‘My Company is Invisible’—Generating Trust in the Context of Placelessness, Precarity and Invisibility in Virtual Work

Abstract

This chapter examines how placelessness, precarity and invisibility are experienced in virtual work and analyses the coping strategies used to generate trust by the employee in this context. Challenges posed by working at a distance away from the organisation have received considerable attention. For example, the mobility and flexibility inherent in virtual work creates risks of work-life conflict, work intensification, workaholism, and 24/7 connectivity (Leonardi et al. 2010; MacCormick et al. 2012; Derks et al. 2014; Porter and Kakabadse 2006; Greenhill and Wilson 2006; Hilbrecht et al. 2008; Kelliher and Anderson 2010; Mirchandani 2000; Russell et al. 2009). However, paradoxically, being constantly available through ICTs (Wajcman and Rose 2011) can coincide with experiences of loneliness, isolation, worry and guilt (Collins 2005; Haddon and Lewis 1994; Kurland and Bailey 1999; Mann and Holdsworth 2003; Felstead et al. 2005; Sullivan 2000).