Social consequences of working time arrangements – results from a reviewSenior Researcher Karen Albertsen

Aim’s 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

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

The Nordic context

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

EU15 DK FI SE NO IS

Full-time males

Full-time females

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

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Work samenumber of hourseach day

Less flexibleschedules

Flexibility/variability of working hours (Source: European Working Conditions Survey 2005)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Working at veryhigh speed

Working to tightdeadlines ¼ of thetime or more

Demands at work (Source: European Working Conditions Survey 2005)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Teleworking fromhome ¼ of the timeor more

Working withcomputers

Tele-work and work with computers (Source: European Working Conditions Survey 2005)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Canchoose/changespeed of work

Canchoose/changemethods of work

Canchoose/changeorder of tasks

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

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Does your workaffect your health?

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

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

EU15 DK FI SV NO

...stress

...sleepingproblems

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

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

EU15 DK FI SV NO

Working hours fitfamily /socialcommitments wellor very well

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

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

How does working hours, working overtime and irregular working hours affect work-life balance?

Results from review

Results from Danish National Data

• 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)

Study base: The second National Danish Psychosocial Work Environment Study

Percent who feels that work demands so much of their time that it affects private life

%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Singles withoutchildren

Couples without children

Couples with older children (+7)

Couples with small children

Singles with children

< 37hours

37 hours

38 - 44 hours

45 hours or more

Worse work-life balance with increased hours

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

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

OR for work-home interference when working overtime is much higher under low reward and high pressure conditions

Van der Hulst & Geurts, 2001

Irregular working hours – more conflicts

%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Singles withoutchildren

Couples without children

Couples with olderchildren (+7)

Couples with small children

Singles with children

Fixed daily working hours

Irregular working hours

Percent who feels that work demands so much of their time that it affects private life

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)

Negative effects of shift work on children’s 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)

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

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)

Intervention studies

00,5

11,5

22,5

33,5

44,5

5

Time 1

Time 2

Reduced hours with wage compensation – A 6 hours day

(Åkerstedt et al 2001)

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)

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

Time 1

Time 2

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)

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)

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)

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).

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

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.

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

Thank you for your attention – Now it’s lunch time!

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