Time and Time Again: The Search for Meaning/fulness Through Popular Discourse on the Time and Timing of Work

Abstract

Many working individuals struggle with the time and timing of work, and often turn to books, web sites, magazines, seminars, and workshops to assist in their struggle to find meaning/fulness in work. In the present article, we first adopt Hassard's (2002) pluri-paradigmatic perspective on organizational temporality to consider the limitations of popular discourse that organizational members draw on in their day-to-day interaction. We consider themes in this discourse along three tropes—commodification, construction, and compression—intended to help members address widely held concerns associated with the time and timing of work. Our analysis highlights problematic issues arising from the focus of one trope over the others. We conclude by considering Adam's (2004) macro-level framework of temporal control to suggest broad implications of popular discourse on the time and timing of work.