How to Tell Work from Home: The Organization of Space, Time, and (Un)Paid Labor in Remote Households

Remote work blurs boundaries between paid employment and household life, often producing overwork and gendered divisions of unpaid labor. This project moves beyond the “work-life balance” metaphor to study how remote households reorganize space, time, and labor. Using interviews and ethnographic observation, it examines household-level arrangements among remote workers, including partners, children, paid domestic workers, and extended support networks. Two core questions guide the research: how do households spatially and temporally define “work” versus “home,” and how do these arrangements reproduce or disrupt overwork and gender inequality? By documenting daily practices rather than only self-reports, the study provides grounded insight into how remote work reshapes family labor dynamics and points to practices and policies that might mitigate harms.