{"id":2435,"date":"2015-10-05T12:48:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T17:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2015-10-05T12:48:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T17:48:52","slug":"erratic-schedules-penalize-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/2015\/10\/05\/erratic-schedules-penalize-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"How Erratic Schedules Penalize Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A protest for the rights of fast food workers at the University of Minnesota, April 15th, 2015
Photo by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And What Can Be Done To Make Jobs and Family Life More Predictable<\/h3>\n

For decades, work-family activists have pressed for policies to give workers flexibility. Some workers, most of them relatively affluent, have seen gains. They have won the ability to adjust their schedules, to choose how many days a week to work, and even to work from home. But as my colleague Dan Clawson and I document in our new book, <\/span>Unequal Time<\/span><\/i>, many employers in the United States are turning the concept of work schedule flexibility on its head. For employers using disturbing new tactics, \u201cflexibility\u201d means that employees \u2013 especially low-wage workers \u2013 must come in whenever the boss wants and can be sent home whenever demand is slack. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unpredictable Schedules and Insufficient Hours\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

News stories have featured the chaotic schedules of young people working in retail, cleaning, and fast food jobs \u2013 many of whom must come to work with just one day\u2019s notice or work split shifts. About a third of young adults do not know their schedule more than a week in advance. But similar problems are faced by workers of all ages. Unpredictable schedules are becoming the new normal for many U.S. employees \u2013 ranging from low-wage nursing assistants to well-paid physicians. In the retail and health care sectors, many workers must call in the night before to find out if they will be needed \u2013 and if they will earn the wages they have counted on getting. At a nursing home we studied, for example, one out of three shifts turned out to be different from the official schedule planned in advance. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>Hit hardest are low-wage workers and women of color \u2013 frequently women who are single mothers. Understandably, the workers affected by so much unpredictability often experience stress, conflicts, and health problems. Low-wage employees cannot afford to pay for high-quality child care or care for elderly family members \u2013 a problem made worse when they must go to work at odd hours. These workers often do not get any vacation time, another workplace perk that is increasingly available only to the most privileged employees. On a daily and weekly basis, low-wage workers can find themselves pulled away from full participation in family and community life. Worse, most cannot take time off when they are sick or when their children or elderly relatives fall ill. The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act requires that larger firms allow such time to be taken on an unpaid basis, but roughly a quarter to half of private firms illegally disregard the law\u2019s provisions.\u201cFlexibility\u201d means that employees must come in whenever the boss wants and can be sent home whenever demand is slack.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Erratic scheduling creates a cascade of disruptions. Talking with health care workers, we tracked the \u201cweb of time\u201d \u2013 the ways a change in one person\u2019s schedule (for example, a doctor) affects others tied to that person (such as a nursing assistant or a spouse). In turn, those changes upset schedules for still other people (such as a day-care worker or an aunt who is taking care of the nursing assistant\u2019s children and is now late for her own job). <\/span><\/p>\n

Why are Workplace Rules Becoming More Erratic?<\/b><\/p>\n

Employers have made workplaces more unpredictable because they can often act unimpeded \u2013 especially in the United States, given union decline and weak government regulation. <\/span><\/p>\n