Atypical working hours and their impacts on leisure – an unofficial swiss time use study

14 Tourism Review, Vol 62, No 1/2007

Refereed Section

Work and leisure conditions have changed

over the last decades. Already Zuzanek/

Mannell have stated it 1983. Working time

deregulation and flexibility measures have

radically transformed social leisure time.

The fact that shops are now open longer

and services are provided on a 24 hours ba￾sis challenge the notion of socially defined

leisure time. Indeed, leisure organisation

has become a private tool. At present, slight￾ly more than half of the Swiss active popu￾lation have fixed full-time work hours dur￾ing the week constantly spread over the

year. (BFS 2004, p.8) The others work in a

variety of flexible “atypical” time situations.

The purpose of this study is to analyse

the impact of flexible and spreading work

hours on the way people use their time and

the participation in leisure and social activi￾ties. The following questions are addressed:

to what extent are work and leisure time

spread throughout the day and the week?

How are flexible working hours distributed

among the working population? What is the

relationship between flexibility and people’s

control over their working time? How do

flexible working hours affect the way people

use their time (in terms of daily living pat￾terns and coordination of activities)?

This study is based on a survey of Swiss

railway employees (sample size of 1’400 di￾ary days) and uses structured/light two-day

time-use diaries and questionnaires to dis￾cover the implications of atypical forms of

working hours for workers’ leisure time, as

well how employees’ partners and children

are affected by the atypical work hours. The

results will be compared with the official

German data-set due to the lack of official

Swiss data.

1st submission: September 25, 2006

Accepted: March 2, 2007

The study questions how spreading working hours through the day (night) and week might affect how

people use their time and participate in leisure and social activities. We make use of closed two-days￾time-use-diaries and questionnaires asked employees of the Swiss railway (sample size of 1’400 diary￾days), to access the implications of atypical forms of working hours on the workers’ leisure time as well

as the time arrangements of the employees’ partners and children.

The empirical investigation revealed that people who work shifts are less likely to live in households

made up of several persons (an average of 13.6% compared, with 18.8% among people who do not

work shifts). Shift workers who live together with others in a household are more likely to share a

household with a partner who also works shifts: 30.6% of partners/spouses also work shifts, compared

with 14.4% of partners/spouses of non-shift workers.

Subdividing households according to single- or multiple-person households shows that shift workers

achieve a slightly longer period of social time than non-shift workers. On the one hand, this points to a

social environment which adapts to the irregular and asynchronous working hours of the person con￾cerned. On the other hand, comparison with sociological theory literature and other time-budget studies

brings out that the social framework conditions and the extent to which working hours can be planned

exert a definite influence on a functioning social environment. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) tries –

and manages – to take this into account, as the survey results clearly show.

Thus, it is not possible to draw the conclusion that shift workers are in principle at greater risk from so￾cial isolation. In fact, it should be pointed out that the negative consequences of asynchronous working

hours can be compensated for by individual adjustments. However, in this regard, certain operational

and social framework conditions are a prerequisite for the success of these individual efforts.

Key Words: Time Allocation, Working Time Conditions, Quality of Leisure, Social Capital, Networks

Atypical Working Hours and their Impacts on Leisure

– An unofficial Swiss Time Use Study

HANSRUEDI MÜLLER & URSULA WYSS

Abstract

1 Introduction

Hansruedi Mueller, Prof. Dr. rer. pol.

Ursula Wyss, Dr. rer. pol.

Research Institute for Leisure and Tourism (FIF)

University of Berne

P.O. Box 8573

Schanzeneckstrasse 1

CH-3001 Berne

E-Mail: [email protected]