Accelerated Temporalities in Teleworking Mothers in Pandemic and Post-pandemic

Abstract This article analyzes how the temporality of the experiences of teleworking mothers was accelerated and intensified during and after the confinement caused by COVID -19. Focusing on constructing the qualitative experience of time, it describes how this acceleration presents interesting changes concerning some temporal textures (Flaherty, 2010), especially in the temporal sequence and assignment. Part of the results of qualitative doctoral research are presented, with a narrative-ethnographic approach, carried out in Santiago (Chile) between 2021–2022. The results highlight the ambivalence present in the experiences of participants since, on the one hand, the stories expose different negative aspects associated with the mental load and stress resulting from the high demand to which they are subjected; and, on the other hand, teleworking is valued as a very positive experience, since it has allowed them to experience motherhood differently. Thus, the standards of being “good workers” and “good mothers” become more important to meet, since they are the ones at home, where teleworking challenges them from the domestic space in which they find themselves.