Helsinki (20.04.2009 - Juhani Artto) A recent PhD study of Mia Tammelin (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) investigated the working time practices of dual-earning families in Finland between years 1977 - 2003. The study also looked at the experiences on the work-family interface and the strategies that families use in organizing everyday life. The study concentrated on dual-earning couples, which are typical in Finland but of which there is only little research information.
Work and family spheres are often described through changes, yet both life spheres are better described with continuities; changes take place slowly. Regardless of the long perspective of a quarter of a century, there are no radical changes in the working time practices, although the time phase includes the economic growth, as well as deep recession during 1990s. Still, the so-called post-industrial working time regime is evident.
Increasingly more salaried employees work either long or short hours, and work outside daytime hours. Evening, night or weekend work was more typical in 2003 in comparison to earlier years. Feelings of hurriedness have also increased. In addition, salaried employees have more autonomous working time; some 60 percent of men and women have at least 30 minutes flexibility on when they start work.
Length and timing of working time are central aspects of working time, but also tempo of work, working time autonomy and predictability of working time are important. Time famine has been said to be one of the new social problems. Altogether almost a third of women and 14 percent of men suffer from substantial hurriedness at work. Feelings of hurriedness spill over from the work place to home, and affect the experiences on the work-family interface.
Working time autonomy enables coordinating everyday practices according to the needs of the family and the individual. Altogether, sixty percent of dual-earner employees have a 30-minute flexibility in their working time, yet at the same time contacts outside office hours are usual, which blurs the division between home and work.
There are some interesting differences among men and women’s working time practices. Among dual-earning couples, women do increasingly more often shift work and they suffer from hurriedness at work. While the length of women’s working time has remained relatively stable, men work increasingly more often long working week (40 hours and more/ a week).
Furthermore, compared to women, men are more often contacted outside the office hours, which blur the division of working time and non-working time. Still it is difficult to say if the contacts outside office hours are disturbing or not.
The study made some practical suggestions. It suggested that in the practical development work it is important to know if it aims at decreasing the conflict experiences between work and family or at strengthening the supportive roles work and family have for each other.
Furthermore, the study clearly showed that it is necessary to define to which aspect of working time the development work focuses. The study showed that concentration on merely on the length of hours is insufficient, although the length of working time is a central aspect. Other aspects are particularly feelings of hurriedness, working time autonomy, timing of work, and predictability of working time.
The study was conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. It used a mixed-method approach; it used a qualitative interview data and three statistical data sources. The interviews of ten dual-earning couples were conducted for this study. The statistical data sources were the Finnish Working conditions surveys (1977, 1984, 1997 and 2003), “Household, work and well-being” household data of 1999 and 2000, and the European “Employment options of the future” –data of 1998.
Source: Mia Tammelin (2009). Working time and family time. Experiences of the work-family interface among dual-earning couples in Finland. Jyväskylä Studies on Education, Psychology and Social Sciences 355.