The ideal worker concept, typified by an unencumbered male, continues to influence workplace norms, despite a more gender-mixed workforce. This article examines whether this concept is being disrupted or reproduced as digitalisation becomes increasingly embedded in the workplace. Based on qualitative research in two professional services firms, the analysis shows how the ideal worker themes of work prioritisation and presenteeism have been maintained but adapted. Significantly, the study reveals how the novel dimension of connectedness is reshaping the ideal worker norm as enhanced digitalisation becomes interwoven in social relations. This has modified informal expectations about how, when and where work is performed, altering work organisation. This reconfiguration may in principle broaden scope for conformity with the ideal worker model, but in practice the heightened intrusion of work demands on personal time and into domestic space potentially works against gender equality.

中文翻译：

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数字化和重塑理想工人


以无拘无束的男性为代表的理想工人概念继续影响着工作场所的规范，尽管劳动力的性别混合程度更高。本文探讨了随着数字化越来越多地嵌入工作场所，这一概念是否正在被颠覆或复制。基于对两家专业服务公司的定性研究，该分析显示了工作优先顺序和出勤主义等理想的员工主题是如何保持和适应的。值得注意的是，该研究揭示了随着增强的数字化与社会关系交织在一起，互联互通的新维度如何重塑理想的工人规范。这改变了对工作方式、时间和地点的非正式期望，从而改变了工作组织。这种重新配置原则上可能会扩大与理想工人模式相一致的范围，但在实践中，工作对个人时间和家庭空间的高度侵入可能会与性别平等背道而驰。