What all this paid working from home reveals is that our homes are also sites of unpaid domestic and emotional labour. Those webcam enabled conference calls make some of this visible with untidy rooms & unruly pets & kids 1/
Some of those we care for are invisible in our webcam calls from our homes but present in other ways. We may be distracted by a message on another device; we may struggle to keep our concern for them apparent as we struggle to present our work face 2/
And those webcam work calls also reveal the inequalities of unpaid domestic & emotional labour. From those for whom it is somebody else’s duty as they get on with their important work, who can speak confidently about business as usual & transitioning to the new normal 3/
Others may find their home becomes a battleground as they struggle to divide the responsibilities between work and home, exacerbated perhaps by the fact that they are no longer propped up by the paid domestic labour that enables dual careers 4/
Those webcam calls reveal the privileges & powers of domestic interiors. From the booklined study to the corner of the kitchen worktop to the glimpse of the bed. The differences between homeownership, disposable income, renting & sharing sometimes writ large in the interior 5/
There is something strange & fascinating, perhaps uncanny (note the German unheimlich = unhomely) about these webcam glimpses of our colleagues’ interiors. These are our homes & for many they may be precarious, conflicted & no safe haven 6/
I’m spending some much needed time being “at home” today. Hoping to distance myself from the digital & webcam enabled world of work to look after my loved ones & myself. This has never felt like a more privileged position #StayAtHomeSaveLives #NotBusinessAsUsual
