Rudy Fenwick

Unbinding Time: Alternate Work Schedules and Work-Life Balance

We examine the possibility that alternate work schedules affect perceived work-life imbalance—the “time bind.” The results show that alternate schedules per se do not “unbind” time. However, perceived control of work schedules increases work-life balance net of family and work characteristics. The most consistent family characteristic predicting imbalance is being a parent. The most consistent work characteristic predicting imbalance is hours worked. Once we control for hours worked, women and part-timers are shown to perceive more imbalance. Younger and better educated persons also perceive more work-life imbalance. However, they also report higher levels of schedule control and since schedule control improves work-life balance, it may be more important for unbinding time than schedule alternatives.

Scheduling Stress Family and Health Outcomes of Shift Work and Schedule Control

The effects of shift work and job schedule control on the family life and health of American workers are analyzed. Using data from the 1992 National Study on the Changing Workforce ( N = 2,905), this article tests whether negative family and health outcomes associated with nonstandard job schedules result from (a) problems of adjusting to the times of nonstandard shifts and/or (b) the lack of scheduling control and (c) whether schedule control mediates the effects of nonstandard shifts. Multivariate results indicate that although nonstandard shifts have few effects, lack of scheduling control has strong negative effects on six of the eight family and health outcomes. There is no evidence that control mediates the effects of schedule times, nor that these effects vary by gender or family status. Implications of these results are discussed.= 2,905), this article tests whether negative family and health outcomes associated withnonstandard job schedules result from (a) problems of adjusting to the times of nonstandardshiftsand/or(b)thelackofschedulingcontroland(c)whetherschedulecontrolmediatestheeffects of nonstandard shifts. Multivariate results indicate that although nonstandard shiftshavefeweffects,lackofschedulingcontrolhasstrongnegativeeffectsonsixoftheeightfam-ily and health outcomes. There is no evidence that control mediates the effects of scheduletimes, nor that these effects vary by gender or family status. Implications of these results arediscussed.

The macroeconomic context of job stress.

Using data from the 1973-1977 Quality of Employment Panel Study, we test a model that conceptually links research on macroeconomic causes of stress with research on job structure causes of stress among employed workers. Results from LISREL 7 (Jöreskog and Sörbom 1989) indicate that, while both macroeconomic and job structure variables have significant cross-sectional and longitudinal effects on stress, the macroeconomic effects are almost entirely indirect in their effect on job structures. In particular, higher occupational unemployment rates increased stress and lowered life satisfaction indirectly through reduced decision latitude and increased job demands. Overall, results suggest that macroeconomic changes, such as recessions, can affect individual stress because they lead to changes in routine job structures that represent increased and continued exposure to stressful conditions.

Recession and well-being.

In this paper we address two related questions: how much do economic recessions affect the aggregate well-being of a population, and by what means? Using data from the 1973-77 Quality of Employment Panel of full-time workers who experienced the 1974-75 recession (N = 830), we answer these questions by using an analytic procedure that allows us to determine the percentage of total aggregate (mean) change in well-being attributable to various changes in sociodemographic statuses, labor market positions, and job characteristics. Results from this procedure showed significant increases in the mean levels of distress and dissatisfaction for this sample and that the largest percentages of change were accounted for by changes in job characteristics: about 20 percent of the total change in distress and 47 percent of the total change for dissatisfaction. In particular, increased job demands and increasingly inadequate pay made substantial contributions, with the latter alone accounting for a quarter of the total change in dissatisfaction. Unemployment experiences also contributed substantial, but smaller, percentages to the change in distress (10 percent).

Social Change and Ethnic Nationalism: An Historical Analysis of the Separatist Movement in Quebec

Linguistic conflict between French and English-speaking Canadians has been an enduring feature of Canadian society since the British conquest of New France (Quebec) in 1759. This conflict has taken a variety of forms and revolved around a number of issues in the past two hundred years, ranging from the question of religious and linguistic civil rights to economic inequality and economic dominance. The latest and most significant manifestation of English-French conflict has been the emergence in the mid-1960s of a viable movement for political independence for the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec.

Work and Mental Health in Social Context

In this chapter, we summarize our sociological model for understanding the work–job stress relationship. Moreover, we want to show how this model makes contributions to the way we can understand the sociology of labor markets and economic attainment, the social determinants of health (health disparities), and the sociological stress process. We are interested in creating opportunities for sociologists and organizational psychologists who often study topics within narrow bounds to recognize the broader application of the knowledge they generate and the possibilities for informing the work of one another (Fenwick and Tausig 2007). We think we have shown that the sociological study of economic attainment is the study of health attainment and that the sociological study of health is the study of economic attainment.

THE CHANGING NATURE OF JOB STRESS: RISK AND RESOURCES

The nature of work has changed in the past 30 years but we do not know what these changes have meant for worker job stress. In this chapter we compare data from three surveys of the quality of work life from 1972 to 2002. At the most general level, work today is less stressful than it was in 1972. Workers report fewer job demands, more decision latitude, less job strain, more job security and greater access to job resources and job support. However, these changes have not affected all workers equally. Women, those with less education, non self-employed workers, blue collar workers and workers in manufacturing industries showed the greatest decreases in job stress although levels of job stress remain higher than for comparison groups (men, college educated, white collar, service workers). Changes were not always linear across time suggesting that some aspects of job strain are sensitive to economic cycles.

The Social Stratification of Job Stress: How Social Structures Create Health Disparity

Abstract Purpose The “Social Determinants of Health” construct is well-entrenched in the way that both health care providers and researchers think about the effects of social conditions on health. Although there are a number of theories that fall under this rubric for the social production of health and illness, the core of this construct is the idea that social stratification leads to health disparity. In this chapter we show how such a mechanism might work for relating social stratification and job stress. Methodology/approach We used the pooled 2002, 2006, 2010 Quality of Work Life modules of the General Social Survey to test a model of the relationships between gender, age, education, and nativity with “bad jobs” and indicators of health status. Findings Findings show that social status is positively associated with job quality and with health in turn. Lower social status characteristics are related to bad jobs and poorer health. Research limitations/implications Health disparities are thus “explained” by the consequences of social status for occupation and job quality, thereby depicting exactly how health disparities arise in normal social life. The theory and results underscore the importance of explicitly modeling social status factors in explanations of health disparities. Social implications It is common to relate health disparities to social status but it is not common to show the mechanisms whereby social status actually produces health disparities. Addressing health disparities means addressing the consequences of social inequalities for normal activities of social life such as work. Improving job quality would be a health “treatment” that addresses health disparities. Originality/value This chapter demonstrates the value of explicitly tracing the consequences of status differences on differences in social context such as work conditions and then health. In the study of health disparities this is not often done. In this chapter we show how social inequality leads to occupational and job quality differences that, in turn, lead to health differences.

Occupational Determinants of Job Stress: Socioeconomic Status and Segmented Labor Markets

While organizations are the most proximate determinants of job structures, job structures are not completely determined by them. Job structures are also broadly shaped by customs and laws, such as antidiscrimination and worker safety laws. But the most significant “external” determinant of job structures is the relative availability of individuals with the appropriate “capital,” the knowledge, training, skills, and experience, to fill particular job openings. Jobs differ in the kinds of tasks that need to be performed and individuals differ in both the type and amount of capital that would enable them to perform these tasks. The differences roughly correspond to differences among occupations. Occupations are aggregations of jobs that involve similar tasks or activities regardless of employer, and requiring similar skills and training (Kalleberg and Berg 1987: 78, 84; Vallas et al. 2009: 37). Organizations thus structure jobs to allow them to find suitably trained and skilled workers in the labor market. Hence, part of the explanation for the structure of jobs in organizations is related to the nature of occupations and to the labor market that links workers to those jobs.

Macroeconomic Change, Unemployment, and Job Stress

The on-going change from Fordist to post (neo)-Fordist labor markets and job structures is representative of long-term, or secular, trends that result in relatively permanent structural changes to the macroeconomy. Underlying these trends are changes in commodity and financial markets, such as globalization, and the development of new technologies, such as computerization. But these secular trends are also punctuated by short-term economic trends: the cycles of market expansion and contraction that are endemic to all market economies. In the 40 year period from 1970 to 2010 that broadly encompasses the transition from Fordism to post (neo)-Fordism, the United States experienced six such economic cycles: (1) expansion from 1971 through 1973 and contraction in 1974–1975; (2) expansion from 1975 through 1979 and contraction in 1980; (3) expansion from late 1980 into 1981 and contraction in 1981–1982; (4) expansion from 1983 through 1990 and contraction in 1990–1991; (5) expansion from 1992 through 2000 and contraction in 2001–2002; (6) and expansion from 2003 through late 2007, ending with the contraction of the “Great Recession” that started in late 2007 (based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008).