An Honest Day’s Work? Considering the Nebulous Notion of Today’s Work-Life Balance

By Jennifer Monroe

Atypical and unpredictable work schedules are on the rise worldwide, thanks to an ever-increasingly connected, responsive and demanding global economy.

Consequently work-life balance in industrialized countries is becoming a thing of the past. A new ILO publication, Decent Working Time: New Trends, New Issues is a collection of papers from some of the leading scholars in the field. The papers were originally prepared for a the ninth international symposium on Working Time held in Paris in 2004. The papers examine workers and working time in European Union member states, the US and Japan. They look at legislative initiatives in Germany and The Netherlands where most progress seems to be being made. Part time work has certainly increased but often to the detriment of gender equality, and over-employment is a real problem for many workers who need to make ends meet.

(World of Work; no 57, September 2006)