Paper Details

Name: Karuna Kaushik
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume No: 13, Issue No: 1, Year: 2026
Page Number: 25-37
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20351758

ABSTRACT
The workings of things have been drastically transformed since the advent of digital capitalism, diminishing the distinction between employment, consumption, and personal life. Increased and varied use of smartphones, cloud platforms, and algorithmic management has led to heightened hyperconnectivity, thereby aggravating work demands and eroding
temporal and spatial boundaries. This paper will explore how hyperconnected work environments create spillovers from work consumption and reduce employees’ autonomy. In doing so, it integrates Human Resource Management (HRM) theory with politico-economic perspectives, developing a framework to analyse the scope of HR policies and regulatory
interventions in helping reclaim sovereignty of time. Furthermore, to establish the importance of institutional regulation and strategic HR design in
regaining time within the organisation, this paper utilises Boundary Theory, the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Additionally, a mixed-methods approach, including survey data from 412 knowledge workers and comparative policy analysis, reveals that hyperconnectivity predicts temporal fragmentation and burnout, with work–consumption spillover as a mediating factor. Moreover, these relationships are moderated by right-to-disconnect policies and by strong
regulatory frameworks. This research is significant as it draws connections between employee well-being and broader political governance and digital capitalism perspectives, hence contributing to interdisciplinary HRM scholarship at large. Drawing on Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and sociological perspectives on time, it also redefines hyperconnected work as a consumer life condition in today’s world. It also reenvisions, through qualitative data, that constant connectivity leads to consumption fatigue due to a disruptive shift in consumption rituals and identity. The analysis further lays down the Right to Disconnect as a cultural mechanism for boundary repair and reclaims consumer ownership. Ending the observations with a gendersensitive examination, it is noted that hyperconnectivity worsens temporal inequalities, especially in women’s personal and professional workspaces, thereby emphasising burnout as a disruption of meaningful consumption.

Keywords: hyperconnectivity, digital capitalism, work–life boundaries, HRM, right to disconnect, political economy, time sovereignty, burnout