Care, career and health in times of digitalization - insights into the experiences of caring scientists

Hanna Haag^*

• Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany

This article examines the experiences of caregiving scientists about the impact on well-being due to the increasing digitalization at work. Contrary to the assumption that digitalization has a positive effect on the health and well-being of those working in academia, the results of two qualitative research projects on the experiences of academics with care responsibilities also show an ambivalent relationship among this study group, independent from gender, which has so far been overlooked in the discussion about digitalization and health in academia.The results of two qualitative research projects on the experiences of academics, including scientists with care responsibilities, show that Ddigitalization processes make it easier for them to reconcile work and care responsibilities by enabling more people to work from home and participate in digital work contexts. However, this also increases performance expectations in terms of permanent availability, which has a negative impact on the physical and mental health of those surveyed and exacerbates self-exploitation where physical boundaries are disregarded. The article contributes to the discourse on health and well-being in academia as well as on digitalization at the workplace with a special focus on care work.