Work-life balance/imbalance: the dominance of the middle class and the neglect of the working class.
The paper was stimulated by the relative absence of the working class from work-life debates. The common conclusion from work-life studies is that work-life imbalance is largely a middle-class problem. It is argued here that this classed assertion is a direct outcome of a particular and narrow interpretation of work-life imbalance in which time is seen to be the major cause of difficulty. Labour market time, and too much of it, dominates the conceptualization of work-life and its measurement too. This heavy focus on too much labour market time has rendered largely invisible from dominant work-life discourses the types of imbalance that are more likely to impact the working class. The paper's analysis of large UK data-sets demonstrates a reduction in hours worked by working-class men, more part-time employment in working-class occupations, and a substantial growth in levels of reported financial insecurity amongst the working classes after the 2008-9 recession. It shows too that economic-based work-life imbalance is associated with lower levels of life satisfaction than is temporal imbalance. The paper concludes that the dominant conceptualization of work-life disregards the major work-life challenge experienced by the working class: economic precarity. The work-life balance debate needs to more fully incorporate economic-based work-life imbalance if it is to better represent class inequalities.
School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham.
Tracey
T
Warren
D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D017472:Receptors, Interleukin-1; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors; D006113:United Kingdom; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D000072358:Work-Life Balance
D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D017472:Receptors, Interleukin-1; C434984:TIRAP protein, human
Work-life balance; class; financial security; money; recession; time