Working Unusual Hours and Its Relationship to Job Satisfaction: A Study of European Maritime Pilots

Abstract

Our study focuses on maritime pilotage in seven European countries and analyzes the level of job satisfaction and its predictors. Like most existing studies in the field of job satisfaction, we show that job satisfaction is an outcome of the work of maritime pilots. Stressful working conditions, such as working unsocial hours and irregular working patterns, create strains that together with intervening factors related to work, family, or the work environment ultimately reduce job satisfaction. However, our results indicate that although negative physical and social consequences are important, they are neither the strongest nor the only variables determining job satisfaction. Another effect seems more important in European maritime pilotage: Job satisfaction is instead a predictor of how much pressure and stress pilots can handle. Despite health problems and a reduction in their quality of life due to working unusual hours, most maritime pilots do not regret their choice of profession. Factors to ameliorate the working conditions are also identified. The most important parameters include alterations in working time systems, working conditions which minimize physical strain, fairness regarding payment, flexibility within the compensation system, an intensification of the possibilities for involvement and participation, an extended degree of co-determination, and the distribution of the ownership of the pilot stations.