Satu Ojala & Pasi Pyöriä The Prevalence and Consequences of Distributed Work in Europe IS1202 Training School on Virtual Work, 16 20 September, University of Malta
Spatial Dispersion of Work SPACE 0 The Aim of the Project: To analyze the prevalence and consequences of mobile work arrangements, e.g. working at home Funded by the Academy of Finland (2010 2013) 0 The data: Statistics (European Working Conditions Survey EWCS and representative stats from Finland: Finnish Quality of Working Life Survey & Use of Time Survey) Case study material (20 interviews collected from two Finnish public sector organizations)
Distributed Work An Alternative to Working at the Traditional Office Satellite & neighborhood work centers Flexible work arrangements (e.g. flexitime) Generic offices (hoteling) Telework (usually home) and mobile work (vehicles, customers premises, cafes etc.) 0 25 % of European employees and entrepreneurs are enomads, working sometimes on the road, at their homes or at customers premises, using information technology. In Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands the proportion of enomads is over 40 %. (Eurofound 2012).
The Main Dimensions of 1. Time 2. Space 3. Technology 4. Agreement Telework European Framework Agreement on Telework: Telework is a form of organizing and / or performing work, using information technology, in the context of an employment contract / relationship, where work, which could also be performed at the employer s premises, is carried out away from those premises on a regular basis.
European Working Conditions Survey 2010 0 44 countries 0 At about 1000 respondents per country 0 90 95 % employees 0 5 10 % selfemployed / entrepreneurs per country 0 Collected by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, www.eurofound.europa.eu 0 Our selection of respondents: 0 27 countries: EU + Norway 0 All employed wageearners 0 Small entrepreneurs: all selfemployed without employees + selfemployed with 1 3 employees
European Working Conditions Survey 2010 0 Measures for distributed work: 1. Where is your main place of work? 1. My employers / My own business premises 2. Clients premises 3. A car or another vehicle 4. An outside site 5. My own home 6. Other 2. Have you worked in any other location in the past 3 months 1.6. Equal alternatives respondent can choose several locations
HIGHLY EDUCATED EMPLOYEES MAIN PLACE OF WORK OTHER THAN EMPLOYERS PREMISES 2,00 isced 46 High Total: EU+NO Slovakia Hungary Slovenia Portugal Czech Republic Cyprus Luxembourg Italy Finland Sweden Poland Denmark Austria Germany United Kingdom Romania Ireland Belgium Greece Estonia France Lithuania Norway Bulgaria Latvia Netherlands Malta Spain Clients premises Vehicle Outside Own home Other 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
LESS EDUCATED EMPLOYEES MAIN PLACE OF WORK OTHER THAN EMPLOYERS PREMISES Isced 03 Basic/Intermediate Total: EU+NO Malta United Kingdom Slovenia Denmark Poland Norway Cyprus Austria Luxembourg Germany Italy Czech Republic Ireland Sweden Netherlands Hungary Slovakia Finland Estonia Portugal Belgium Bulgaria France Lithuania Romania Latvia Greece Spain Clients premises Vehicle Outside Own home Other 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Clients premises Vehicle Outside Home Other HIGHLY EDUCATED SMALL ENTRE PRENEURS MAIN PLACE OF WORK OTHER THAN OWN BUSINESS PREMISES Total: EU+NO Cyprus Greece Bulgaria Luxembourg Spain Germany Belgium Slovenia Norway France Poland Austria Lithuania Hungary Czech Republic Sweden Portugal Malta Finland Denmark Italy Ireland Romania Netherlands Slovakia Estonia Latvia United Kingdom 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
LESS EDUCATED SMALL ENTRE PRENEURS MAIN PLACE OF WORK OTHER THAN OWN BUSINESS PREMISES Total: EU+NO Luxembourg France Slovenia Italy Netherlands Germany Czech Republic Belgium Spain Norway Greece Malta Slovakia Sweden Hungary Austria Denmark Finland Ireland Estonia Bulgaria Cyprus Portugal Lithuania Poland Latvia United Kingdom Romania Clients premises Vehicle Outside Home Other 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
HIGHLY EDUCATED EMPLOYEES AMOUNT OF SECONDARY PLACES IN WORK IN 3 MONTHS Education: Isced 46: High, SecondaryLocations in 3 months Total: EU+NO Italy Bulgaria Lithuania Romania Hungary Ireland Poland Spain Latvia Malta Greece Cyprus Slovakia Belgium Estonia United Kingdom Norway Portugal Czech Republic France Luxembourg Austria Slovenia Germany Sweden Netherlands Finland Denmark 0 1 2 to 6 secondary locations 0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 %
LESS EDUCATED EMPLOYEES AMOUNT OF SECONDARY PLACES IN WORK IN 3 MONTHS Education: Isced 03 Basic/Intermediate: SecondaryLocations in 3 months Total: EU+NO Bulgaria Hungary Poland United Kingdom Malta Spain Italy Romania Ireland Lithuania Luxembourg Norway Greece Belgium Netherlands Latvia Czech Republic Cyprus France Estonia Slovakia Slovenia Portugal Germany Austria Sweden Finland Denmark 0 1 2 to 6 secondary locations 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
0 1 2 to 6 secondary locations in 3 months SMALL ENTRE PRENEURS (ALL EDUCATIONAL LEVELS DUE TO LOW FREQUENCIES) AMOUNT OF SECONDARY PLACES IN WORK IN 3 MONTHS Small entrepreneur (all education levels) Total: EU+NO Bulgaria Spain Greece Malta Italy Cyprus Lithuania Latvia Norway Portugal Poland Hungary United Kingdom Belgium Ireland Luxembourg Romania Czech Republic France Slovakia Austria Estonia Finland Netherlands Sweden Slovenia Germany Denmark 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
When does this work take place? 0 Finnish Use of Time Survey 2010 by Statistics Finland 0 Time diaries: 0 10 minuteepisodes throughout 24 hours 0 2 days / each respondent 0 Contains details on: 0 What is the respondent doing 0 Both mainly & secondarily 0 With whom 0 Where is she/he 0 Next: when and where do employees and small entrepreneurs work in a work day? 0 Work days with a minimum of 10 minutes work per that day
90 80 70 60 All employees, a regular weekday (% of employees working at a certain 10minute episode) Work at employers premises Work at home 50 40 30 20 10 0 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 Work at other locations Work at private vehicle Work at a vehicle (public transport) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Work at home Work at other locations Work at private vehicle Work at a vehicle (public transport) 0 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Whitecollars, a weekday 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 Work at employers premises Work at home Work at other locations Work at private vehicle Work at a vehicle (public transport) Work at home Work at other locations Work at private vehicle Work at a vehicle (public transport)
Nature of work at home (Quality of Work Life Survey 2003 & 2008, Finland) Do you sometimes do work connected with your main job at home? All Is this work mainly: Homeworking employees Works occasionally or partially at home 32 Overtime work without compensation (informal overtime) 56 Works at home only 2 It is agreed that some of the normal working hours are done at home (telework) 33 Does not work at home at all 66 Both / does not know 11 Total 100 % Total 100 % N 8496 N 2748
Entrepreneurs are the most distributed (all work days) 90 80 Work at business premises 70 Work at home 60 50 40 Work at other locations 30 Work at private vehicle 20 10 0 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 Work at a vehicle (public transport)
Agricultural entrepreneurs work the most 90 80 Work at business premises 70 60 Work at home 50 40 Work at other locations 30 20 Work at private vehicle 10 0 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 Work at a vehicle (public transport)
How work at multiple locations (1 or 2 6 secondary locations) is related with certain consequences? (EWCS 2010) 0 Speed of work: 0 Work at very high speed AND to tight deadlines 0 1 Never. 7 All of the time 0 Work in free time to meet work demands: 0 1 Never 5 Nearly every day 0 Work fit with family: 0 Working hours fit family and/or social commitments 0 1 Very well... 4 Not at all well 0 Multivariate GLMmodel that controls for gender, age, country, education, being an employee & being a small entrepreneur 0 Interaction terms between working at secondary locations & gender; education; small entrepreneurs (; country) 0 N=36.457 (28 countries)
Work fit with family 1 Very well... 4 Not at all well 0 Means: 0 0 secondary locations: 1.85 0 1: 1.85 0 2+: 1.93 0 Means for highly educated: 0 0: 1.81 0 1: 1.81 0 2+: 1.94
Work in free time to meet work demands: 0 1 Never 5 Nearly every day 0 0: 2.2 0 1: 2.6 0 2+:2.9 0 For highly educated with 2+: 3.1
Work at very high speed and to tight deadlines 0 1 Never. 7 All of the time 0 Work at several locations strongly increases sense of haste 0 Means: 0 0: 3.2 0 1 : 3.3 0 2+: 3.6
Take Home Lessons Although distributed work is on the increase, the majority of employees still carry out most of their work at their employers premises during normal working hours Homeworking is often informal overtime without extra compensation: There is no consensus on how to measure distributed work arrangements BUT the aspect of agreement should be taken into account (telework vs. overtime at home) An agreement would benefit both employer and employee Work combining main work place + 1 additional location may increase sense of control / balance for work and family (e.g.) More distribution of work increases negative outcomes for employee & family In virtual environments, work process may become fragmented and information overload may increase increased work in free time Distributed work only at reasonable levels! E.g. 1 3 days per week outside of an office appears to be optimal for most teleworkers
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References 0 Eurofound (2012) Fifth European Working Conditions Survey. 0 Nätti, Jouko & Tammelin, Mia & Anttila, Timo & Ojala, Satu (2011) Work at Home and Time Use in Finland. New Technology, Work and Employment 26(1): 68 77. 0 Ojala, Satu (2011) Supplemental Work at Home among Finnish Wage Earners: Involuntary Overtime or Taking the Advantage of Flexibility? Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 1(2): 77 97. 0 Ojala, Satu & Nätti, Jouko & Anttila, Timo (2014) Informal Overtime at Home instead of Telework: Increase in Negative WorkFamily Interface, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, (3) 2014. 0 Pyöriä, Pasi (2003) Knowledge Work in Distributed Environments: Issues and Illusions. New Technology, Work and Employment 18(3): 166 180. 0 Pyöriä, Pasi (2009) Virtual Collaboration in Knowledge Work: From Vision to Reality. Team Performance Management: An International Journal 15(7 8): 366 381. 0 Pyöriä, Pasi (2011) Managing Telework: Risks, Fears and Rules. Management Research Review 34(4): 386 399. 0 Vartiainen, M. & Hakonen, M., Koivisto, S. & Mannonen, P. & Nieminen, M.P. & Ruohomäki, V. & Vartola, A. (2007) Distributed and Mobile Work. Places, People and Technology. Helsinki: Otatieto.