Deborah Smeaton

'High-performance' Management Practices, Working Hours and Work-Life Balance

The effects of selected high‐performance practices and working hours on work–life balance are analysed with data from national surveys of British employees in 1992 and 2000. Alongside long hours, which are a constant source of negative job‐to‐home spillover, certain ‘high‐performance’ practices have become more strongly related to negative spillover during this period. Surprisingly, dual‐earner couples are not especially liable to spillover — if anything, less so than single‐earner couples. Additionally, the presence of young children has become less important over time. Overall, the results suggest a conflict between high‐performance practices and work‐life balance policies.

Bad Jobs in Britain Nonstandard Employment and Job Quality

The rapid growth in nonstandard forms of employment toward the end of the 20th century has fuelled claims about the spread of “bad jobs” within Anglo-American capitalism. Research from the United States indicates that such jobs have more bad characteristics than do permanent jobs after controlling for workers’ personal characteristics, family status, and occupation. We apply a version of the bad characteristics approach to British data and find that despite some institutional differences with the United States, (notably, in employer welfare provision), the British case also supports the hypothesis that nonstandard employment (part-time, temporary, and fixed term) increases workers’ exposure to bad job characteristics.

Self-employed workers: calling the shots or hesitant independents?: A consideration of the trends

he growth in self employment between the late 1970s and mid 1990s gave rise to a large multi-disciplinary body of research. More recently a number of theoretical perspectives have postulated a significant role for self employment in the new economic circumstances of the late 20th and early 21st century. However, there is sharp disagreement about the type of self employment and associated prospects that will emerge. For example, within a ‘knowledge economy’ perspective (Castells, 2000), the scope for professional, rewarding, de-institutionalized self employment is considerable, while the image of a second modernity, associated with a ‘Brazilianisation’ (Beck, 2000) of employment conditions is characterized by highly precarious and low quality non-standard contracts including self employment. During the 1980s and early 1990s, explanations of rising self employment polarized into two perspectives: entrepreneurial growth versus the marginalized worker. Conservative governments of the time claimed to have unleashed a previously repressed independence of spirit among the British workforce, a view supported by a number of commentators (Bannock and Peacock, 1989; Casson, 1990; Daly, 1991). Critics, however, associated the growth in self employment with high levels of unemployment and large organization restructuring (Blanchflower and Oswald, 1990; Linder, 1992; Rainbird, 1991). More recently this debate has resurfaced in different terms, prompted by further organizational and labour supply developments, with the self-employed conceptualized as either ‘portfolio’ or marginalized workers. In brief, self-employed portfolio workers are typically professionals, favoured by education, who flexibly exploit an emerging ‘new deal’

Work return rates after childbirth in the UK - trends, determinants and implications: a comparison of cohorts born in 1958 and 1970

During the 1980s a significant growth in the proportion of women returning to work quickly post-childbirth became apparent. It was observed, however, that a polarization of opportunities was emerging, with professional women becoming the main beneficiaries of change - a trend that was predicted to accelerate during the 1990s. Comparing two cohorts of women born in 1958 and 1970, this article indicates that the trend toward faster returns continued but that the experiences of professional and non-professional women converged.The predictors of return rates also changed over this period: while occupational class was an important determinant of return timing in the 1980s, by the mid-1990s this was no longer the case. Instead the financial burden of mortgage debt was pushing women into early work returns. Associated with these changes, a reduction in the incidence of downward occupational mobility, was observed, with the greatest improvements experienced by clerical and secretarial workers.

Older British employees’ declining attitudes over 20 years and across classes

British employers, under increasing competitive pressures, and applying new technology and work organization, have sought to reduce labour costs, resulting in work intensification and precarity. Older employees as a result are exposed to work demands that conflict with expectations of favourable treatment in late career. National survey data for Britain in the years 1992, 2001, 2006 and 2012 demonstrate a decline in overall job attitude among older employees following the changed conditions of the 1990s and across the major recession that began in 2008. To assess whether this decline is unequally distributed, decomposition by socio-economic class is carried out. This shows that older employees in the ‘service class’ of managerial and professional employees are affected at least as much as older employees in intermediate and less-skilled classes, thus underlining the age effect and showing that ‘service-class’ employees are not invulnerable to a changing economic environment.

Does Retirement Offer a "Window of Opportunity" for Lifestyle Change? Views From English Workers on the Cusp of Retirement.

Objective: Improving health behaviors can delay or prevent lifestyle diseases. Previous quantitative studies suggest that interventions at retirement may be particularly effective. This study introduces the voices of older people to explore the potential of retirement as a change point. Method: This qualitative study of current and anticipated health behaviors among 55 people approaching retirement in England reports thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: Many respondents expected improved health behaviors whether from conscious changes or simply as a beneficial side effect of retiring, while a smaller group felt retirement carried inherent health risks, with a need to guard against these. Discussion: The retirement transition can potentially establish positive health behaviors, but interventions need careful targeting to maximize their benefit. Further research is required to explore how far intentions translate into practice and the barriers and facilitators to doing so.

Britain’s Older Employees in Decline, 1990–2006: A Panel Analysis of Pay:

Older employees’ wages and earnings declined over the period 1991–2006, when compared with younger employees. The overall fall in relative wages was about 18 per cent, and for relative earnings 21 per cent. The article argues that this change was predictable in view of the pressures of ‘globalization’ resulting in increased competition, and intensified technological and organizational change, for many employers from the 1990s onward. The relative fall in older female and male employees’ pay had set in by the mid-1990s and it proceeded over the whole period to 2006.

What Happens to Retirement Plans, and Does This Affect Retirement Satisfaction?

This study examines the role of planning and plan fulfillment for retirement satisfaction using a dynamic resource theory approach. A 3-year qualitative longitudinal design was deployed with interviews conducted first on the cusp of retirement, then 1 and 2 years after retirement. The final sample comprised 41 individuals from England, 40 from Italy, and 30 from the United States. Realizing plans was found to be linked to retirement satisfaction. However, many retirees adjusted well to retirement without planning in advance, or when plans were thwarted, and sometimes retirement did not live up to expectations despite fulfillment of plans. Psychological resources and resilience were key dimensions of satisfaction regardless of planning. Retirement satisfaction was also associated with social integration, adoption of new social roles, and opportunities to be active within and beyond the private sphere, such as volunteering or participating in leisure oriented clubs or activities. Regardless of planning, the quality of family relationships was a particularly important element for retirement satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Job change in later life: A process of marginalization?

ABSTRACT Adopting a longitudinal approach, this article examines downward occupational mobility (DOM) later in working life and its effects on job satisfaction and perceptions of working conditions of older workers in Europe. The main aim was to test whether the risk that workers will be negatively impacted and marginalized in the labor market due to demotion into lower quality jobs is offset by benefits. Based on an ordinal logistic regression of merged Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing datasets, the study found a positive significant impact of DOM on overall job satisfaction. Moreover, DOM was associated with a statistically significant reduction in workload pressure, although it did increase physical work demand. This article adds to the literature on marginalization of workers with indications that the lower income and status associated with DOM at older ages may have offsetting benefits.

Lowering the Sexual Barriers

This chapter looks at the current employment of women in British workplaces and in doing so connects with several of the themes outlined in Chapter One — especially the response to changing competitive conditions and the construction of progressive policies for the workforce.