Seeking Balance

Women's Work ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 57-82
Author(s):  
Zoe Young
Keyword(s):  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Shared Intention ◽  
Employment Adjustment ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Contract Of Employment ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Employment Transition ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines professional women's motivations for part-time and flexible working beyond a ubiquitous balance-seeking goal. Three common motivations form shared intention narratives that express what women hope to achieve with their employment adjustment: resolving work–life conflict, protecting careers, and expanding careers. Close examination of how women explain their motivation for their particular working arrangement reveals the layers of meaning attached to it and the complexity of the practical and ideological settlement it reflects. This particular employment transition holds far greater significance in mothers' lives than a simple adjustment to the contract of employment. The chapter illustrates how mothers' working hours choices are morally potent, socially informed, and internally justified as the right way for them to do things at the time. An important finding is the pursuit of part-time and flexible working arrangements with the express intention to expand career opportunities.

scholarly journals Women’s employment patterns after childbirth and the perceived access to and use of flexitime and teleworking

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung ◽  
Mariska van der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Large Household ◽  
Family Demands ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

This article sets out to investigate how flexitime and teleworking can help women maintain their careers after childbirth. Despite the increased number of women in the labour market in the UK, many significantly reduce their working hours or leave the labour market altogether after childbirth. Based on border and boundary management theories, we expect flexitime and teleworking can help mothers stay employed and maintain their working hours. We explore the UK case, where the right to request flexible working has been expanded quickly as a way to address work–life balance issues. The dataset used is Understanding Society (2009–2014), a large household panel survey with data on flexible work. We find some suggestive evidence that flexible working can help women stay in employment after the birth of their first child. More evidence is found that mothers using flexitime and with access to teleworking are less likely to reduce their working hours after childbirth. This contributes to our understanding of flexible working not only as a tool for work–life balance, but also as a tool to enhance and maintain individuals’ work capacities in periods of increased family demands. This has major implications for supporting mothers’ careers and enhancing gender equality in the labour market.

5. The work–life balance legislation

2019 ◽  
pp. 366-429
Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rest Breaks ◽  
Balance Problems

This chapter addresses a number of legislative regimes creating rights that affect the balance between work and life outside of work. Specifically, the discussion focuses on the controls over working hours and rest breaks and the right to paid annual leave in the Working Time Regulations; the law on maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental and other parental leave; and the right to request flexible working arrangements. Although not all of these rights can claim work–life balance as their original policy driver, they have come to be seen as representing a loosely coherent programme for ensuring that the process of earning a living does not preclude any worker from enjoying other aspects of life, especially family life. The chapter considers, singly, each of these work–life rights, and the policies and legislation behind them and assesses whether the law delivers effective and useful rights. Gender inequality forms a central theme of the chapter, noting that many work–life balance problems flow from unequal gender norms in the home.

scholarly journals Do Work–Life Measures Really Matter? The Impact of Flexible Working Hours and Home-Based Teleworking in Preventing Voluntary Employee Exits

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Charlotte K. Marx ◽  
Mareike Reimann ◽  
Martin Diewald
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Lower Probability ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Flexible Working Hours ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Flexibility Measures ◽  
The Impact

Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of work–life measures, which are designed to contribute to job quality and help reconcile employees’ work and personal lives. In our study, we asked whether such measures can also work as inducements to prevent employees from voluntarily leaving a firm. We considered flexible working hours and home-based teleworking as flexibility measures that are potentially attractive to all employees. To address the possible bias caused by sketchy implementation and their actual selective use, we chose to examine employees’ perceptions of the offer of these measures. We investigated the moderation of the effect by organizational culture and supervisor and coworker support. We controlled for several indicators of job quality, such as job satisfaction and perceived fairness, to isolate specific ways in which work–life measures contributed to voluntary employee exit, and checked for a selective attractiveness of work–life measures to parents and women as the main caregivers. Using a three-wave panel employer–employee survey, we estimated multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models for 5452 employees at 127 large German establishments. Our results confirmed that both types of flexibility measures were associated with a lower probability of voluntarily exit. This applied more to men than to women, and the probability was reduced by a demanding organizational culture. Both measures seemed not to be specifically designed to accommodate main caregivers but were attractive to the whole workforce.

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.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of Employment Relations in Ukraine for the Period of Established Quarantine (Covid-19)

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156
Author(s):  
T. Pisоchenkо ◽  
◽  
S. Agafonova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Labor Relations ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Remote Work ◽  
The People ◽  
Labor Legislation ◽  
Unpaid Leave ◽  
The Face ◽  
Part Time ◽  
The Right ◽  
Restrictive Measures

Annotation. Introduction. The author investigates in his article the main drawbacks of the Ukrainian legislative base that may cause difficulties for employers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. While reading this article you will find several solutions on how to limit salary expenses of you company or firm, lead in remote or part-time working schedule on the enterprise and grant employees unpaid leave. The article also deals with the procedure of the paper work that should be done while processing sick leaves of the people who suffered from the COVID-19 disease or contacted with the COVID-19 patients. Purpоse. The purpose of this article is to identify the shortcomings of labor legislation during quarantine and restrictive measures related to the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Consider and analyze new approaches in building labor relations between employees and employers in the face of rising unemployment and the introduction of telework. Results. The pandemic covered 210 countries and territories. Studies have shown that tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. According to various social survey centers, every third company surveyed optimized the payroll, sent employees to remote work with a reduction in wages, reduced staff and transferred some workers to contracts. Today it is possible to exercise the right to receive partial unemployment benefits for insured workers who have lost part of their wages due to forced downtime or reduction of working hours due to quarantine. Cоnclusiоns. Today, much responsibility lies with the subjects of labor relations, much depends on the employees and employers, on their responsibility and charity. State aid to those categories that were more vulnerable during the crisis remains important. Financial assistance can take the form of grants and grace periods on outstanding loans – in order to support and overcome the profitability crisis. Keywоrds: labor relations; pandemic; wages; COVID-19.

scholarly journals Arbeidsvoorwaarden en de gewenste pensioenleeftijd

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne van Zwieten ◽  
Jan Fekke Ybema ◽  
Goedele Geuskens
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Older Employees ◽  
Flexible Working Hours ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work

Terms of employment and the preferred retirement age Terms of employment and the preferred retirement age The present study examines how the satisfaction with the terms of employment among older employees affects the preferred retirement age. Two waves of data collection (2008 and 2009) of the cohort-study of the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) were used for this study. The results of this longitudinal study showed that satisfaction with terms of employment that concern flexibility (e.g. flexible working hours and the possibilities for part-time work) contribute to a higher preferred retirement age. It also contributes to not specifying the preferred retirement age. This means that employees who are satisfied with the flexibility in their jobs more often do not know at what age they prefer to retire than employees who are not satisfied, but if they do know they report a higher preferred retirement age. By arranging flexibility in the job together with and to the satisfaction of employees, employees can be stimulated to postpone retirement.

scholarly journals Fathers’ Perceptions of the Availability of Flexible Working Arrangements: Evidence from the UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 095001702094668
Author(s):  
Rose Cook ◽  
Margaret O’Brien ◽  
Sara Connolly ◽  
Matthew Aldrich ◽  
Svetlana Speight
Keyword(s):  
Working Hours ◽  
Schedule Flexibility ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Lower Education ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Reduction Schedule

A conditional right to request flexible working arrangements (FWAs) has existed for most UK employee parents since 2003. However, there are growing concerns about access, particularly among fathers. Using nationally representative data from the 2015 UK Household Longitudinal Survey, this article examines fathers’ perceptions of the availability of hours reduction, schedule flexibility and working from home. Results show that almost one-third of fathers believe that FWAs that reduce working hours are unavailable to them, compared with one-tenth of mothers. There are no gender differences in perceptions of availability of schedule and location flexibility. Among fathers, those with lower education levels, in lower status occupations, working in the private sector and in workplaces that do not have trade union presence are more likely to believe that FWAs are unavailable. Therefore, even though most employees now have the right to request FWAs, a significant minority of fathers do not perceive FWAs to be available to them.

scholarly journals A comparative analysis of flexible working patterns in Germany and Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 01-14
Author(s):  
Fulya Aydınlı Kulak ◽  
Vala Lale Tüzüner
Keyword(s):  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Overtime Work ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Chi Square Analysis

In this study, the extent of flexible working patterns beginning to replace the conventional working models is examined in companies in Turkey and Germany and the extent of flexible working patterns in the two countries is compared. The objectives of the study are to determine the prevalence of these patterns and to find out the similarities and differences regarding flexible working in the two countries. The flexible working patterns focused on in this study are weekend work, shiftwork, overtime work, part-time work, job sharing, flexitime, fixed-term contracts, home-based work, telecommuting, and compressed workweeks. The research, which is designed with the last round database of the CRANET Survey on Comparative Human Resource Management Research, includes the companies in Turkey and Germany of the 35 participating countries (154 companies from Turkey and 278 companies from Germany which makes a total of 432 companies). In the findings section, first of all, the prevalence of each flexible working pattern in the two countries has been presented. Chi-square analysis has been conducted for each of the flexible working patterns to find out if there are any significant differences in the prevalence of these models in the two countries. As a result, it is determined that the extent of the nine flexible working patterns differed in the two countries. This is to say that the prevalence of several flexible working patterns ensuring the work-life balance of the employees is higher in Germany whereas flexible patterns used for economic reasons and do not add value to the work-life balance of the employees are usually prevalent in Turkey. The only similarity between the two countries is the use of home-based work.  

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