“AFTER-HOURS WORK BEHAVIOR”, FROM ANYTIME-ANYWHERE TO ROUND THE CLOCK-EVERYWHERE: EXPLORING THE ANTECEDENTS

As the world enters the era of Industry 4.0, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become of strategic importance for organizations. In particular, the COVID-19 lockdown has accelerated the organizational dependence on technologies in order to get work done. With the number of available technological tools, creating rigid ‘boundaries’ has become very difficult for employees in order to escape work notifications in their off-work hours. This study tries to look into this behavioral phenomenon of ‘After-Hours Work Behavior (AWB)’ which blurs the ‘boundary’ between work and after-work lives of employees and lead to stress. The investigation in this domain is very limited and fragmented. This work aims to contribute to this relatively new domain of research by exploring the antecedents to AWB. The study, by adopting a qualitative research method, investigates employee experiences to engage in AWB via ICT (e.g., mobiles, laptops, calls, messages, email etc.). The study discerns the disruptions and dilemmas among employees caught between being good employees and leading a stress-free off-work life.