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Work-life balance/imbalance: the dominance of the middle class and the neglect of the working class.
- Source :
- British Journal of Sociology; Dec2015, Vol. 66 Issue 4, p691-717, 27p, 9 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- WORK-life balance
WORKING class
MIDDLE class
FINANCIAL security
RECESSIONS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00071315
- Volume :
- 66
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- British Journal of Sociology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 112057770
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12160