Time Pressure Among Dutch Employees

1. Time pressure of Dutch employees Tanja van der Lippe Department of Sociology/ICS Utrecht University The Netherlands

2. Content of the presentation • Research problem • Hypotheses • Data collection • Results • Conclusions

3. Research line: Time competition • Focus: formation and organisation of family and employment relations and the interplay between these two • Time competition: explain increased tension between competing claims from the spheres of work and private life • Research program financed by Dutch Science Foundation, 4 phd students and 1 post doc.

4. Governance structures of the firm • from Tayloristic to post Fordist structures • Employment contract • temporary jobs -> more time pressure • Reward system • performance related pay system -> more time pressure • Career system • time competition career paths -> more time pressure • Job design • flexibility and freedom in job -> more time pressure

5. Organisation of the household • Volume of housework • young children -> more time pressure • more paid working hours of spouse -> more time pressure • Satisfaction and conflicts • unsatisfied with present division -> more time pressure • more conflicts -> more time pressure • In a later stage: quality standards and flexibility • higher quality standards -> more time pressure • less flexibility -> more time pressure

6. Data design • 30 organisations, per organisation 2 to 3 function groups • N=1114 respondents, 590 male and 524 female employees • Of the 1114 households, 828 couples and 286 singles 30 Organisations Function group 1 Function group 2 Function group 3 Empl.+ spouse Empl.+ spouse Empl.+ spouse Empl. + spouse Empl. + spouse Empl. + spouse

7. Collection of data • Multi-actor data • Organisation: • each organisation written questionnaire • each function group written questionnaire • Household: • time diary beforehand (for employee and spouse if present) • personal interview at home with both separately + written questionnaire • leaving a booklet on outsourcing to send back

8. Time pressure • Scale designed by Garhammer, originally 10 items, here 7 • Employees report positively to: • I am under time pressure • I wish to have more time for myself • I feel myself under time pressure from others • Employees report negatively to • I am under so much time pressure that my health suffers • I cannot recover properly from illness due to lack of time • Women report more health related time pressure

9. Descriptives of independent variables • Significant difference in paid and domestic work for men and women, total is the same • Women more often in performance related pay system and have less flexibility in their own job • Men more often have young children • Spouse of woman has a larger paid job

10. Time pressure for all employees • Longer working hours -> moretime pressure • More domestic hours -> only for women more time pressure • Time competition career path and deadlines -> time pressure • But Flexibility -> less time pressure • Young children -> more time pressure • Single women -> more time pressure • Women feel more time pressure!

11. Time pressure for married or cohabiting employees • No effects of spouse’s working hours • Less satisfaction -> more time pressure • Conflicts -> only for men more time pressure

12. Conclusion • Feelings of time pressure are present under Dutch employees • Organisation of work and household influence time pressure • Especially inflexibility (no freedom or flexibility at workplace and having young children) increases time pressure

13. Next? • Include information at the organisational level • Elaborating on the organisation of the household • More on spouse, for example total amount of time pressure, do spouses influence each other?