Join us

Each month we spotlight recently published research from one of the Society’s leading international journals: Area, The Geographical Journal, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and Geo: Geography and Environment. This paper from Area explores the experience of being a hybrid worker in an era of cliamte change.

In the post-pandemic world of work, many of us split our days between the office and home. If you’re a hybrid worker here in the UK, you’ve likely been trying to cope with stifling summer heatwaves whilst working from home. As our world warms, how are hybrid workers sensing and adapting to climate change and the challenges it brings?  

A team of eight interdisciplinary researchers in Melbourne, Australia, explored this question whilst based at the Climate Resilience Living Lab, an initiative run by the a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Led by Lauren Rickards (now Director of the La Trobe Climate Change Adaptation Lab), this lab used the university campus to explore the impact of climate change on the university’s workers, infrastructure and wider community. Spending their working days discussing these issues, the team decided to use research diaries to explore their own experiences of climate change in the individual and collective spaces of their work lives. We spoke to a member of the team, Febe De Geest, to find out more about this process and what they discovered. 

Learning with one another through research diaries 

Over six weeks, Febe and her colleague Carolina sent weekly prompts to the team to help them reflect on their work practices in relation to the weather. The diaries were completed individually before being discussed at team workshops where unexpected patterns and unique experiences could be explored. 

One of the challenges was that we came from different disciplines which meant that diary prompts had to suit different interests and priorities. However, the process of working collaboratively and sharing reflections in group workshops brought us closer together. We got to know each other’s disciplinary languages better.Febe

Whereas interviews can make participants feel as though they have been put on the spot, the research diaries gave the team time and space to reflect deeply on their experiences.

Screenshot from brainstorm during worksho showing how to code your own diary
© Carolina Contreras
Figure 1 - Screenshot from brainstorm during workshop.

Hybrid workers and climate change

So, what did the team’s diaries tell us about the challenges of hybrid working in an era of climate change?  

Extreme weather caused both physical and mental disruptions to work routines and practices, even when a long way from the workplace. During heavy rainfall, one participant was forced to race home from work to unblock a street drain and prevent their house from flooding. Another recorded an anxious day of constantly updating news alerts to follow the flooding situation in their family’s hometown, limiting their ability to concentrate on work.  

Image of car keys on table next to a glass
© Patrick Bonney
Figure 2 - Photos from the diaries.
  • Image of car keys on table next to a glass

Extreme heat also forced the team to adapt, disrupting how they went about their working day. In one diary entry, a participant recorded altering their work routine to make the most of the cooler mornings, relying on air conditioning to keep their devices cool enough to function. For another, heat was constantly disruptive, their temperature-sensitive computer needing to be routinely switched off to cool. When their computer completely failed, they were forced to travel into the university where they could use the campus devices.

We bear the burden of climate change in our bodies. The research diaries helped us to better understand this, showing how we live through climate change in diverse ways. When you’re forced to really reflect on how you feel, you realise climate change is not something you can just ignore. It’s always in us. It is something personal that we are living through.Febe

However, not all climate events are extreme, and many fail to capture wider public or government attention. One participant reflected on the boring, mundane impacts of climate events which cause small inconveniences to working days but are unlikely to make it onto the news. When the effects of climate change aren’t newsworthy, who takes responsibility for navigating them: the worker, the workplace or the state?

At present, individuals are having to manage everyday climate events with little guidance, adapting to a changing climate in ways that often remain invisible. Here in the UK, this could be beginning to change, with political groups such as the Green Party calling for a maximum working temperature. For now, it’s crucial that research further explores the impacts of climate events on workers’ lives, making visible the invisible labour that goes into adapting to a changing climate.   

A lot of organisations assume that the responsibility of adapting to climate change is transferred to the worker once they are working from home. We need to think carefully about how people are taking this responsibility home. The research diaries helped make visible some of the invisible labour carried out by hybrid workers.Febe 

Next steps  

Febe’s work continues to centre on how we understand climate change, talk about it, and grasp the multiple relations that are part of it. Since 2019, she has worked on heat and is continuing to explore the – often – invisible aspects of how people are adapting to extreme weather. She is also researching sustainable food initiatives at Australian universities. For Febe, there is still much to learn about how we are sensing and adapting to a changing climate, across the university, work and home. 

You can learn more and read the article here.  

This spotlight was written by Safi Bailey (Cardiff University).  

You may also be interested in