‘The happily overworked professional’: Unpacking the autonomy paradox in excessive work regimes amongst construction site managers

Abstract

Site managers have been said to perform one of the toughest jobs in the construction industry, which often requires them to work excessively long and irregular hours. Although previous research has reported on the detrimental effects of overwork on site managers’ wellbeing, few studies have examined their subjective reasoning related to these work patterns. Drawing on in-depth interviews with site managers in a large construction firm in Sweden, this study identifies two dominant narratives through which they justify excessive overwork: the narrative of advancement (which is career-oriented) and the narrative of preservation (which is autonomy-oriented). An analysis elucidates how these narratives encapsulate an ‘autonomy paradox’ which entraps the site managers in an endless loop of overwork, whilst convincing themselves that they are acting autonomously.

These results offer novel insights into why and how individuals who perceive themselves as autonomous enthusiastically engage in processes where they end up becoming ‘willing slaves’ to overwork. In a concluding part, the paper elaborates on how these findings contribute to two major fields of studies. First, they offer theoretical contributions to the literature on overwork and stress in the construction industry as well as practical advices to mitigate overwork. Second, they point at some contextual dimensions which have broader implications for organisation studies on overwork and stress. Most notable how certain contextual dimensions of project-based organizing can be viewed as permeating features of contemporary work-lives that continually allure us into happily overworking ourselves.