Work-life imbalance in call centres and software development

Jeff Hyman; Chris Baldry; Dora Scholarios; Dirk Bunzel

doi:10.1111/1467-8543.00270

Work-life imbalance in call centres and software development

Jeff Hyman, Chris Baldry, Dora Scholarios, Dirk Bunzel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The paper evaluates the centrality of work to employees in two growing employment sectors, call-centres and software development. It then examines evidence for extensions of work into household and family life in these two sectors. Extensions are identified as tangible, such as unpaid overtime, or intangible, represented by incursions imported from work, such as exhaustion and stress. The study finds that organizational pressures, combined with lack of work centrality, result in work intruding into non-work areas of employee lives, though intrusions manifest themselves in different ways according to type of work, levels of worker autonomy and organizational support.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	215-239
Number of pages	25
Journal	British Journal of Industrial Relations
Volume	41
Issue number	2
Early online date	18 Jun 2003
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00270
Publication status	Published - Jun 2003

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10.1111/1467-8543.00270Licence: Unspecified

Employment and Working Life Beyond the Year 2000 : Employee Attitudes to Work in Call Centres and Software Development, 1999-2001.
Taylor, P. (Creator), Scholarios, D. (Creator), Bain, P. (Creator), Baldry, C. (Creator) & Hyman, J. (Creator), UK Data Service, 2 Jun 2004
DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-4815-1
Dataset

Cite this

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title = "Work-life imbalance in call centres and software development",

abstract = "The paper evaluates the centrality of work to employees in two growing employment sectors, call-centres and software development. It then examines evidence for extensions of work into household and family life in these two sectors. Extensions are identified as tangible, such as unpaid overtime, or intangible, represented by incursions imported from work, such as exhaustion and stress. The study finds that organizational pressures, combined with lack of work centrality, result in work intruding into non-work areas of employee lives, though intrusions manifest themselves in different ways according to type of work, levels of worker autonomy and organizational support.",

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note = "The work in this paper is derived from the project {\textquoteleft}Employment and Working Life Beyond the Year 2000: Two Emerging Employment Sectors{\textquoteright}, ESRC Award no. L212252006. Members of the full research team are: Peter Bain, Chris Baldry, Dirk Bunzel, Nick Bozionelos, Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall, Jeff Hyman, Cliff Lockyer, Abigail Marks, Gareth Mulvey, Dora Scholarios, Phil Taylor, Aileen Watson and the late Harvie Ramsay. Sincere thanks are offered to the editors of this edition and to the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.",

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AB - The paper evaluates the centrality of work to employees in two growing employment sectors, call-centres and software development. It then examines evidence for extensions of work into household and family life in these two sectors. Extensions are identified as tangible, such as unpaid overtime, or intangible, represented by incursions imported from work, such as exhaustion and stress. The study finds that organizational pressures, combined with lack of work centrality, result in work intruding into non-work areas of employee lives, though intrusions manifest themselves in different ways according to type of work, levels of worker autonomy and organizational support.

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Work-life imbalance in call centres and software development

Abstract

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Datasets

Employment and Working Life Beyond the Year 2000 : Employee Attitudes to Work in Call Centres and Software Development, 1999-2001.

Cite this