Locating the Essential

Overflowing of work means breaking or exceeding the boundaries related to the amount and content of work and workership. At worst, work overflows across all these boundaries, which can reduce the sense of control over work, wellbeing and performance at work.  However, the jobs and what is expected of knowledge workers can vary in different fields and types of work. This study provides a better understanding of the overflowing of work that threatens the wellbeing of knowledge workers and sheds light on its accumulation and the groups it particularly concerns. The study creates a new basis for locating the pain points of knowledge work in Finnish working life and highlights areas for development.  

Objectives:

1. Map the overflowing of knowledge work in Finnish working life in a  European context (Quality of Work Life Survey 2018, EWCS 2021) and create an updated overall picture of the phenomenon. 
2. Produce new information on the links between work autonomy and multi-location work and overflowing in knowledge work (Quality of Work Life Survey 2018) 
3. Investigate the links between overflowing and work performance in knowledge work (BrainWork Questionnaire 2021)  
4. Identify needs, opportunities, and practices for limiting and essentializing the work of knowledge workers and supervisors (supervisor and knowledge worker interviews, e-form, workshops) 

In addition, the project will produce new solutions for better management of work boundaries and for locating and pruning the core of work, i.e. essentialization. These solutions are aimed at workplaces, especially HR professionals, supervisors and those responsible for well-being at work, but also individual knowledge workers. In this way, the project will help workplaces to function effectively in digital and, in the future, increasingly multi-location working life.