Unpaid Overtime Hours Research Articles

Unpaid overtime and mental health in the Canadian working population.

Unpaid overtime-describing a situation where extra hours are worked but not paid for-is a common feature of the labor market that, together with other forms of wage theft, costs workers billions of dollars annually. In this study, we examine the association between unpaid overtime and mental health in the Canadian working population. We also assess the relative strength of that association by comparing it against those of other broadly recognized work stressors. Data were drawn from a survey administered to a heterogeneous sample of workers in Canada (n = 3691). Generalized linear models quantified associations between unpaid overtime, stress, and burnout, distinguishing between moderate (1-5) and excessive (6 or more) hours of unpaid overtime. Unpaid overtime was associated with higher levels of stress and burnout. Relative to those working no unpaid overtime, men working excessive unpaid overtime were 85% more likely to report stress (prevalence ratios [PR]: 1.85, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.26-2.72) and 84% more likely to report burnout (PR: 1.84, 95% CI: 1.34-2.54), while women working excessive unpaid overtime were 90% more likely to report stress (PR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.32-2.75) and 52% more likely to report burnout (PR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.12-2.06). The association of excessive unpaid overtime with mental health was comparable in magnitude to that of shift work and low job control. Unpaid overtime may present a significant challenge to the mental health of working people, highlighting the potential role of wage theft as a neglected occupational health hazard.

Work intensification and job satisfaction among domestic workers in rural Zimbabwe

This article focused on the under-researched concept of work intensification among domestic workers. Domestic work in Zimbabwe remains a primary source of employment for rudimentary qualified women in both rural and urban areas. This prompted the need for this research to understand better two essential dimensions of an employer-worker relationship, work intensification and job satisfaction. The sample comprised 25 participants, of whom 15 were domestic workers, and 10 were employers of domestic workers. The research used a qualitative approach to understand better the dynamics of work intensification among rural women employed as domestic workers in rural Zimbabwe. Our findings show that employers bring about work intensification in domestic work settings. This is further exacerbated by unpaid overtime hours. Moreover, work intensification in the studied sample deteriorates job satisfaction and relations between employer and employee. As a result, productivity dwindles in the long term because of exhaustion and burnout.

The Effect of the Average Salary and Unpaid Overtime Hours on the Net Profits of the Enterprise-Based on the Research of 11 Listed Civil-Military Integration Enterprises

The significance of this study is to obtain the relationship among the average salary of employees, unpaid overtime hours and enterprise net profit by verifying the hypothesis, help enterprises to formulate employee incentive policies, solve the problem of difficulty in recruiting and retaining employees. This research is mainly based on regression model, supplemented by game theory, and excludes the influence of some external factors on data and variables with game knowledge, making this research more convincing. The results show that the average salary of employees has a significant positive impact on the net profit. Unpaid overtime has a significant positive impact on the net profit of the enterprise; The increase of net profit has a significant positive effect on employees' choice of unpaid overtime. Unpaid overtime and average salary have significant positive effects on net profit. Based on the research results, this paper proposes the job-seeking method of "looking at the basic level and checking the basic level", the "three-step" strategy, economic security and respect, and the implementation of policies for job seekers, enterprises and managers.

Academic workloads: what does a manager need to consider?

ABSTRACT Utilising Bacchi’s framework ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ the literature on managing academic workloads was analysed to explore why workload allocation models are deemed essential in the contemporary university and the assumptions which underpin workload allocations. Whether due to the need for efficient use of scarce resources or ensuring equity for staff, workload allocation models are promoted as an accurate measure of each individual’s workload and as a measure of accountability. The literature privileges the views of staff whose workloads are ‘managed’ but unable to do their work within their contracted hours. Universities justify long hours of unpaid overtime as a norm of professionalism. Critical issues for managers are identified, and suggestions to enable them to be more effective in the process of workload allocation are presented.

Mental Health of Teachers Who Have Teleworked Due to COVID-19.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education included school closures and the implementation of virtual teaching and teleworking without the knowledge or resources needed to do so. This situation accentuated the inequality in accessing quality education and generated high rates of stress, anxiety, and general discomfort in teachers. This study aimed to explore the mental health of teachers who were forced to telework because of COVID-19, and to analyze the association with sociodemographic, teacher-related, and working conditions. The sample was 278 classroom teachers in Chile who teleworked more than 50% during the 2020 academic year. The participants were mostly women (82%) who entered the teaching profession at age 30 or younger (87%) and worked two or more unpaid overtime hours per day (67%). The dependent variable was mental health measured through the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The independent variables were sociodemographic, teacher-related, and work conditions. The internal structure of the mental health construct was evaluated using the Rasch model. Crude odds ratios (cORs) and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) were estimated using logistic regression models. A high rate of poor mental health was identified in teachers (58%). The variables associated with poor mental health were working in a private–subsidized school (aOR = 2.89; 95% CI: 1.16–7.22), working two or more unpaid overtime hours (aOR = 2.25; 95% CI: 1.11–4.59), and being absent due to sickness (aOR = 3.82; 95% CI: 1.53–9.58). These results provide evidence suggesting the need for actions to improve the working conditions of teachers who telework in order to improve their mental health, and thus have a positive impact on the entire educational community.

POS1468-HPR THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON RHEUMATOLOGY HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND THEIR SCIENTIFIC OUTPUT: HEAVY LIES THE CROWN ON FEMALE RHEUMATOLOGISTS

Background:COVID-19 has changed daily practice in medicine and affected teaching as well as research activities of medical personnel. Meanwhile, the pandemic´s impact on private life and responsibilities for dependents also affected health care workers in rheumatology.Objectives:To examine the adaptability of clinician-researchers in rheumatology in a time of crisis focusing on academic output in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic and to investigate the professional and private burden experienced by health care workers in rheumatology.Methods:A systematic search in PubMed, medRxiv and bioRxiv for reports of rheumatic diseases and COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 submitted (or published) from January 1 to June 30 2020 was carried out. As comparison, publications from April 6 to 13 2019 of the same rheumatic diseases without COVID-19 were analysed in terms of author characteristics and journal metrics. Additionally, a questionnaire was circulated via EULAR countries rheumatology societies and individual working group members. The participants were asked to answer 43 questions regarding their family situation, professional background, research output, changes in work and private responsibilities during the pandemic as well as the burden experienced. Responses were collected using an online survey tool and data analyses performed with SPSS Statistics 25; missing variable analysis was performed, excluding records with >15% missing responses. Descriptive and summary statistics were calculated for the entire dataset and split by gender.Results:Whereas the overall number of publications and authors was equal between 2020 and 2019, the portion of female first authors of review articles and original studies decreased substantially in the first phase of the pandemic (Table 1). The numerical contribution of female authors in highly ranked journals (impact factor>6) was comparable in 2019 and 2020, however, the percentage of female first authors dropped from 50% to 32% (P=0.07).Table 1.Author and journal metrics of publicationsAuthorsProportion female2019 (%)N=13862020 (%)N=1361P-valueoverall46,841.1n.s.first authorshipsall publications46,835,30.021reviews56,730n.s.original studies46,218,20.004other reports*42,639,9n.s.last authorshipsall publications34,727,9n.s.reviews33,315n.s.original studies32,130,3n.s.other reports*40,729,1n.s.*other reports: letters/editorials/case reportsIn the survey, a total dataset was available for N=180 responders. On average, female respondents (52.5%) were younger, more likely to live alone (19,1% vs 10,5%) and have no caring responsibilities (51.1% vs. 36.3%) than male respondents.Male doctors were more often tenure-track/tenured or chairmen (31.4% vs 12.8% female) and worked less often part-time (9,3% vs. 19.1%). Unpaid overtime hours of all participants were striking with 46.3/44,2% (female/male) reporting to accumulate >10 hours/ week.Regarding gender differences in scientific output, male respondents more frequently revealed >20 publications as first (57,6% vs. 26,9%) or last authors (34.1% vs. 10,1%). Similarly, 44,7% of male respondents reported a last author publication during COVID-19 vs. 26,4% of female respondents.While female and male respondents reported similar experience of burden during the pandemic, more female respondents reported increased family care as a major source of this (38,2% vs. 22,2%). Both genders would like to see increased support from superiors and official institutions.Conclusion:In a time of acute crisis, the adaptability of scientifically active female health care workers in rheumatology is lower than that of their male counterparts. This is reflected in a lower scientific output, especially as first or last authors. However, the burden experienced in the current pandemic is similar between the genders.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

The Digital Sweatshop: Why Heightened Labor Protections Must be Implemented Before Crunch Causes the Backbone of the Video Game Industry to Collapse

“Crunch”— the cyclical labor practice used to ensure delivery of content for commercial release within a certain time frame—is an unregulated and unconscionable convention. While common in a variety of industries, it is particularly disruptive in, and the root cause for, many of the video game industry’s shortcomings. Crunch in the video game industry is most commonly comprised of excessive, and often lengthy, durations of mandatory unpaid-overtime hours and an unspoken stigma for any who condemn a studio’s policies on a rushed production. Video game crunch is a direct result of the limited labor protections currently afforded to individuals within the industry and the rapid expansion of video games as a form of mainstream entertainment globally. Thus far, only one other scholarly article addresses the labor concerns facing the video game industry, and that article has a very narrow focus on how a recent development in California’s approach for classifying an individuals’ employment status would affect the video game workforce’s ability to unionize in that state. Currently, there is no other academic literature specifically addressing crunch labor conditions, and my Article fills this substantial gap by providing readers with a much broader analysis of the issues. This Article provides a general background into the rise of the video game industry into a global phenomenon and a detailed understanding of what crunch entails to capture the significance of its consequences. It then provides an analysis of the relevant federal and state labor provisions for which any redress must be relied upon. As Texas is the second-largest hub for video game development in the United States and its industry reach is growing in response to the economic incentives provided by Governor Abbott, this Article takes a targeted approach for addressing the industry-wide problem. This Article advocates against the use of unionization as a means of redress for the industry’s workforce, arguing it would be largely ineffective given the current state of the industry. This Article alternatively advocates for Texas to pass the substantive provisions of a labor act developed in the Article in order to address the core issues behind crunch. Specifically, this Article argues that the Texas state legislature should be tasked with expanding upon the minimum labor protections already afforded to its citizens by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by passing provisions that include the following: (I) limiting the amount of overtime that can be mandated from an individual, (2) introducing the applicability of overtime pay provisions beyond who is currently considered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and (3) expanding anti-retaliation provisions beyond internal complaints from an individual. The State must make this legislative push. Without it there will be no sustainable path for unionization to become a viable option for approaching labor concerns in the industry’s future. The economic benefits provided to the State by the success of this industry and the Texas legislature’s worker-centric ideology warrant this moderate legislative intervention.

Perceptions of the cancer care left undone in primary and community services: A mixed methods evaluation.

Primary and community care in the United Kingdom are under increasing workforce and time pressures. How these pressures affect the delivery of cancer care has rarely been explored. This service evaluation aimed to elucidate some of the views of the workforce in this sector of what work in cancer care is left undone, and what they would like to be able to offer more of. An exploratory sequential design was taken including a questionnaire and interviews asking primary and community care staff in London about their workload in cancer care. Surveys were analysed using descriptive statistics. The evaluation revealed a perception from primary and community care that there is work in cancer care that is currently being left undone. 64% of the workforce across all professions reported that they worked 10 or more hours of unpaid overtime per week. Respondents identified psychological care for people with cancer (PWC), and bereavement care for families and carers of PWC as the most common areas that were left undone. They would like to do more proactive work, in place of the current reactive 'fire-fighting' they are doing. For example, signposting available services to PWC and access to nutritional support. There was a desire for acknowledgement of the time and workforce pressures in primary and community care, and how these are hindering the delivery of care for PWC.

Flexible Working and Unpaid Overtime in the UK: The Role of Gender, Parental and Occupational Status

Recent studies have shown that flexible boundaries between work and family may make employees work harder and longer. Yet most studies were not able to show whether there are differences across different types of flexible working arrangements, and whether this relationship may only hold for certain groups of workers. We examine how three different types of flexible working arrangements, that is schedule control, flexitime, and teleworking, are associated with an increase in unpaid overtime hours of workers in the UK using the Understanding Society data from 2010 to 2015 and fixed effects panel regression models. Results show that the flexible arrangements that were introduced primarily for work-life balance purposes, i.e., flexitime and teleworking, do not necessarily increase unpaid overtime hours significantly. On the other hand, workers’ control over their schedule, mainly introduced as a part of high-performance strategies, leads to increased unpaid overtime hours. This is especially true for professional men, and women without children, especially those working full-time, and surprisingly part-time working mothers. The results of this study point to the importance of distinguishing between different groups of workers as well as between different types of arrangements when examining outcomes of flexible working. Furthermore, the results of the study contribute to the argument that performance enhancing flexible working arrangements can potentially exacerbate gender inequalities in the labour market by enabling men to commit more time to their jobs, while for women, especially full-time working mothers, this may be less possible.

Opportunistic shirking behaviour during unpaid overtime

ABSTRACTWe identify the presence of shirking by Major League Baseball umpires during indefinite unpaid overtime, as defined by extra innings. In the presence of new information about expected game length, umpires exert biases in ball and strike calls consistent with opportunistically reducing the likelihood of working additional time. General implications with respect to the effectiveness of salaried workers during unpaid overtime hours are discussed.

Opportunistic Shirking Behavior During Unpaid Overtime

We identify the presence of shirking by Major League Baseball umpires during indefinite unpaid overtime, as defined by extra innings. In the presence of new information about expected game length, umpires exert biases in ball and strike calls consistent with opportunistically reducing the likelihood of working additional time. General implications with respect to the effectiveness of salaried workers during unpaid overtime hours are discussed.

Homo Reciprocans Revisited

Do reciprocal workers work more if their wage compares well to similar workers in the economy? Are they more satisfied with their job? Predictions vary from theories. With a survey dataset with a representative sample of the German population, I construct a reference wage and measures for reciprocity for each worker. Depending on how much more or less a worker earns than the reference, I investigate how effort and job satisfaction react to reciprocity tendencies. The results suggest that a worker’s unpaid overtime hours increase with her relative earnings if above the reference; and the more so, the stronger her positive reciprocity tendency is. However, there is no such interaction for negative reciprocity. Job satisfaction is associated with reciprocity, yet insensitive to the interaction between reciprocity and relative income.

Do leadership styles influence productivity?

Background: Leadership and productivity in nursing and midwifery have become topical issues for discussion. This is possibly due to nurses constituting the largest group of the healthcare workforce. Nurses and midwives have been held accountable for low productivity and inappropriate leadership in the past. However, there has been limited consensus in the nursing literature about the impact of nurse managers' leadership styles on nurses' and midwives' productivity levels. Method: Two hundred and seventy five nurses and midwives (response rate of 99.2%) were asked to take part in a cross-sectional survey from five hospitals in the eastern region of Ghana, to examine the impact of nurse managers' leadership styles on self-reported productivity levels. Descriptive summaries, Pearson's correlations and linear regressions are presented. Results: Findings show for every hour of lost productive time, four hours of unpaid overtime in the course of the month was accrued due to staff shortages. Nurse managers' most frequently exercised a supportive leadership style, and a directive leadership style the least. Within the last one month of work experience prior to the study, nurses' self-perception of productivity levels were high (8.39 on a 10-point scale), 10% more productive than their peers in the same unit. Nurses believed their own productivity improved by about 1.8% over the preceding six months. Leadership styles explained only 6.9% (95% CI: 4.6–9.3%) of the variance in nurses' perceived level of productivity. Achievement-oriented leadership style most significantly improved productivity by 18.4% (95% CI: 13.0–24.0%). Implications for management and policy: There is a need to strengthen supervision and establish performance benchmarks within nursing and midwifery to measure staff performance, addressing health worker productivity more seriously through research and policy. Health institutions should invest in leadership development programmes for nurses and midwives to maximise productivity.

Nurses in Wales feel ‘undervalued, under paid and under threat’

Increasing workloads and staffing shortages mean that more than half of those nurses working in Wales are putting in extra hours of unpaid overtime, according to the RCN Employment Survey 2013 for Wales.

Flexible Work Time in Germany: Do Workers Like it and How Have Employers Exploited it Over the Cycle?

After describing qualitatively the increasingly flexible organization of work hours in Germany, I turn to the German Socio-Economic Panel to quantify practices and trends, and assess their effects on workers and employers. Measuring flexibility as the extent to which overtime is compensated with time off, and hence receives no overtime premium, I show that hourly{paid workers have undergone a regime shift towards more flexibility since 1984, while salaried workers have maintained an already high level of flexibility. I find weak evidence that flexibility causes workers to be slightly less satisfied with their work and more satisfied with their leisure. Over the boom and bust cycle of 2004-2009, I find that for hourly-paid workers in manufacturing, paid and unpaid overtime hours were equally cyclical, but that the cycle for unpaid overtime led the cycle for paid overtime. The results suggest that while the new practices do free employers to make more cyclical adjustments in hours, they have not eliminated the need for adjustments in paid overtime. I identify as constraints ceilings on cumulated overtime hours to be compensated with time off and the window within which the compensation in time off must occur.

Investigating Unpaid Overtime Working among the Part‐time Workforce

This paper considers whether unpaid overtime working relates to contracted working hours (i.e. whether an employee works part‐time or full‐time) in Britain. It uses the authoritative 2004 British data set Workplace Employment Relations Survey to derive a sample of 4,530 workers, from 735 workplace establishments, who worked unpaid overtime. It tests hypotheses linking contracted working hours to unpaid overtime, and whether this link is moderated by gender, occupational group and the availability of flexible working arrangements. Part‐time workers were found to work significantly more unpaid overtime hours compared with their full‐time counterparts. Gender, occupation and flexible working practices moderated this relationship, where the extent to which part‐timers work more unpaid overtime than their full‐time counterparts was greater for men than for women, was greater for professional/managerial part‐time workers compared with other occupations, and was more evident in establishments less likely to offer flexible working arrangements. The findings raise concerns about the exploitation of part‐time workers.

Flexible Work Time in Germany: Do Workers Like It and How Have Employers Exploited It Over the Cycle?

AbstractAfter describing qualitatively the increasingly flexible organization of work hours in Germany, I turn to the German Socio-Economic Panel to quantify practices and trends, and assess their effects on workers and employers. Measuring flexibility as the extent to which overtime is compensated with time off, and hence receives no overtime premium, I show that hourly-paid workers have undergone a regime shift towards more flexibility since 1984, while salaried workers have maintained an already high level of flexibility. I find weak evidence that flexibility causes workers to be slightly less satisfied with their work and more satisfied with their leisure. Over the boom and bust cycle of 2005-2009, I find that for hourly-paid workers in manufacturing, paid and unpaid overtime hours were equally cyclical, but that the cycle for unpaid overtime led the cycle for paid overtime. The results suggest that while the new practices do free employers to make more cyclical adjustments in hours, they have not eliminated the need for adjustments in paid overtime. I identify as constraints ceilings on cumulated overtime hours to be compensated with time off and the window within which the compensation in time off must occur.

The health consequences of precarious employment experiences

This study provides a test of a conceptual framework of the stress-related health consequences of "precarious" employment experiences defined as those associated with instability, lack of protection, insecurity across various dimensions of work, and social and economic vulnerability. Data were drawn from the Canadian Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics (SLID), a nationally representative longitudinal labor-market survey (1999-2004). Logistic regression analysis estimated the impact of several dimensions of precarious employment on two health outcomes: low health status and low functional health. For each calendar year we selected a subsample of individuals with close ties to the labor-market--i.e., aged 25 to 54, not full-time students, and employed at least 9 months of the year. We excluded individuals who were self-employed, those in management-level positions, and individuals who reported less than good health at the beginning of the year. Certain work characteristics (low earnings, the lack of an annual wage increase, substantial unpaid overtime hours, the absence of pension benefits, manual work) predict an increased risk of adverse general and/or functional health outcomes. Proactive regulatory initiatives and all-encompassing benefits programs are urgently required to address emerging work forms and arrangements that present risks to health.

Job Stress and Job Satisfaction: Home Care Workers in a Consumer‐Directed Model of Care

To investigate determinants of job satisfaction among home care workers in a consumer-directed model. Analysis of data collected from telephone interviews with 1,614 Los Angeles home care workers on the state payroll in 2003. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds of job satisfaction using job stress model domains of demands, control, and support. Abuse from consumers, unpaid overtime hours, and caring for more than one consumer as well as work-health demands predict less satisfaction. Some physical and emotional demands of the dyadic care relationship are unexpectedly associated with greater job satisfaction. Social support and control, indicated by job security and union involvement, have a direct positive effect on job satisfaction. Policies that enhance the relational component of care may improve workers' ability to transform the demands of their job into dignified and satisfying labor. Adequate benefits and sufficient authorized hours of care can minimize the stress of unpaid overtime work, caring for multiple consumers, job insecurity, and the financial constraints to seeking health care. Results have implications for the structure of consumer-directed models of care and efforts to retain long-term care workers.

An analysis of lung cancer clinical nurse specialist workload and value

In today’s healthcare system there is much controversy regarding the role and value of clinical nurse specialists. This article describes a mixed-method approach to the workload of lung cancer clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), and translates this into financial value. It calculates, for example, that these specialists work an average of 316.8 hours unpaid overtime each per year, and estimates on the basis of the data gathered that, as a group, CNSs in England contribute 71,280 hours of unpaid overtime – or £1,475,496 – to the health economy annually. The data underline the effectiveness of care these nurse specialists give to patients with lung cancer and their value to their trusts. abstract