Time, Work-Discipline and Unpredictability

Abstract

I began this study by asking why workers who have control over their working time report dissatisfaction with their working lives. Variable time-schedules have been linked to increased dissatisfaction with work-life balance (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007, p.74). Counterintuitively, personal autonomy over working hours has been linked to increased dissatisfaction with working hours (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007, p. 79). I explored the working hour arrangements, labour processes, work organisation and culture of workers who have temporal autonomy. In examining the experiences of software sector workers, I drew attention to the temporal bargains in operation. In doing this, I uncovered the processes and mechanisms that lead to the creation and maintenance of a temporal culture. Unpredictable work, in the context of increased financialisation of work organisations, is embedded in a culture in which conflicts about working time must be continually negotiated. As we have seen, it is a temporal culture framed by unpredictability and is resistant to change. Therein lie the tensions which give rise to dissatisfaction.