Public employees’ identity work and sensemaking of their (home) workplace during and after the lockdown

Purpose This paper explores how public employees’ identities were affected by the reorganization of their home workplaces while doing smart working (SW) during and after the pandemic, by examining issues of individual identity and sensemaking within a context characterized by the spread of new forms of work. Design/methodology/approach The study employs an ethnographic approach combining photo-elicitation with interviews with Italian public employees. It takes the perspective of SW as a regime with some constitutive logics bringing an identity project to understand how this regime is transforming public employees’ identities. Findings The paper reveals six identity practices used by public employees to make sense of their home workplaces. It also shows how SW has become a new regime, under the New Public Management umbrella, that has shaped public employees’ identity. Practical implications The paper provides practical and policy implications for public administrations adopting new forms of work to reason upon the development of better-informed organizational policies and practices to support employee well-being when working from home. Originality/value The paper introduces a novelty in the discussion of SW as a regime bringing a new “identity project” with defined logics, discourses and practices that are molding public employees’ identity.