Disconnected Workers: Can Digital Voice Fill the Gap?

Employee voice research has traditionally focused on co‐located, synchronous work environments, overlooking how voice is evolving in remote and hybrid settings, now a widespread reality in the post‐pandemic workplace. In this conceptual paper, we examine how psychological, temporal, structural, and technological distance inherent in remote/ hybrid work create new barriers to employee voice. We explore the potential of digital platforms to bridge these barriers, while also highlighting how their limitations, especially when combined with remoteness, reshape both voice and silence. We make three key contributions. First, we argue that traditional direct voice mechanisms, built on assumptions of physical proximity and synchronous work, have significant limitations for remote/hybrid work contexts. In doing so, we extend voice scholarship by incorporating distance as a factor. Second, we problematise the boundaries between formal and informal voice that have shaped existing scholarship. Third, we contribute to the voice and silence literatures by identifying how digital voice architectures can unintentionally reinforce cultures of silence.