Économie et Statistique n° 478-479-480 - 2015 Social and fiscal measures for families - Link between diploma and professional integration - Dossier: Time Use survey
Organising days, organising weeks: social categories' differing work schedules
Olivia Sautory et Sandra Zilloniz
Work schedules and the ways of organising them have changed a lot over the course of the last decades: an increase in time spent working at the weekends, growth in unpredictable and irregular work schedules, and a reduction in overall work hours. The latest Time Use survey allows us to take stock of working time in 2010. A detailed description of hours spent at work over the course of a week allows us to differentiate between eight types of days (standard, long, half-days, morning, afternoon, evening or night shifts, fragmented, short) and nine types of work weeks - the first eight each dominated by one of the types of days previously noted, and the last characterised by many days of rest. The standard work week remains the most frequent, particularly for technicians and intermediate professions. The long week affects managers and the self-employed with a heavy workload and unpredictable hours but over which they have great control than other, salaried workers. Shifted weeks are more frequent in larger organisations and result from organising work hours in shifts; these are observed most frequently among workers in manufacturing and healthcare. Atypical weeks are seen in various sectors and professions, but especially among unskilled workers. These salaried workers have more constraints on their time and report that they look for new work more often. In line with the reduction in working time, normal work weeks - without days off - are less frequent in 2010 than 1998. Long weeks also seem to be less frequent. Over the period, other factors could have impacted working people's schedules (legislation, conditions, structure of labour, changes in organisation, etc.) and led to different changes depending on the socio-professional category.