Exploring the impact of technostress on the work–life boundary of UK academics during the coronavirus pandemic

Purpose Given the debilitating ways the COVID-19 global crisis altered peoples’ work–life affairs, this paper explores the effect of technology-related stress that UK academics encountered working from home during the lockdown. Drawing on boundary management theory, the study uncovered how the extreme deluge of teleworking heightened technostress that made it challenging to either segment or integrate work–life boundaries as both domains became exceedingly blurry, which necessitated a novel experience conceptualised as boundary violations with negative outcomes ensuing. Design/methodology/approach The dataset consists of semi-structured interviews with 32 academics in the UK. We rely on the interpretative paradigm using a qualitative research method. Findings The results reveal how the proliferation of technostress paved the way for a rising loss of boundary identity between professional and private affairs, morbidity and techno-isolation, which reinforced work–family conflict. The study’s findings highlight the processes involved in boundary disruption, as both domains were eroded in the wake of the unprecedented level of telework, which resulted in boundary violations (conceived as instances in which actions, conditions or situations either breach or neglect desired boundary management practices). Research limitations/implications The challenges involved in teleworking have seldom been the focus of work-life studies using role boundary management constructs in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. Hence, our study provides novel contributions to the contextually limiting conditions that have thwarted the well-established segmentation and integration processes of boundary management by conceptualising the boundary violations orchestrated by the invasive tendencies of virtual working environments and rising technostress caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Originality/value While research on teleworking has consistently established more positive outcomes for both employees and organisations, the novelty of the present study is its contributions to the negative implications of remote working during the coronavirus pandemic, one of which is technostress. The study further discusses work–life implications for future research on the factors that made remote working particularly challenging during the coronavirus crisis.