Unpredictable Work Schedules Research Articles

Popular Musician Occupational Stress and Psychological Ill Health: An Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Popular musicians are exposed to many occupational stressors, including unpredictable work schedules, touring and economic precarity, that have been associated in prior studies with psychological ill health. This study sought to identify occupational stressors most strongly associated with depression, anxiety, and alcohol misuse in popular musicians. An online survey was completed by 317 popular musicians that included the Musician Occupational Stress Scale (MOSS), a validated measure of occupational stress in popular musicians. An exploratory principle-factor analysis (EFA) investigated the dimensions of response pat¬terns in the items comprising the MOSS. Four factors were identified that predicted 50% of musician occupational stress: Work Insecurity Stress, Tour Stress, Performance Stress, and Professional Relationship Stress. In addition to financial distress, each factor was significantly associated with depression and anxiety and Tour Stress also was associated with alcohol misuse. After adjusting for all other factors and financial distress, only Work Insecurity Stress remained associated with depression (odds ratio [OR]= 5.42; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.23-9.09) and anxiety (OR=5.95; 95% CI = 3.51-10.11). Tour Stress became inversely associated with depression (OR= 0.59; 95% CI = 0.40-0.89) and anxiety (OR=0.60; 95% CI = 0.40-0.89). After adjustment, alcohol misuse was associated with Professional Relationship Stress (OR=1.66; 95% CI = 1.04-2.65) but inversely correlated with Performance Stress (OR=0.60; 95% CI = 0.40-0.91). The four-factor model was shown to reliably simplify driving associations of occupational stressors that negatively impact psychological functioning in popular musicians. Dissemination of these findings could have practical implications in developing effective outreach messaging to promote psychological resilience and guide psychotherapeutic intervention strategies for this high-risk occupational group.

Are principals really tireless? Conceptualizing the role of sleep in school leadership

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to highlight the impacts of psychological and biological health on the principalship, particularly as it relates to sleep. Job-related stress, heavy workloads, and unpredictable work schedules can impact principals’ mental health, diet, and consumptive behaviors, which can disrupt the much-needed restorative sleep for healthy cognition, physiological functioning, and efficacious leadership. We turn the field's attention towards the importance of quality sleep and how it impacts personal health and occupational performance. We provide a robust interdisciplinary review of literature on precursors and outcomes of poor sleep quality as it pertains to school leaders both personally and professionally. Empirical recommendations for improving sleep quality along with recommendations for preparation programs and the field of educational leadership are discussed.

Parental Exposure to Work Schedule Instability and Child Sleep Quality

Recent scholarship has documented the effects of unstable scheduling practices on worker health and well-being, but there has been less research examining the intergenerational consequences of work schedule instability. This study investigates the relationship between parental exposure to unstable and unpredictable work schedules and child sleep quality. We find evidence of significant and large associations between parental exposure to each of five different types of unstable and unpredictable work scheduling practices and child sleep quality, including sleep duration, variability and daytime sleepiness. We are also able to mediate 35–50% of this relationship with measures of work–life conflict, parental stress and well-being, material hardship, and child behaviour. These findings suggest that the effects of the temporal dimensions of job quality extend beyond workers to their children, with implications for the mechanisms by which social inequality is reproduced and for social policies intended to regulate precarious and unequal employment conditions.

The Implementation of The Social Role of Sociology Teachers in The Community (Study of Teachers in North Lombok)

This research aims to describe the implementation of the social role of high school sociology teachers in North Lombok within the community and the influencing factors. This is a qualitative descriptive study. The research subjects are high school sociology teachers in North Lombok. The informants are community leaders in the areas where the research subjects reside. Data were collected using interview techniques, observation, and documentary study. Data analysis was conducted through qualitative analysis steps, including data reduction, data presentation, verification/conclusion drawing. The results of the research show that the implementation of the social role of high school sociology teachers in North Lombok in the community includes: (1) as leaders in the community, both formal leaders and informal leaders. Formal leaders serve as village heads, while informal leaders serve as heads of local community organizations, women's groups, and mosque/musalla construction committees. (2) as facilitators in finding donors to support public facility development. (3) as mediators connecting youth with local community leaders to communicate various programs initiated by the youth. (4) as initiators of various activities, including initiating the establishment of Islamic schools, initiating the creation of Quranic reading centers, initiating the renovation of mosques and musallahs, and initiating social service activities. (5) as participants, with sociology teachers actively participating in various community activities, such as community work groups, community cleanup, reforestation, social service activities, sports events, and local community competitions. Factors influencing the implementation of the social role of high school sociology teachers in North Lombok within the community include supporting factors and hindering factors. Supporting factors consist of family support and local community solidarity. Hindering factors include the busyness of the community with unpredictable work schedules and the relatively low level of education in the local community, which makes it challenging to build understanding and awareness among the local population.

The intersection of casual work and platform work: Lessons learned from the casual work agenda for the labour protection of platform workers

In recent years, the advent of platform work, i.e. work activities channelled through web platforms or apps, has been at the centre of discussions for being ‘an opportunity-generating machine’, and its darker side, that is the poor quality of working conditions associated with it, has also been discussed. Work patterns inherent in platform work, such as unpredictable work schedules and work insecurity (even for the next minute or hour), the lack of a stable income, and exclusion from even basic protections, have long been detected. They can be traced back in the daily work of dock workers in the late nineteenth century, but also in more contemporary forms of casual work, such as on-call work or zero-hours work. Accordingly, history seems to repeat itself, and even go to extremes with platform work. Against this background, this article focuses on the intersection of casual work and platform work, and explains that as a result of it, platform work can actually fall within the scope of broader regulatory strategies applicable to casual work, hereinafter the casual work agenda. The regulatory challenges deriving from the insecure nature of the work have already been dealt with by national and supranational regulators in the context of casual work. This article evaluates an already-available blueprint - the casual work agenda - in light of reducing the working hours, job (work), income, and employment status insecurity associated with platform work. To this end, it observes that a rich legal landscape exists in the Netherlands for addressing these insecurities. At the EU level, there are also insightful legal tools, prominent examples being the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, the Fixed-Term Work Directive, and the Working Time Directive. They provide for important legal safeguards, especially in countering working time and job insecurity. This article also looks at the proposed EU Directive on Platform Work and notes that it overlooks the legal safeguards contained in these instruments. Having regard to this, it calls on EU policymakers to redefine this legal initiative in light of the best regulatory practices offered by the casual work agenda.

0284 Sleep Health in Latino Day Laborers: Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Abstract Introduction Little is known about the sleep health of Latin(x) day laborers. Existing research demonstrates that they experience precarious employment, low wages, and hazardous working conditions. Recent studies also show that periods of unemployment and psychosocial stressors, such as financial insecurity, have been associated with worsened mental health outcomes and poor sleep health. Our investigation brings these insights together in order to understand how sleep health impacts well-being in the workplace and how precarious work, such as day labor, impacts sleep, contributing to health disparities. Methods This was a mixed-methods study in which twenty participants were recruited using purposive sampling from a worker center run by the Austin Public Health Department and an informal hiring site. Participants were male, over 18 years of age, of Latin(x) ethnicity, who reported problems with sleep. All completed a semi-structured interview with validated sleep questionnaires. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and thematically coded. Results Most workers were between 30 - 44 years of age, of Mexican ethnicity, and worked in construction. Workers reported poor sleep quality with an average of 5.6 hours of sleep at night. Eighty-five percent (n=17) had problems with either clinically significant insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index ≥ 15), daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale ≥ 10), or both. In addition, 50% reported either moderate or severe anxiety or depression. Most agreed (80%) that poor sleep affected their quality of life. Regarding work performance, 50% found themselves not concentrating enough on their work two or more times a week. Common themes included: (1) lack of routine and unpredictability of work schedule (2) poor sleep habits and coping mechanisms (3) negative impact of fatigue on work routine and relationships (4) belief that sleep would improve unaided and (5) willingness to seek behavioral health interventions for sleep concerns. Conclusion Our results indicate that study participants experience short sleep duration and insomnia in conjunction with high levels of anxiety and/or depression. Participants linked these with unpredictable work schedules, stress, and financial difficulties. However, many were interested in receiving a clinical behavioral intervention to improve their sleep. Support (if any) This work was supported in part by BSM PRIDE Institute SRP funding from NHLBI (R25HL105444).

Review on Smart Thermoware - A Development in Assistive Self-Health Care Manangement

Abstract: Numerous applications and uses for thermal flasks are found by millions of people across the world. In this article, the developments of the vacuum flask's design and construction are covered. It now has technology to perform other tasks in addition to serving as a receptacle holding liquids, such as controlling temperature and serving as an alarm system. Consumers now anticipate that their vacuum vessel will preserve the freshness of the stored beverages. The vacuum flask should be able to sustain both hot and cold temperatures so that users can enjoy their beverages wherever they are and whenever they choose. People who have demanding and unpredictable work schedules are increasingly looking for reminders about how much fluid they should be consuming at all times to maintain a balanced diet

Using a Smartphone Application as a Tool for English Learning Among Medical Staff and Students in Japan.

To report on the effects of a smartphone application, among the medical staff and medical students, for learning English as a foreign language. We conducted an exploratory quasi-experimental study among eight medical staff and 10 medical students in Japan. The participants used an application called ABC Talking (created by ABC Talking Laboratories Inc, currently unavailable due to application renewal), loaded onto their smartphones, to talk with native English speakers from overseas. The participants used the application for five minutes twice a day over five consecutive days as per their convenience. The study collected quantitative and qualitative data using assessments on the participants' listening and speaking skills and questionnaire. The assessment scores of the first five sessions were compared to those of the last five. Average self-assessment scores and teacher assessment scores were compared using a t-test. A paired t-test was performed on quantitative data of the questionnaire, and content analysis was performed on qualitative data. More than 80% of the calls were made from home and 70% occurred between 9PM and 1AM. The participants' self-assessment scores on their listening and speaking skills increased significantly from the first five sessions to the last five sessions (14.8-26.1%). However, there was no significant change in the assessments by the teachers (-4.5-2.1%). The self-assessment scores of those with low English proficiency were lower than the teachers' assessment scores. Improvement of communicative self-confidence and communicative competence, two factors that affect willingness to communicate, were seen from the questionnaire. Using smartphone applications allows on-demand English training, which may be especially useful to medical staff and students who have unpredictable work schedules. Teachers should be aware that learners tend to assess themselves lower than their actual ability so that they can give appropriate feedback to the learners.

¡Pásale!: Gaining Entrance to Conduct Research and Practice With Recent Hispanic Immigrants: Lessons Learned From the COPAL Study.

Given the rapidly changing political rhetoric and policies concerning immigration, and the likely impact of this rhetoric on immigrants' adjustment, it is essential to understand the experiences of recently arrived immigrant individuals and families. This article describes methods to recruit and retain recently arrived Hispanic families in longitudinal research and clinical practice. Barriers to continued engagement with recent-immigrant families include residential mobility, wariness toward authority figures (including researchers and practitioners), and unpredictable work schedules. These barriers can lead to challenges related to recruitment/engagement, logistics, establishing trust, and retention. This article describes decisions made, experiences, and lessons learned in a longitudinal study of Hispanic families in two cities. We also provide implications for clinical practice.

Improving health and economic security by reducing work schedule uncertainty

Work schedules in the service sector are routinely unstable and unpredictable, and this unpredictability may have harmful effects on health and economic insecurity. However, because schedule unpredictability often coincides with low wages and other dimensions of poor job quality, the causal effects of unpredictable work schedules are uncertain. Seattle's Secure Scheduling ordinance, enacted in 2017, mandated greater schedule predictability, providing an opportunity to examine the causal relationship between work scheduling and worker health and economic security. We draw on pre- and postintervention survey data from workers in Seattle and comparison cities to estimate the impacts of this law using a difference-in-differences approach. We find that the law had positive impacts on workers' schedule predictability and stability and led to increases in workers' subjective well-being, sleep quality, and economic security. Using the Seattle law as an instrumental variable, we also estimate causal effects of schedule predictability on well-being outcomes. We show that uncertainty about work time has a substantial effect on workers' well-being, particularly their sleep quality and economic security.

Maternal exposure to work schedule unpredictability and child behavior.

ObjectiveThis article estimates the association between maternal exposure to unpredictable work schedules in the service sector and child internalizing and externalizing behavior.BackgroundPrecarious work is widespread and characterized by low wages, few benefits, and nonstandard schedules. But working parents, especially in the service sector, contend with unpredictable work schedules as well. These schedules have negative consequences for workers, but may also perpetuate inequality across generations by negatively affecting children.MethodThis article takes advantage of novel survey data from The Shift Project, covering 2,613 mothers (surveyed 2017–2019) working in the service sector with children (mean child age of 7.5), to examine the association between maternal work schedules and child behavior as well as the mediators of this relationship.ResultsMaternal exposure to unpredictable work schedules is associated with children's externalizing and internalizing behavior. Mediation analysis shows that for parents with the most unpredictable schedules, this aspect of job quality operates on children's behavior by increasing household economic insecurity, reducing developmental parenting time, and diminishing maternal well‐being.ConclusionThese results demonstrate that work scheduling conditions may have consequences not just for workers themselves but also for their children.

Association Between Unpredictable Work Schedules and Depressive Symptoms in Korea.

BackgroundsIrregular and unpredictable work schedules have become more common in most societies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between unpredictable work schedules and depressive symptoms in Korea.MethodsData from 34,486 workers who participated in the Korean Working Condition Survey in 2017 were used. Unpredictable work schedules were measured by questions about the frequency of changes in work schedule and limited advanced notice. Depressive symptoms were assessed by a single item asking if the participants had depressive symptoms over the last 12 months. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for high depressive symptoms.ResultsThe OR for depressive symptoms was significantly higher in the workers with unpredictable work schedules compared to those with predictable work schedules after controlling for age, sex, education, salary, marital status, occupation, contract period, full-time versus part-time, shift work, weekly working hours, and having a child under the age of 18 years (OR = 2.43, 95% confidence interval 1.93–3.07).ConclusionUnpredictable work schedules were associated with depressive symptoms controlling for the other dimensions of precarious employment in a representative working population in Korea.

Losing sleep over work scheduling? The relationship between work schedules and sleep quality for service sector workers.

In the retail and food service sectors, work schedules change from day-to-day and week-to-week, often with little advance notice, posing a potential impediment to healthy sleep patterns. In this article, we use data from the Shift Project collected in 2018 and 2019 for a sample of over 16,000 hourly workers employed in the service sector to examine relationships between unstable and unpredictable work schedules and sleep quality. We extend prior research on shift work and sleep disruption, which has often focused on the health care sector, to the retail and food service sector, which comprises nearly 20 percent of jobs in the U.S. We find that the unstable and unpredictable schedules that are typical in the service sector are associated with poor sleep quality, difficulty falling asleep, waking during sleep, and waking up feeling tired. As a benchmark, we compare unstable and unpredictable work schedules with two well-known predictors of sleep quality – having a young child and working the night shift. The strength of the associations between most types of unstable and unpredictable work schedules and sleep quality are stronger than those of having a pre-school aged child or working a regular night shift. Chronic uncertainty about the timing of work shifts appears to have a pernicious influence on sleep quality, and, given its prevalence for low-wage workers, potentially contributes to stark health inequalities by socioeconomic status.

Who Cares if Parents have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements.

Working parents must arrange some type of care for their young children when they are away at work. For parents with unstable and unpredictable work schedules, the logistics of arranging care can be complex. In this paper, we use survey data from the Shift Project, collected in 2017 and 2018 from a sample of 3,653 parents who balance work in the retail and food service sector with parenting young children 0 to 9 years of age. Our results demonstrate that unstable and unpredictable work schedules have consequences for children's care arrangements. We find that parents' exposure to on-call work and last-minute shift changes are associated with more numerous care arrangements, with a reliance on informal care arrangements, with the use of siblings to provide care, and with young children being left alone without adult supervision. Given the well-established relationship between quality of care in the early years and child development, just-in-time scheduling practices are likely to have consequences for child development and safety and to contribute to the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.

Hard Times: Routine Schedule Unpredictability and Material Hardship among Service Sector Workers.

American policymakers have long focused on work as a key means to improve economic wellbeing. Yet, work has become increasingly precarious and polarized. This precarity is manifest in low wages, but also in unstable and unpredictable work schedules that often vary significantly week-to-week with little advance notice. We draw on new survey data from The Shift Project on 37,263 hourly retail and food service workers in the United States. We assess the association between routine unpredictability in work schedules and household material hardship. Using both cross-sectional models and panel models, we find that workers who receive shorter advanced notice, those who work on-call, those who experience last minute shift cancellation and timing changes, and those with more volatile work hours are more likely to experience hunger, residential, medical, and utility hardships as well as more overall hardship. Just-in-time work schedules afford employers a great deal of flexibility, but at a heavy cost to workers' economic security.

What Explains Racial/Ethnic Inequality in Job Quality in the Service Sector?

Precarious work in the United States is defined by both economic and temporal dimensions. While a large literature documents the extent of low-wages and limited fringe benefits, research has only recently examined the prevalence and consequences of unstable and unpredictable work schedules. Yet, it appears that such practices as on-call shifts, last minute cancellations, and insufficient work hours are common in the retail and food service sectors. While little research has examined racial/ethnic inequality in this temporal dimension of job quality, precarious scheduling practices may be a significant, if mostly hidden, site for racial/ethnic inequality because scheduling practices differ significantly between firms and because front-line managers have substantial discretion in scheduling. We draw on innovative matched employer-employee data from The Shift Project to estimate racial/ethnic gaps in these temporal dimensions of job quality and examine the contribution of firm-level sorting and intra-organizational dynamics to these gaps. We find significant racial/ethnic gaps in exposure to precarious scheduling that disadvantage non-White workers. We provide novel evidence that both firm segregation and racial discordance between workers and managers play significant roles in explaining racial/ethnic gaps in job quality. Notably, we find that racial/ethnic gaps are larger for women than for men.

Precarious contours of work–family conflict: The case of nurses in Turkey

This article examines the impact of the neoliberal restructuring of health services on female nurses in Turkey. It provides a qualitative analysis of work–family conflict, establishing that not only work but also family life has become more precarious. The contours of precariousness of both work and family are analysed through interviews with 50 female nurses working full time in different areas of health service provision. The findings suggest that the neoliberal restructuring of health services has led to staffing deficits along with workload intensification, unpredictable work schedules and poor organisational support. This has increased work–family conflict, defined as a form of precariousness because it heightens the difficulties, risks and insecurities entailed in balancing family-related expectations with increasing work demands for female nurses. This precariousness makes spousal support critical if nurses are to be able to address work–family conflict and leads to nurses’ compliance with unfavourable working conditions as a way to resolve the mutual interference of family and work. The increased subordination of life to work has resulted from the neoliberal managerialisation of health services, creating precarisation in the lives of female nurses. JEL Codes: D1, J2, J7, J81

Flexibility or Constraint? The Implications of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Nonstandard Schedules for Children’s Behavioral Outcomes

Approximately 17.7% of the U.S. workforce is employed in a nonstandard schedule. Research thus far indicates that these schedules negatively influence children’s behavioral development. However, few studies examine the roles of the child’s gender and age. To broaden understanding of the relationships between nonstandard schedules and child behavior, and how these relationships may depend on the gender and age of the child, I analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 and its Child Supplement from 1992 to 2006. My findings show that some types of parental nonstandard shifts, such as evening and night shifts, are associated with fewer behavioral problems among children, though these results depend on the gender and age of the child. In contrast, parents’ rotating and split shifts are associated with more behavior problems among children, indicating that it is relatively unstable and unpredictable work schedules that may have the most harmful associations with children’s outcomes.

Instability of Work and Care: How Work Schedules Shape Child-Care Arrangements for Parents Working in the Service Sector

AbstractDrawing on 25 in-depth interviews with parents employed in the service sector in the San Francisco Bay area, we find that meeting the demands of work and parenting almost invariably involved reliance on informal child care. We unpack the relationship between work schedules and specific constellations of informal child care. We show that the stability and predictability of work schedules shaped child-care arrangements. Working parents with stable, although frequently nonstandard, schedules often managed child care using a tag team parenting approach. Those with unstable schedules often engaged in a child-care scramble, in which care arrangements were pieced together on an ad hoc basis. Some parents with unstable work schedules avoided child-care instability by relying heavily on one family anchor who could consistently provide child care. On-call family support can sometimes buffer against the instability created by unstable and unpredictable work schedules, but instability in work schedules often ...

“Doing our best to keep a routine:” How low-income mothers manage child feeding with unpredictable work and family schedules

Significant changes in work and family conditions over the last three decades have important implications for understanding how young children are fed. The new conditions of work and family have placed pressures on families. The aim of this study was to explore the work and family pressures shaping the ways parents feed their young children on a day-to-day basis. Twenty-two purposively recruited low-income employed mothers of 3–4 year old children from a rural county Head Start program in Upstate New York reported details about the context of their children's eating episodes in a 24-h qualitative dietary recall. Participating mothers were employed and/or in school at least 20 h a week and varied in partner and household characteristics. Interview transcripts were open coded using the constant comparative method for usual ways of feeding children. A typology of three emergent child feeding routines was identified based on mothers' accounts of the recurring ways they fed their child. Mothers' feeding routines were distinguished by a combination of four recurring key strategies – planning ahead, delegating, making trade-offs, and coordinating. Work schedule predictability and other adults helped mothers maintain feeding routines. Unexpected daily events, such as working overtime or waking up late, disrupted child feeding routines and required modifications. These findings suggest that understanding how young children are fed requires recognizing the socio-ecological environments that involve working mothers' daily schedules and household conditions and the multiple ways that mothers manage food and feeding to fit environmental constraints. There is a need to look at more than just family meals to understand parents' daily strategies for feeding young children and their implications for child nutrition.