Algorithms of time: how algorithmic management changes the temporalities of work and prospects for working time reduction.

The article focuses on how algorithmic management—using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate managerial tasks such as task allocation, monitoring, and evaluation—reshapes the temporal organization of work. While algorithmic management increases efficiency by fragmenting paid work into shorter, precisely timed units ("atomised and punctuated time"), it simultaneously extends workers’ unpaid availability, creating a paradox where paid working time shrinks but overall work-related time expands. This shift is accompanied by intensified worker surveillance, individualization of employment relationships (often through self-employment contracts), and blurred boundaries between work and non-work time, which collectively hinder worker-oriented reductions in working hours. The article highlights that these changes are embedded in broader labor market flexibilization and power asymmetries, and that legal and regulatory frameworks currently struggle to address the complexities of working time and compensation under algorithmic management.