Time Work by Overworked Professionals: Strategies in Response to the Stress of Higher Status

Phyllis Moen, Jack Lam and Erin L. Kelly (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA) and Samantha Ammons (University of Nebraska–Omaha, USA) published Work and Occupations Volume 40
Number 2 (May 2013)

Abstract

How are professionals responding to the time strains brought on by the stress of their higher status jobs?

Qualitative data from professionals reveal

1. general acceptance of the emerging temporal organisation of professional work, including rising time demands and blurred boundaries around work/non-work times and places, and
2. time work as strategic responses to work intensification, overloads, and boundarylessness.

We detected four time-work strategies:

• prioritising time,
• scaling back obligations,
• blocking out time, and
• time shifting of obligations.

These strategies are often more work-friendly than family-friendly, but “blocking out time” and “time shifting” suggest promising avenues for work-time policy and practice.

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