Work and home boundaries of home-based work

Analyzing the social, spatial and temporal context of home-based work, this study examines how women workers manage multiple roles and activities within the same space. Forty participants were selected from three neighborhoods: an economically depressed area with a predominantly African-American population, a mixed income neighborhood with an ethnically heterogeneous population and a middle income neighborhood with a predominantly white population. Data collection included qualitative interviews, semi-structured questionnaires and an observation auditof the work space. The findings reveal that home-based workers accommodate their primary paid work activity within their residences through boundary management practices that have spatial, temporal or behavioral manifestations. These practices exist along a continuum of integration and segmentation between work and home. Presence of client in the residence, expectations or requirements of clients, household composition and household members’ needs and practices, nature and motive of home-based work and spatial affordances of work settings influence how and when these boundaries between work and home are placed or removed