Nonstandard Hours Research Articles

Rational or emotional decisions? Parents’ nonstandard work hours and the justifications for using informal childcare

ABSTRACT This study examined whether the number of weekly childcare arrangements for under-school-aged children is associated with parental nonstandard hours (e.g. evenings, nights, or irregular schedules) and the reasons and justifications parents working nonstandard hours give for using informal care arrangements. Using cross-sectional survey data of 359 Finnish parents with children aged 0–6 years, we found that nonstandard work hours, compared with standard daytime hours, were associated with a higher number of weekly care arrangements for children under 5 years old. Qualitative parental interviews (N = 27) further revealed three justifications for using informal care: ‘Leaning on parents’ values and desires’, ‘Disclaiming from actions potentially harming the child’, and ‘Balancing parents’ needs and the moral aspects of using informal childcare’. Our findings highlight that parents of young children tend to rely on multiple childcare arrangements during nonstandard work hours even in a country with a comprehensive institutional early childhood education and care (ECEC) infrastructure and affordable tax-based provision of around-the-clock care (i.e. extended hours ECEC). Furthermore, emotional-based reasons related to ensuring child well-being were emphasised over rational-based ones when parents provided justifications for using informal arrangements during nonstandard hours.

Caught between academic calling and academic pressure? Working time characteristics, time pressure and time sovereignty predict PhD students’ research engagement

PhD students come to work in academic environments that are characterized by long working hours and work done on non-standard hours due to increasing job demands and metric evaluation systems. Yet their long working hours and work at non-standard hours are often seen as a logical consequence of their intellectual quest and academic calling and may even serve as a proxy for their research engagement. Against that background, quantitative data from 514 PhD students were used to unravel the complex relationships between different aspects of time use and PhD students’ work engagement. While the results support the academia as a calling thesis to some extent, they also show that the relationships between long and non-standard working hours and research engagement are partly negated by the fact that the same working time characteristics lead to perceived time pressure and lack of time sovereignty, which in turn negatively affects their engagement. Moreover, the mechanism behind this negation varies across scientific disciplines. These subjective working time characteristics are the same alarm signals that are flagged as risk factors in academic staff for occupational stress, burnout, and work-life imbalance and thus cannot be ignored.

Identification of anxiety-depressive disorders in paramedics working shift work

IntroductionShift work can lead to mental health problems evolving into real anxiety disorders with significant socio-professional repercussions.ObjectivesThe purpose of our work was to screen paramedics with shift work for anxiety disorders.MethodsCross-sectional study carried out among the paramedical staff of a Tunisian university hospital. The data was collected from a pre-established record sheet. Screening for anxiety-depressive disorders was done using the HAD scaleResultsThe study included 158 paramedics. The average age was 36.48 years with female predominance at 70.9%. The average working time was 11.1 8.9 years and the average working time in shift work was 10.27 9.2 years. Of the 13 departments with non-standard hours of work, the main departments represented were resuscitation (n=24; 15.2%), emergencies (n=18; 11.4%) and radiology (n=17; 10.8%). Nurses accounted for 46.2%, manual workers for 23.4% and senior technicians for 19%.Certain anxiety symptomatology was found in 53.2% (n=84) and doubtful symptomatology in 29.1% (n=46) of the general population. Certain depressive symptomatology was noted in 17.1% (n=27) and doubtful symptomatology in 30.4% (n=48) of the general population. Occupational seniority and seniority in shift work were statistically significantly associated with both anxiety (p=0.04/p=0.05) and depression (p=0.05/p=0.006) symptomatology. ). Similarly, this anxiety-depressive symptomatology was associated with the position occupied (p=0.02 / p=0.04) and the assignment department (p=0.008 / p=0.01).ConclusionsAnxiety-depressive disorders are common among paramedics working shift work in hospitals. Screening consultations in occupational medicine are necessary to detect these disorders early.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Positioning flexibly scheduled ECEC in the chain of childcare by parents working non-standard hours

This study examined how Finnish parents working non-standard hours (N=18) positioned institutional flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a link in their chain of childcare. Interview data, analysed following the principles of discursive psychology, yielded three discourses on flexibly scheduled ECEC: the discourse of the child’s best interest, the discourse of the labour market, and the discourse of equality of opportunity for the child. Flexibly scheduled ECEC was positioned in these discourses either as the last resort option for childcare, a safe haven for the child, a societal service enabling parents to work during non-standard hours or as a place for children’s learning. It is important to recognise the origins of these discourses and reflect on them to improve ECEC services, so that they meet the demands of safety as a link in the chain of childcare and increase the level of parental satisfaction with them.

Changing Employment and Work Schedule Patterns over the 30 Working Years-A Sequential Cluster Analysis.

Objective. As labor markets have become increasingly volatile and precarious since 1980s, more workers are susceptible to working conditions such as unpredictable and unstable hours, threatening their economic security. However, our understanding of employment patterns regarding the changes in work schedules over our working lives has yet been established. This study builds our knowledge in this area by paying attention to how social positions may shape the specific work schedule patterns over our working lives. Methods. We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79) to examine our research questions. NLSY79 follows a nationally representative sample of United States men and women between the ages of 14 and 22 when first interviewed in 1979. The participants were then interviewed annually until 1994 and then biennially thereafter. We first conducted a sequence analysis to examine work schedule patterns between ages 22 and 53 (n = 7987). We then used a multinomial logit regression to examine the factors contributing to specific work schedule patterns, with attention to social position. Results. Our sequence analysis results suggest five work schedule patterns during 31 years of adult life: working only standard hours (25%), mainly standard hours with some portions of nonstandard hours (38%), standard hours during early working years but transitioning to either largely variable or mainly evening or night hours (14% and 13%), and mostly not working (10%). Our multinomial logit analysis indicates that being non-Hispanic Black, having a high school degree or below, or having ever experienced poverty or welfare by age 23 were more likely to have a nonstandard work schedule pattern than their counterparts. Conclusions. Our analysis underscores the dynamic employment patterns over our working lives, with some groups more likely than others to be engaged in nonstandard or volatile work schedules. Importantly, the groups likely to be subject to nonstandard work schedules also tend to have relatively disadvantaged social positions, thus worsening their vulnerability in securing work characterized by stability and economic security.

Laparoscopic Appendectomy and Cholecystectomy Timing Predicts Hand-Offs but Not Miscounts

IntroductionIntraoperative hand-offs are poorly coordinated and associated with risk of surgical miscount. We evaluated hand-off patterns for nursing staff during two common operations hypothesizing that hand-off patterns would be associated with increased surgical miscounts and vary during operations performed standard versus nonstandard operating hours. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed laparoscopic cholecystectomy (N = 3888) and appendectomy (N = 1768) from 2012 to 2021 at a single institution using electronic medical records. We evaluated intraoperative hand-off patterns and the presence of miscounts for operations performed during standard versus nonstandard hours. Standard operating hours were defined as M-F 7:30 am to 5:00 pm. ResultsAcross 5656 operations, 10 cases had surgical miscounts and were significantly longer than those without (156.5 versus 101 min P = 0.0178). More than half (51.3%) of cases had no identified hand-offs, and 42.9% of cases occurred during nonstandard hours. Cases during standard versus nonstandard hours were more likely to have hand-offs (56.0% versus 38.9%), P < 0.0001 and had shorter interval between hand-offs (64 versus 75 min), P < 0.0001. The period between patient entry to the room and intubation, which includes initial counts, had a disproportionately high percentage of hand-offs (P < 0.0001). ConclusionsVariability in hand-off occurrence and frequency in operations performed during standard and nonstandard hours suggest that hand-offs are influenced by staffing patterns. Few surgical miscounts occurred but were associated with longer cases. Hand-offs disproportionately occurred between patient entry and intubation, with a potential for disruption of initial instrument counts. Future work optimizing hand-off coordination is an opportunity to mitigate risk to patients.

Parenting in a 24/7 Economy: Mothers' Non-standard Work Schedules and Involvement in Children's Education.

Evidence suggests that parental involvement in children’s education has a positive impact on children’s educational achievements and wellbeing outcomes. The trend toward 24/7 economies has obliged many mothers to work non-standard schedules (i.e., schedules outside traditional daytime, Monday–Friday work schedules). This has raised concerns over how non-standard work schedules affect parenting behaviors, including paternal involvement in children’s education. Using data from mothers of young children (age 5–6) in Hong Kong (N = 433), this study examined the association between maternal work schedules and involvement in children’s home and school activities. The results of structural equation modeling found that weekend work was associated with lower levels of home-based involvement. By contrast, working non-standard hours was linked with higher levels of school-based involvement. This pattern suggested that non-standard work schedules could make it either easier or harder for mothers to balance work and family responsibilities, depending on the circumstances (i.e., whether they work non-standard hours or weekends). These findings, indicating that the effects of non-standard work schedules are not uniformly negative or positive, warrant sophisticated policy efforts to address the potential adverse effects of non-standard work schedules and avoid undermining their potential to be used as a family-friendly option.

Nonstandard Work and Preschool Child Development in Single Mother Families: Exploring the Role of Maternal Depression and Parenting Stress

This study investigates whether there are differences in preschool children’s cognitive, social, and behavioral development in families where mothers work nonstandard hours (i.e., night, evening, rotating) compared to regular hours. We also explore the role maternal stress and depression may play in explaining children’s differences in cognitive and socioemotional development within single mother families. Multivariate hierarchical analyses were conducted on a national sample of preschool age children (four to five years) living in a single mother household using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). Our results show that preschool children whose mothers worked nonstandard schedules had significantly lower cognitive, social and emotional development compared to children whose mothers worked the regular dayshift. These disparities persisted even after extensive controls including number of hours worked, maternal age and education, and child’s prior development at two years old. Surprisingly, we also found that externalizing behavior was not related to nonstandard work hours. Our findings highlight the need to further unpack the negative impact working nonstandard hours has on children’s early cognitive skills as well as socioemotional development in households headed by single mothers.

Shift work disorder and the prevalence of help seeking behaviors for sleep concerns in Australia: A descriptive study

ABSTRACT Shift work disorder (SWD) is a circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder, defined by symptoms of insomnia and excessive levels of sleepiness resulting from work that occurs during non-standard hours. Sleep problems are common in shift workers, yet our understanding of help seeking behaviours for sleep in shift workers is limited. The primary aim of this study was to examine the help seeking behaviours of Australian workers who meet criteria for SWD. Of the 448 (46% of sample, n = 964 total) Australian workers reporting non-standard work hours, 10.5% (n = 41) met the criteria for probable shift work disorder (pSWD). Non-standard workers with pSWD did not seek help for sleep problems at higher rates than workers without SWD. Of the small proportion of workers with pSWD who sought help, general practitioners were the most common healthcare professionals for sleep problems. Self-management was common in workers with pSWD, with a high self-reported prevalence of alcohol use (31.7%) as a sleep management strategy, and caffeine consumption (76.9%) as a sleepiness management strategy. The majority of individuals with pSWD reported the mentality of ‘accept it and keep going’ as a sleepiness management strategy, highlighting a potential barrier to help seeking behaviour in workers with pSWD. These findings provide novel insight into the help seeking behaviours of those with pSWD. There is a need for further research to understand why individuals at risk for SWD are not actively seeking help, and to develop health promotion and intervention strategies to improve help seeking when needed.

‘I’m kind of in a dilemma’: the challenges of non-standard work schedules and childcare

ABSTRACT Canada has long been criticized for its patchwork of childcare policies and programmes. In this context, parents who work non-standard hours face additional challenges finding, affording, and maintaining stable childcare. Drawing on a purposive sample of twenty Canadian parents of young children who have non-standard work schedules, we explore the challenges these parents face, the strategies they use, and the impacts of current childcare policies, especially for mothers. We draw on qualitative findings to show how childcare services, labour standards and employment practices must adapt to better serve Canadian families. In the context of the COVID pandemic, it is more critical than ever that policy makers and service providers appreciate that non-standard work results in extremely limited access to childcare services, even as childcare is increasingly recognized as essential to economic recovery, women’s equality, and child and family well-being.

Who Works When? The Case of South Korea

Although Korea’s long working hours are well-known, the work schedules of individuals with different socioeconomic characteristics have not been studied. This paper examines the timing of paid work and socioeconomic characteristics associated with work schedules in Korea. Using data from the Korean Time Use Survey (KTUS) 2014 and based on the analysis of employed people aged from 19 to 64, we found that a higher proportion of men work every hour of the day as compared to women. Women tend to start work late in the day, but a similar proportion of women and men work in the afternoon and evening. About 5 % work during non-standard hours, such as in the evening, at night, and in the early morning, and this percentage increases on the weekends. As in previous literature, divorced men and women or single women tend to work more during non-standard hours during weekdays and weekends. Both occupation and employment status are related to working non-standard hours, showing that women in service sectors and working as an unpaid employee at the family business, and men working in manual labor are more likely than people in other occupations to work during non-standard hours or weekends.

The Impact of Shift Work on Occupational Health Indicators among Professionally Active Adults: A Comparative Study.

The analysis of the impact of shift work on occupational health still needs further contributions. Therefore, we developed this research with the purpose of assessing the impact of shift work on occupational health indicators, namely burnout, work-engagement, occupational self-efficacy, and mental health functioning (symptoms of depression and anxiety), by comparing workers who did shift work (44.2% of participants) with workers who did not (55.8% of participants). A total of 695 Portuguese professionally active adults between 18 and 73 years of age (Mage = 37.71; SD = 12.64) participated in this study and completed a survey containing a sociodemographic questionnaire and four occupational health measures: The Burnout Assessment Tool, The Work-Engagement questionnaire (UWES), The Occupational Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, and the BSI-18 for mental health symptoms. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) for all indicators, demonstrating that participants who worked shifts presented lower scores of work-engagement and occupational self-efficacy, and higher scores of burnout, depression, and anxiety when compared to participants who did not work shifts. Linear regressions showed that shift work explained significant but low percentages of anxiety symptoms, low work-engagement, depression symptoms, low occupational self-efficacy, and burnout. We concluded that non-standard working hours (by shifts) are detrimental to employee occupational health, by increasing the risk of anxiety and depression levels, and burnout, and by reducing work-engagement (as a well-being indicator) and occupational self-efficacy perceptions.

P014 Shift work disorder and the prevalence of help seeking behaviours for sleep concerns in Australia

Abstract Introduction Shift work disorder is a circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder, defined by symptoms of insomnia and excessive levels of sleepiness resulting from work that occurs during non-standard hours. Sleep problems are common in shift workers, yet our understanding of help-seeking behaviours for sleep in shift workers is limited. Methods As a part of a national sleep health survey, data were collected on the help-seeking behaviours for sleep problems in an online sample of Australian individuals on non-standard work schedules (n=448). Of the sample of non-standard workers, 10.5% (n=41) met the criteria for probable shift work disorder (pSWD). Results Non-standard workers with pSWD did not seek help for sleep problems at higher rates than workers without SWD (p = .979). General practitioners were the most reported healthcare professional sought out for sleep problems of individuals with pSWD. Self-management was common in workers with pSWD, with a high self-reported prevalence of alcohol use (31.7%) as a sleep management strategy, and caffeine consumption (76.9%) as a sleepiness management strategy. The majority of individuals with pSWD reported the mentality of ‘accept it and keep going’ as a sleepiness management strategy, highlighting a potential barrier to help-seeking behaviour in workers with pSWD. Discussion These findings provide novel insight into the help-seeking behaviours of individuals with pSWD. There is a need for further research to understand why individuals at risk for shift work disorder are not actively seeking help, and to develop health promotion and intervention strategies to improve engagement with healthcare professionals.

How does working nonstandard hours impact psychological resources important for parental functioning? Evidence from an Australian longitudinal cohort study

This study investigates the link between nonstandard schedules and three psychological resources salient to working parents' parental functioning (psychological distress, work-family conflict and relationship quality). Data from fathers and mothers are analysed separately, using a nationally representative sample of dual-earner parents (6190 observations from 1915 couples) drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The LSAC data was collected between 2008 and 2018 (with data collected every two years). Hybrid analysis models were conducted to identify within-person changes in these psychological resources in association with moving in and out of nonstandard work schedules, as well as between-person differences between parents working standard hours and nonstandard hours. The results indicate that the connections between working nonstandard schedules and the psychological resources were patterned differently across genders. No significant differences in psychological distress were found between those working nonstandard schedules and those working standard schedules for either fathers or mothers. Fathers working nonstandard schedules had higher work-family conflict compared to fathers working standard schedules, while no such effect found for mothers. This effect for fathers was largely explained by other characteristics related to working a nonstandard schedule, rather than the schedule itself. For fathers (but not mothers), working nonstandard schedules was significantly, and potentially causally, associated with lower relationship quality (i.e. within-person effects were found). Additional supplementary analyses found the connections between work schedules and psychological resources varied somewhat across different types of schedules (i.e. evening/night shift, rotating shift and irregular shift). As one of the first nationally representative longitudinal studies to explore changes in work schedules in association with changes in parents’ psychosocial resources, the impacts for fathers (particularly relationship quality) are an important line for future enquiry.

Family stress and coping in the experience of employment precarity: A theoretical framework

AbstractEmployment stability has been the experience for many wage‐labor participants in the United States, characterized by wage adequacy, scheduling certainty, and work autonomy. However, employment contracts increasingly include precarious work factors such as short‐term work arrangements, nonstandard hours, and decreased access to healthcare and family supportive benefits. Prior family stress research theorized economic hardship as an emergent crisis or a one‐time event that affects dyadic relationships between parents and children or intimate partners. In this paper, we define employment precarity as a chronic condition caused by multiple precarious work factors shaped by social stratification in the labor market. We propose a new theoretical model, the employment precarity family stress model, to understand how diverse families experience precarious work factors, use resources to cope, make meaning of their work situations, and practice resilience amid cyclical or chronic economic hardships.

Always on across time zones: Invisible schedules in the online gig economy

AbstractThis study investigates work schedules in online labour markets, operating in 24/7 mode across spatial borders and time zones. Focusing on largely hidden and invisible work of freelancers such as searching for jobs and communicating with clients, the study documents how platforms put pressures and constraints on freelancers’ time through the mechanism of task allocation. We use data on 241,582 timestamped messages posted by 29,759 unique users in 4082 contests on a leading Russian‐language freelance platform to reveal how freelancers’ efforts to get a job make them work nonstandard hours, including evenings, nights and weekends. Freelancers have to be responsive and adapt their schedules to clients’ needs. Freelancers who live in time zones which differ from their clients are particularly disadvantaged, working a greater proportion of nonstandard hours. The findings emerging from the study contribute to current debates on the gig economy and a new time‐work discipline.

“We Ask for More Than We Give Back”: Negotiating the Boundaries of Informal Childcare Arrangements

There is an assumption that childcare services and workplace flexibility policies enable a seamless shift between childcare and work. Similarly, there is an assumption that informal care arrangements will be relatively seamless as the norm of reciprocity is assumed to bind families together through the bonds of love and affection. Monetary exchange for this work is seen to demean the caring relationship, but this does not mean “costs” are absent. Drawing on the work of Viviana Zelizer, this article examines how parents negotiate informal care arrangements, identifying the “payments” that differentiate family from friend care. The analysis focuses on parents working nonstandard and variable hours who were part of a broader project examining childcare flexibility, which also involved childcare providers and policymakers. This article identifies the relational work involved in the maintenance of informal care relationships and how they are negotiated when parents “ask for more than they give.”

Characteristics of home-based child care providers who offer non-standard hour care

The past decade has seen a dramatic growth of non-standard work schedules in the workforce, leading to increasing demand for non-standard hour child care during evenings, nights, and weekends. Low-income families, less-educated parents, and single parents with young children report greater demand for non-standard hour care. Given the prevalence of non-standard hour care and the importance of quality child care, a better understanding of who provides non-standard hour care and how to support this sector is necessary. Home-based child care (HBCC) providers are the largest caregiving group serving children under age 6 during non-standard hours. Through secondary data analysis of the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education on listed home-based child care providers (n = 3476), decision tree analysis was used to predict whether listed HBCC providers offer non-standard hour care. Results indicated those providers who offered non-standard hour care are more likely to receive government subsidies, have lower educational levels, and serve fewer children. The overall accuracy of the decision tree model was 63%. The present study also examined the relationship between providers’ professional engagement and the total number of non-standard working hours (n = 880). The entire model presented a medium effect size. Providers who received home visitors and/or coaching tend to provide more hours of non-standard hour care. To better support HBCC providers in offering non-standard hour care, policy recommendations are presented.

Displaying morally responsible motherhood: lone mothers accounting for work during non-standard hours

This study examined how lone mothers rationalise their work during non-standard hours (e.g., evenings and weekends), which they perceive as problematic in terms of child wellbeing, and thereby as violating the culturally shared moral order of ‘good’ motherhood. The data comprise interviews with 16 Finnish lone mothers, analysed as accounts, with a special focus on their linguistic features. The mothers displayed morally responsible motherhood through: (1) excusing work during non-standard hours as an external demand; (2) appealing to an inability to act according to good mothering ideals; (3) using adaptive strategies to protect child wellbeing; and (4) challenging the idea of risk. Our findings indicate that the moral terrain lone mothers must navigate is shaped by the ways in which their family situation contravenes powerful ideologies around good mothering, while their efforts to resist the ensuing stigma are constrained by the need to engage in work during non-standard hours.

Who works nonstandard schedules voluntarily?: The role of having children

ABSTRACTWorking nonstandard schedules, often termed shift work, has been regarded as an undesirable option, particularly for parents, because it may pose multiple challenges regarding child-care. In recognizing that some working persons may intentionally use nonstandard schedules to accommodate their family needs, however, this study attempted to distinguish between those who voluntarily choose to work nonstandard schedules (VNWS) and those who do so on an involuntarily basis (INWS). This study also examined whether having children predicts the likelihood of VNWS (vs. INWS), using a national sample of shift workers drawn from the May 2004 Current Population Survey. This study revealed that about one-third of shift workers worked nonstandard hours on a voluntary basis, and parents, particularly those with young children, had greater likelihood of VNWS. Moreover, the association was more salient among married individuals and women, indicating the moderating role of marital status and gender. This study suggests that nonstandard work schedules have the potential to both become a family-unfriendly schedule and to be used as a family-friendly work option, depending on whether it is voluntarily chosen or involuntarily forced.