EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Unpredictable Work Timing in Retail Jobs

Julia R. Henly and Susan J. Lambert

ILR Review, 2014, vol. 67, issue 3, 986-1016

Abstract: Unpredictability is a distinctive dimension of working time that has been examined primarily in the context of unplanned overtime and in male-dominated occupations. The authors assess the extent to which female employees in low-skilled retail jobs whose work schedules are unpredictable report greater work–life conflict than do their counterparts with more predictable work schedules and whether employee input into work schedules reduces work–life conflict. Data include measures from employee surveys and firm records for a sample of hourly female workers employed across 21 stores of a U.S. women’s apparel retailer. Results demonstrate that, independent of other dimensions of nonstandard work hours, unpredictability is positively associated with three outcomes: general work–life conflict, time-based conflict, and strain-based conflict as measured by perceived employee stress. Employee input into work schedules is negatively related to these outcomes. Little evidence was found that schedule input moderates the association between unpredictable working time and work–life conflict.

Keywords: working time; nonstandard schedules; low-wage work; work–life conflict; time-based conflict; strain-based conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019793914537458 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:67:y:2014:i:3:p:986-1016

DOI: 10.1177/0019793914537458

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:67:y:2014:i:3:p:986-1016