The Promise and Peril of Flexible Working Time

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Bird
Keyword(s):  
Working Time ◽  
Flexible Working

scholarly journals Boundaryless working hours and recovery in Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Vieten ◽  
Anne Marit Wöhrmann ◽  
Alexandra Michel
Keyword(s):  
Working Hours ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Overtime Work ◽  
Psychological Detachment ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Recovery Experiences ◽  
High Level ◽  
And Control ◽  
Extended Work

Abstract Objective Due to recent trends such as globalization and digitalization, more and more employees tend to have flexible working time arrangements, including boundaryless working hours. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships of various aspects of boundaryless working hours (overtime, Sunday work, and extended work availability) with employees’ state of recovery. Besides, we examined the mediating and moderating role of recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control) in these relationships. Methods We used data from 8586 employees (48% women; average age of 48 years) who took part in the 2017 BAuA-Working Time Survey, a representative study of the German working population. Regression analyses were conducted to test main effects as well as mediation and moderation. Results Overtime work, Sunday work, and extended work availability were negatively related to state of recovery. Psychological detachment mediated these relationships. Furthermore, we found that relaxation and control mediated the association between extended work availability and state of recovery. However, no relevant moderating effects were found. Conclusions Altogether, our findings indicate that various aspects of boundaryless working hours pose a risk to employees’ state of recovery and that especially psychological detachment is a potential mechanism in these relationships. In addition, the results suggest that a high level of recovery experiences cannot attenuate these negative relationships in leisure time. Therefore, employers and employees alike should try to avoid or minimize boundaryless working hours.

Negotiating Flexibility: External Contracting and Working Time Control in German and Danish Telecommunications Firms

ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Doellgast ◽  
Peter Berg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Critical Power ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Power Resource ◽  
Time Control ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Working Time Models

This study examines how different participation rights and structures affect employee control over working time. The analysis is based on a comparison of matched call center and technician workplaces in two major telecommunications firms in Germany and Denmark. It draws on data from semi-structured interviews with managers, supervisors, and employee representatives between 2010 and 2016. Unions and works councils in both firms agreed to a series of concessions on working time policies in the early 2010s in exchange for agreements to halt or reverse outsourcing. The authors use Lukes’ concepts of decision-making and agenda-setting power to explain these common trends, as well as later divergence in outcomes. Germany’s stronger formal co-determination rights over working time proved a critical power resource for employee representatives as they sought to re-establish employee control in new, more flexible working time models.

scholarly journals Gender, Flexibility Stigma and the Perceived Negative Consequences of Flexible Working in the UK

2018 ◽  
Vol 151 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThis study examines the prevalence and the gender differences in the perceptions and experiences of flexibility stigma—i.e., the belief that workers who use flexible working arrangements for care purposes are less productive and less committed to the workplace. This is done by using the 4th wave of the Work-Life Balance Survey conducted in 2011 in the UK. The results show that 35% of all workers agree to the statement that those who work flexibly generate more work for others, and 32% believe that those who work flexibly have lower chances for promotion. Although at first glance, men are more likely to agree to both, once other factors are controlled for, women especially mothers are more likely to agree to the latter statement. Similarly, men are more likely to say they experienced negative outcomes due to co-workers working flexibly, while again mothers are more likely to say they experienced negative career consequences due to their own flexible working. The use of working time reducing arrangements, such as part-time, is a major reason why people experience negative career outcomes, and can partially explain why mothers are more likely to suffer from such outcomes when working flexibly. However, this relationship could be reverse, namely, the stigma towards part-time workers may be due to negative perceptions society hold towards mothers’ commitment to work and their productivity. In sum, this paper shows that flexibility stigma is gendered, in that men are more likely to discriminate against flexible workers, while women, especially mothers, are more likely to suffer from such discrimination.

Teleworker performance in the COVID-19 era in Japan

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Toshihiro Okubo ◽  
Atsushi Inoue ◽  
Kozue Sekijima
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Japanese Workers ◽  
Good Mental Health ◽  
Flexible Working

This paper investigates teleworkers' efficiency in Japan in the COVID-19 era by using unique survey data on telework. Many Japanese workers started teleworking during the pandemic and found both benefits as well as impediments. Overall, we find that telework experience and the work environment (e.g., having clearly specified tasks and a flexible working system), changes in work-life balance (e.g., working time), and good mental health improves teleworkers' efficiency.

The Dynamics of Work and Scheduling Gifts

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-119
Author(s):  
Alex J. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Working Time ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Workplace Relations ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
History Of

This chapter describes the main characteristics of retail work at PartnershipCo and ConflictCo, considering how managerial control at the two workplace regimes was aided through misrecognition by workers of the workplace relations. It provides a brief history of work games, that is, the manner in which workers create games that make their work more enjoyable but that also lead them to become complicit in their own exploitation, for winning these games invariably entails producing additional profit for their employer. The chapter then discusses the absence of work games at PartnershipCo and ConflictCo. In place of the mystifying effects of work games, one finds that flexible working time aids control as a consequence of “schedule gifts” obscuring exploitation. Schedule gifts are found to be crucial for understanding control in the on-demand economy.

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