CHRISTINA WESSELS | Formerly, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
MICHAÉLA C. SCHIPPERS | Professor of Behaviour and Performance Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University


COVID-19 has proven to be a catalyst for the adoption of new ways of working. During the lockdown, numerous knowledge workers fulfilled their work obligations from home on a full-time basis. Previous research on new ways of working has demonstrated that time-spatial flexibility can have both positive and negative effects on wellbeing, performance, and work-life balance. 


As organizations are preparing for the ‘new normal’ with greater flexibility regarding where and when to work (i.e., time-spatial flexibility), we argue that it is of utmost importance to make employees’ working behavior future-proof. 


We argue that ‘time-spatial job crafting’ can be considered as a future work skill where employees reflect on specific work tasks and private demands, actively select work locations and working hours, and then potentially adapt the location of work and working hours or tasks, and private demands, to ensure that these still fit to each other. Thus, the successful utilization of time-spatial flexibility requires proactivity on the part of the employee in the form of time-spatial job crafting, a concept we review in this article.