RESISTING WORKING TIME REGIMES IN CONSULTING: THE ROLE OF “CONFORMING WORK”
Résumé
This paper contributes to the study of contemporary working time regimes by investigating the individual dynamics at play between resistance and conformity to a professional ideal valuing flexibility, constant availability and reactivity. Through an in-depth analysis of 10 individual cases of consultants benefitting from specific work-life balance arrangements (ranging from sabbatical leaves to teleworking or part-time work), we analyse how they navigate their atypical situation in order to avoid stigmatisation. We show that their accounts are characterised by a strong ambivalence between a discourse of resistance emphasising the uniqueness of their situation and a discourse of compliance very much in line with the dominant ideology. We propose the concept of “conforming work” to better understand how individuals handle the gap between their practices, that they perceive as counter-normative, and expectations of conformity to the norm.