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Recent interest in the multimodal accomplishment of organization has focused on the material and symbolic aspects of materiality. We argue that current literature invokes diverse “multimodal imaginaries,” that is, ways of conceiving the relation between the material and the conceptual, and that the different imaginaries support a plurality of perspectives on materiality. Using the empirical case of a large urban renewal project in São Paulo, Brazil, we illustrate three different multimodal imaginaries – the concrete, the semiotic, and the mimetic – and indicate how each imaginary determines the way in which the site in question is discursively constructed. After outlining the different approaches, we discuss their theoretical implications, advantages, and constraints, setting an agenda for future studies of materiality in organizational and institutional contexts.

Human beings spend about a third of their day working, so it is very important that they are integrated into a good community work environment. When the setting is teleworking in a family and housing context, it is important to keep a good environment and also a good physical, psychological and ergonomic aspects to attain job performance. The purpose of this paper is to characterize teleworking carried out in Portuguese communities in the context of the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey questionnaire was used, which analyzed general information about teleworking and the individual’s adaptation process and the difficulties they faced during the teleworking period. The sample consists of 359 individuals aged 18 years or over, who were teleworking in their homes and in a family environment.

The results show that adapting to teleworking was easy or very easy and that it happened very quickly. The main difficulties encountered by the individuals were the lack of professional interaction/communication with coworkers, the lack of resources related to support infrastructures, such as the internet or a printer, and the reconciliation of teleworking with family life/household chores/dedication to children and time/schedule management.

This study hopes to contribute to the increase of the scientific knowledge in the teleworking field and to allow companies to rethink the teleworking strategies to optimize resources and costs and to improve the organization’s productivity without harming the quality of life and well-being of their workers.