Social consequences of working time arrangements

1
Social consequences of working time arrangements
results from a review

• Senior Researcher Karen Albertsen

2
Aims of report

• Describe the context of the labor market in the
  different Nordic countries
• Summarize the international scientific knowledge
  with regard to social consequences of long and
  irregular working hours and employee influence
  over working hours

3
Material

• Literature searched in large databases PSYC-info
  and Pub Med
• Supplemented with other relevant literature
• Results from more than 85 studies included
• Available EU statistics utilized in the
  description of the Nordic countries

4
The Nordic context
5
Average self-reported usual weekly hours of work
in main job for all employees (European Labour
Force survey 2002)
The 15 EU Member states prior to enlargement in
2004 Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United
Kingdom
6
Flexibility/variability of working hours

(Source European Working Conditions Survey 2005)
7
Demands at work
(Source European
Working Conditions Survey 2005)
8
Tele-work and work with computers

(Source European Working Conditions Survey 2005)
9
Influence at work

(Source European Working Conditions
Survey 2005)
10
Percent experiencing that work affects health

(Source European Working Conditions Survey 2005)
11
Stress and sleeping problems

(Source
European Working Conditions Survey 2005)
12
Work-life balance

(Source European Working
Conditions Survey 2005)
13
Summary

• The Nordic countries have
• high employment rates for women
• an average number of working hours
• high intensity at work
• more influence on speed and schedule
• However
• more people experience stress and sleeping
  problems
• more people enjoy a better work-life balance

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How does working hours, working overtime and
irregular working hours affect work-life balance?
Results from review Results from Danish National
Data
15
Study base The second National Danish
Psychosocial Work Environment Study

• Questionnaire study based on a representative
  national sample of employees 20-59 years old
• N 3517
• Response rate 60
• Women 52
• The COpenhagen PychoSOcial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)

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Worse work-life balance with increased hours
50

45
40
35
30
lt 37hours
37 hours
25
38 - 44 hours
45 hours or more
20
15
10
5
0
Singles without children
Couples without children
Couples with older children (7)
Couples with small children
Singles with children
Percent who feels that work demands so much of
their time that it affects private life
17
Long working hours and overtime work damage
work-life balance

• Strong scientific evidence that a high number of
  working hours are associated with less balance
  between work and private life (26/30)
• Pattern more consistent among women (9/9) and in
  gender-mixed samples (15/15) than in male samples
  (2/6)
• Strong scientific evidence that overtime work are
  associated with lower levels of work life balance
  (7/7)
• Overtime work problematic for both full- and part
  time employed
• Fit of working hours, rewards and compensation
  for overtime work important mediators

18
OR for work-home interference when working
overtime is much higher under low reward and high
pressure conditions
Van der Hulst Geurts, 2001
19
Irregular working hours more conflicts
50

45
40
35
30
Fixed daily working hours
25
Irregular working hours
20
15
10
5
0
Singles without children
Couples without children
Couples with older children (7)
Couples with small children
Singles with children
Percent who feels that work demands so much of
their time that it affects private life
20
Irregular working hours damage work-life balance

• Strong scientific evidence, that shift work is
  associated with poor work-life balance (11/11)
• Shift work prospectively related to higher
  work-home interference (Jansen et al., 2003)
• Backward rotating shifts worse than forward
  rotating (Van Amelsvoort, 2004)

21
Negative effects of shift work on childrens
wellbeing and marital quality

• Poorer cognitive stimulation of children (Heymann
  Earle 2001)
• Higher odds for young children of behavioral and
  emotional difficulties (Strazdin et al., 2004)
• Marital instability (Presser, 2000)
• Prospectively associated with marital problems
  and divorce (White Keith, 1990)

22
Shift work and increase marital instability

• Shift-work cross sectional associated with
• lower marital happiness
• higher sexual problems
• child related problems.
• Prospectively
• Disagreements increased when one of the spouses
  started to work shifts
• Interaction increased and child-related problems
  decreased when one of the spouses dropped shift
  work
• The probability of divorce increaded by 57 for
  people working in shifts (after adjustment for
  other factors)

• White Keith, 1990

23
Scientific evidence for the positive effect of
control over working hours

• Strong scientific support that control over
  working hours is associated with better work-life
  balance (13/17)
• No evidence that control moderate or mediate the
  effect of long or irregular hours (3/3)

24
Intervention studies
25
Reduced hours with wage compensation A 6 hours
day
(Åkerstedt et al 2001)
26
Compressed working weeks

• 3 3 model
• improvements in recovery, self-reported health,
  work-life balance, sickness absence and job
  satisfaction (Andersson Jonsson, 2005)
• 4 days and nights of work followed by 7 days off,
  and after that 3 days and nights of work followed
  by 7 days off
• experience of positive changes in family life,
  leisure time, health, work environment and work
  tasks due to the new roster no signs of improved
  self rated health (Enehaug, Sørensen, Helte,
  2006)
• Double shifts (due to long commuting times)8
  hour shift followed by two 15, 5 hours shifts and
  8,5 hours off between the double shifts
• positive attitude toward the long shift, no
  changes on measures of stress or self reported
  health, sleep length shortened between shifts,
  increase in sleepiness and mental fatigue
  (Ekstedt, Kecklund, Dahlgren, Åkerstedt, 2001)
  

27
Changes in shift systems Backward rotating
three-shift system changed to a rapidly changing,
forward rotating system, with morning, evening
and night shifts followed by 72 hours off duty
(Härmä et al., 2006)
28
New organisation of working life

• flexibility in working hours
• flexibility in working place
• changed organisation of work, with less emphasis
  on the formal regulation through work
  descriptions and with more emphasis on personal
  competences and self-regulation at work
  (Aronsson, 2005)

29
Studies of work without boundaries

• trust hours (work based on results and
  performance rather than hours)
• positive effect on satisfaction, burnout, stress
  and sleep.
• 15 of employees were dissatisfied and wanted
  regulated working hours back. They experienced
  more stress and increased workload and insecurity
  (Kecklund et al., 2002)
• Telework SYSTEL (EU-project)
• positive effect on quality of life, increased
  time at home for non-work activities, both
  positive and negative effects on work-life
  conflicts, more isolation to work-related
  contacts, increases in weekly hours (Schmidt,
  Millard, Nielsen, 2003)

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Studies of work without boundaries

• Contract work
• Technical contractors perceived themselves to
  have flexibility, but rather than take advantage
  of this, the majority worked long hours and
  rarely scheduled their time flexibly (Evans,
  Kunda, Barley, 2004).
• Self-employment
• New media owners experienced lack of clear
  boundaries around project content, uncertainty
  about the volume of work and inflexible
  deadlines, put in hours of unpaid work, serious
  tensions between work and life, felt that work
  invaded private life, and forced them to work all
  the time
• Women worked fewer hours, earned less and were
  more likely to have sole or major responsibility
  for childcare than the males (Perrons, 2003).

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Summary

• Adverse effects of long working hours, overtime
  work and irregular hours on WLB
• Adverse effects of irregular hours on children's
  wellbeing and marital quality
• Moderating effects of fit, reward and pressure on
  overtime work
• Positive effect of schedule control on WLB
• Interventions showed positive effects on social
  life indicators
• Pros and cons of work without boundaries

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Lack of research

• Few studies of the new organization of working
  life
• Few prospective studies
• Few intervention studies
• Few studies with family or couple as entity
• Few studies of total work-load
• Few studies of effects on children and partner
• Studies comparing the effects of different kinds
  of non-standard work arrangements needed
• Studies with hard-core outcomes as divorce,
  delinquencies, number of friends etc.

33
Metodological requests

• Gender stratification important
• Conceptual problems What are we measuring?
• Problem in many studies lack of control of other
  relevant work environmental factors
• Schedule control and overwork often associated
  with a good work environment in general
• Selection problems
• Moderating and mediating effects important
• Negetive side-effects important (e.g. of
  part-time and flexibility)
• Positive social consequences and negative long
  time health consequences

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Thank you for your attention Now its lunch
time!
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Group work knowledge gaps and important research
questions

• What is the main issues and important questions
  to be answered with regard to working time and
  work-life balance?
• With regard to practice
• With regard to theory
• With regard to methods