oa Effecten van tijd-ruimtelijke flexibiliteit op de balans tussen werk en privé

The Effects of Time-Spatial Flexibility and New Working Conditions on Employees' Work-Life Balance: The Dutch Case

In Dutch organisations, part-time work, flexible working hours and telehomeworking are viewed as solutions to problems employees encounter when they harmonise work and family life. Critics fear, however, that for employees that work under New Working Conditions, characterized by professional job autonomy, team working by project, management by objectives and strict deadlines, time-spatial flexibility may in fact rather enlarge existing combination problems. This paper, therefore, questions whether time-spatial flexibility will lead to a better work-life balance, and if so, does that also hold true for the category of New Employees. Employing data collected in 2003 among 807 Dutch employees it is concluded that time-spatial flexibility indeed affects the work-life balance of workers positively, regardless of them working under New Working Conditions or not. Generally, employees having a smaller part-time job (12-24 contractual working hours per week) experienced a better work-life balance. Especially female workers gained from more control over the temporal location of their work. Telehomeworkers and employees having a larger part-time job (25-35 hours per week) did not experience a better work-life balance. In the concluding section, the results of the study are discussed in the context of contemporary Dutch labour market developments.