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Project

The 30-hour workweek: the temporal impact of a collective working time reduction on the daily life of employees and their families (FWOAL965)

Femma, a Flemish women's organisation, experiments with the 30- hour workweek in 2019. In this proposed research project we want to investigate the effects of this collective working time reduction on the integration of work and private life, from a time-use perspective. Throughout the 20th century, contracted working time has been reducing collectively. However, in the last decades, more individual solutions are put forward for the challenging combination of life spheres in contemporary society and this brought a new debate on the 30-hour workweek to the front. Researching the employees of Femma and their partners, we would like to gain insights on the impact of a working time reduction on the different life spheres. What will the effect of a working time reduction be on individual working time patterns and the organisation of work? How do these changes influence the organisation and distribution of household work and childcare? What will the impact be on personal leisure time and
family life? And how will all of this impact the mental and physical wellbeing of employees and their families? For this project we will use data collected by means of diaries and questionnaires among Femma employees and their partners, before, during and after the experiment. Time-use diaries are highly suitable for examining the interplay of work and private life and enables us to investigate different aspects of time. Additionally, in-depth interviews and focus groups will be organised.
Date:1 Jan 2020 →  31 Dec 2023
Keywords:Working time reduction, time-use, work-life integration
Disciplines:Social sciences, Medical and health sciences, General and logistic services, Humanities and the arts