Beck-
manding than oneself” (CuldeSac). It is un-                       Gernshein 2002; Charles and Harris, 2007:
clear whether this is a personal decision or,                     291). In these cases, the intersection of do-
on the contrary, a combination of peer pres-                      mestic and work life is more intense, not only
sure and the ideology of the organisation.                        because the significant work they do and
Perhaps we are witnessing a sort of “stakha-                      their creative identities lend themselves to it,
novism” of the information age, as when—in                        but also because their life histories and fa-
the heroic times of Apple–workers sported                         mily conditions so permit: they are single,
T-shirts with the words “90 hours a week and                      have no dependents (elderly or children) and
I love it” (Florida, 2010: 280).                                  choose alternative forms of domestic organi-
                                                                  sation - shared flats, “living apart together”
                                                                  or squats. Espinoso Rural workers live in a
Discussion                                                        self-sustained community; some workers of
                                                                  the various companies share a flat (Roseneil
Most of the research on the relationship bet-                     and Budgeon, 2004); people with children, at
ween work and life in the New Economy con-                        the time of the study, were in the minority. In
sists in monographic studies conducted in                         the case of trainees or young workers beco-
the United States (Kunda, 1992; Hochschild,                       ming part of these businesses was, to some
1997; Brooks, 2000; Benner, 2002; Fraser,                         extent, a continuity of university life. The con-
2002; Ross, 2003; Castillo, 2007)4. Despite                       tinuous travelling to which some workers
the risk of extrapolating these results to the                    were subjected to (Vizzuality, CuldeSacTM
Spanish case, there are obvious similarities                      and FunkyProjects) forced them to adopt
that are worth pointing out.                                      truly flexible domestic organisation for perio-
    First, the individualisation thesis on which                  ds at a time, sustained thanks to information
the analysis of this kind of work is based is                     technology: phones, laptops, etc. In some
not without bias of age, class, gender or eth-                    cases (CuldeSacTM), employees even mo-
nicity (Quah, 1996; Castells, 2001, McCall,                       ved to the flat adjacent to the business for a
2001; Marwick 2013). The situation and how                        period of time.
the interaction between the two worlds is ne-                          There is no doubt that this embeddedness
gotiated varies according to the position held                    has both positive and negative effects on peo-
                                                                  ples’ lives. Technological development can
                                                                  extend the workday into rest and leisure time
4  The idea of the New Economy emerged in the United              (at home, on holiday, weekends, while trave-
States in the late 1990s to define technological (dot-com)
companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft (Ross,
                                                                  lling), and this generates processes of self-
2003). Self-sacrifice and the vehemence of the hacker             exploitation, stress and family or partner con-
culture was put at the service of business under stre-            flict. In the search for balance, the most
nuous submission deadlines. Pool, open spaces and
corporate culture sought to promote creativity and plea-          common sources of dissatisfaction refer to
sure. The prevalence of the services sector, the emer-            the limitation of time devoted to leisure, rest or
gence of the knowledge economy, the subsequent de-                family (Perrons, 2003), or when the individual
materialisation of commodities (Pine and Gilmore, 1999)
and the development of information technology are some            perceives that they are unable to successfully
of the factors that enabled these processes.                      manage time, space, tasks and their roles in

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Hugo Valenzuela, Luis Reygadas and Francisco Cruces                                                                    203

either field. The conflict emerges when incom-                 strategies because, despite the renegotiation
patibilities arise between the demands of                      of everyday household chores, they continue
work and home (Hill et al., 2004): when the                    to fall more frequently on women than on
division of housework is not fair (Beck, 2000)                 men (Hochschild 1997; Van Echtelt et al.,
or when both partners are committed to their                   2009: 189 Perrons, 2003: 65, Charles and
careers (Scace 2002: 110). However, indivi-                    Harris, 2007: 291). Within the businesses un-
duals employ various strategies both to merge                  der study we saw how this gender bias is
the areas of work and life and to disable the                  reflected in the professional division: lack of
possible con(fusion) of spheres. In the first                  female programmers, shortage of female de-
case, according to one of the partners at Cul-                 signers and technicians and the prominence
deSac, “the first thing I do when I get home is                of women in secretarial work and public rela-
turn on the computer. But at home I write sto-                 tions. In general, the New Economy has
ries, thoughts, or poetry, which then I may or                 made previously undervalued aspects of the
may not apply to work.” The tendency to                        production process (creativity, emotionality
multi-tasking is also a common way to com-                     and collaborative inspiration) visible, but it is
bine housework with work—for instance,                         still undervaluing others (mainly those rela-
checking one’s email while having breakfast                    ting to care and reproduction) (Ruido and
with the family. In the second case, individuals               Rowan, 2007). In the background, this cau-
switch off the phone and the computer or play                  ses domestic work to be downplayed and to
sports to “escape” from work.                                  become invisible in terms of the transfer of
    However, it was often found that in the                    investment in time and effort.
analysed group domestic tasks and roles are                        CuldeSacTM, for example, was initially
renegotiated (McCall, 2001), not only due to                   conceived by two men and a woman, and the
the individualisation of reflexive modernity,                  woman was compelled to abandon the pro-
but also because they possess sufficient                       ject due to “family responsibilities”:
economic capital to afford to outsource less
creative household tasks. Paradoxically, as                    It was so stressful, you need to be mentally prepa-
noted by Reeves (2000), while creative work                    red for it, it’s a risky gamble. Pilar had a family ...
is increasingly more flexible, domestic work                   and sought assurance about security that we
becomes industrialised—with rigid schedu-                      could not give her. She jumped before seeing the
les, division of labour, unskilled work, etc. (in              results from of all this - (Partner, CuldeSacTM).
Perrons, 2003: 70). And this kind of outsour-
ced work, which also merges the work and
                                                                   According to one female worker: “This
life spheres (cleaning, babysitting, elderly
                                                               [long work days and exhausting work] is only
care, etc.), lies on a very different—if not the
                                                               for the young. It is difficult to have children
exact opposite—profile of worker: unskilled,
                                                               and pay the mortgage”.
adult, feminised and ethnicised (see Nippert-
Eng, 1996; Reynolds, 2005; Hochschild,                             The majority of the companies analysed
2012). For creative workers this process of                    were consistent with fundamental principles
domestic outsourcing is not necessarily ne-                    of remuneration, salary scale and profit sha-
gative, because it allows them to choose to                    ring. Post-materialist principles on which their
perform the most significant tasks (for ins-                   meaningful work was based placed the instru-
tance, emotional childcare). However, this                     mental value of labour—that is, making mon-
invites individuals to invest more and more in                 ey— in the background (Baldry, et al., 2007).
“work as home”, disinvesting in proportion in                      I want to be happy, not rich (Investic)
“home as work” (Hochschild 1997). Mo-                              It is not just about living comfortably, sure that
reover, gender inequality persists in these                    is about making money, is to make money, but if

                                     Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 150, April - June 2015, pp. 189-208
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