Dr Jim Ang (EDA) is taking part in a project that is seeking non-academic staff to take part in a study of how modern communication technology affects work-life balance, and how we manage switches across work life boundaries.
The project is a collaboration between Kent, the Open University, Lancaster, and Royal Holloway. They are looking for non-academic staff (any level of seniority) to take part in a video diary/interview study. Staff need to be office-based, working regular hours and speak fluent English / English as their mother tongue.
Taking part will involve:
- Attending a briefing meeting via Skype (the project will post you a camcorder);
- Being asked to record a ‘week in your life’ using the camcorder (focusing on times when you switch between roles: based on previous participants, it is expected that this will take a total of about 15 minutes across each day);
- Having a short debriefing over the telephone;
- Attending a face-to-face interview at your work (or via Skype if this is difficult to arrange) with a member of the research team. This interview will allow you to discuss the ‘week in your life’ data within the context of your broader work-life balance issues and will be recorded.
The study is part of the Digital Brain Switch project funded by the EPSRC. You can find out more from the project website http://www.scc.lancs.ac.uk/research/projects/DBS/get-involved/
If you are interested in taking part, please email DBS-Project@open.ac.uk and they can let you have further information.