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.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0018726717713828

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

This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of previous research examining the link between different aspects of working time and outcomes in terms of work-life ?integration? or ?balance?, which includes but is not limited to the reconciliation of work and family life. It also explicitly considers the extent to which various types of working time arrangements not only facilitate work-life balance, but also promote, or hinder, gender equality in both the labour market and in personal life. These are crucial issues, both because of the continuing prevalence of long hours of work, especially in developing countries, and also in terms of the diversification of working time arrangements away from the so-called ?standard workweek? (i.e., a Monday to Friday or Saturday daytime schedule). The paper begins by conceptualizing and measuring work-life ?integration? or ?balance?, reviewing the different types of terminology used and the dimensions of working time arrangements pertaining to this topic. It then considers the effects of the volume (quantity) of working hours on work-life balance, and finds that long working hours have been identified as an important predictor of work?life conflict. In contrast, workers working part-time were the most likely to report compatibility between their job and family life, even when compared with women and men withoutdependent children. Finally, it considers the effects of work schedules on various measures of work-life balance. It concludes that ?non-standard? work schedules?such as shift work, night work, and weekend work?substantially increase work?family incompatibility. In contrast, where workers have some autonomy and control over their work schedules, or the scope to choose particular hours of work,this has a positive effect not only on work-life balance, but on workers? health and well-being as well. Overall, the growing diversification in the organisation of working time raises questions about its impact on workers? work-life balance, as well as the need for an awareness of this dimension when considering workers? and employers? preferences regarding working time. At the same time, this trendis also promising in the sense that it might offer ?win-win? solutions that could potentially benefit both workers and employers. It is hoped that this study will provide useful guidance regarding how to respond to new trends and developments in the area of working time and develop innovative, mutually beneficial working-time arrangements.

/pdf/the-influence-of-working-time-arrangements-on-work-life-7n79xfxhmr.pdf

The influence of working time arrangements on work-life integration or 'balance': a review of the international evidence

Working part-time is frequently considered a viable strategy for employees to better combine work and non-work responsibilities. The present study examines differences in satisfaction with work-family balance (SWFB) among professional and non-professional part-time service sector employees in five western European countries. Part-time employees were found to be more SWFB than full-time employees even after taking varying demands and resources into account. However, there are important differences among the part-timers. Employees in marginal part-time employment with considerably reduced working hours were the most satisfied. Professionals were found to profit less from reduced working hours and experienced lower levels of SWFB than non-professionals. No significant differences in SWFB were found between male and female part-time workers.

/pdf/who-s-got-the-balance-a-study-of-satisfaction-with-the-work-524x37ykgy.pdf

Who's got the balance? A study of satisfaction with the work–family balance among part-time service sector employees in five western European countries

This study examines how job demands and resources influence job satisfaction in addition to job insecurity in East Asia, using job characteristics, working conditions, and job insecurity as three major domains of job quality. The data analyzed come from the 2005 International Social Survey Programme Work Orientations III questionnaire. Taken as a whole, this study found strong main effects of job demands and resources on job satisfaction but weak interactions between them on job satisfaction. Japan, Taiwan and Korea share many determinants of job satisfaction, in particular, workplace relation is the most important determinant of job satisfaction in the three countries. This finding reflects the significance of guanxi tradition on job satisfaction in East Asia, where collectivism prevails in contrast to individualism in the western society. In East Asia, the non-financial aspects of job quality have a greater effect on job satisfaction than the earning factor. The findings of this study further indicate that job resources (i.e., earnings, job content, and workplace relations) increase job satisfaction more than job demands (i.e., working hours, workloads, and work/family conflict) decrease job satisfaction.

Job Demands, Job Resources, and Job Satisfaction in East Asia

There are few attempts to benchmark job quality in a multi-dimensional perspective across Europe. Against this background, we have created a synthetic job quality index (JQI) for the EU27 countries in an attempt to shed light on the question of how European countries compare with each other and how they are developing over time in terms of job quality. Taking account of the multi-faceted nature of job quality, the JQI is compiled on the basis of six sub-indices which cover the most important dimensions of job quality as identified in the literature. The paper addresses the methods used to construct the JQI and make it comparable over time. It presents the results for 2010 and briefly addresses changes over time to illustrate the potential and limits of a multidimensional European JQI. It also considers alternative specifications for various sub-indices and tests for the impact of changes in the indicators used on the outcomes. Overall, the findings appear to confirm the feasibility and desirability of attempting to assess job quality by means of a composite index that can be periodically updated. The key strength of this approach is the possibility to monitor and benchmark EU countries’ overall job quality performances and the outcomes in six sub-dimensions of job quality and compare them with each other, across gender and over time. At the same time, the limitations of such a composite index need to be borne in mind. The most important challenges are the availability (over time), timeliness and periodicity, comparability and disaggregation of data.

Challenges in Constructing a Multi-dimensional European Job Quality Index

Introduction S.Drobnic & A.M.Guillen Working Hours, Autonomy, and Work-family Conflict: a Multi-level Approach H.Chung Job Quality and Work-life Balance: A Comparison of Parents and Older Workers in Europe C.Fagan & P.Walthery Job Quality, Work-family Tensions and Well-being: the Finnish Case M.Salmi & J.Lammi-Taskula Job Demands and Work-family Conflict: Empirical Evidence from Service Sector Employees in Eight European Countries B.Beham & S.Drobnic Part-time in Skilled Jobs: The Case of the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain Z.Ibanez Policies and Practices in Care T.Rostgaard Time with Children: Parents' Active Childcare in Different Family Policy Models M.Bygren, A.Duvander & T.Ferrarini Tensions between Work and Private Life in Spanish Dual-income Couples S.Dema Concluding Thoughts on Tensions between Work and Private Life and Policy Responses A.M.Guillen

Sonja Drobnic

Papers

Work-life balance in Europe : the role of job quality

Work-Life Balance in Europe