Insee Première · November 2021 · n° 1878

One third of employees can’t organise their working time by themselves and their private life is exposed to work-related contingencies

Four groups of jobs stand out in terms of possibilities for the employees to organise their working time by themselves and exposition of their private life to work-related contingencies.

23% of employees, more often industrial and blue-collar workers, have a job with imposed schedules, which offers them some flexibility in the event of unforeseen personal circumstances and which protects their private life from work-related contingencies.

34% of employees, more often in health occupations (excluding doctors) or in education, can hardly organise their working time themselves and their private life may be exposed to work-related contingencies. Within this group, atypical working hours are more common and women or immigrants are over-represented. Finally, the employees belonging to the last two groups, more often managers and higher intellectual professionals, are autonomous in the organisation of their working time; private life is moderately exposed to work-related contingencies for a part of them (22% of employees) and highly for the others (21%), who are more likely to have supervisory responsabilities.