Living to work Working to live: Tomorrow s work life balance in Europe

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1 Dublin Castle and European Foundation 3-4 November 2004 Living to work Working to live: Tomorrow s work life balance in Europe Background paper

2 Living to work working to live: Tomorrow s work-life balance in Europe The issue of work life balance is high on the policy agenda of the European Union and its Member States. Attaining a better balance between the demands of work and personal life and finding new ways of organising individual working time over the life course is crucial to achieving the dual aim of more and better work for all. In this context, time is a key variable of the European social model and the time dimension is fundamental to achieving EU social policy objectives. The Lisbon triangle of economic growth, employment, and social cohesion defines the space in which Europeans live and work. According to the Kok report, however, the Lisbon strategy has been largely unsuccessful to date. Few of the former EU15 countries have reached the employment goals, particularly those relating to increasing women s participation in the labour force and maintaining the ageing workforce at work. Improving work life balance is an explicit objective of both the EU Employment Guidelines and the EU Social Policy Agenda. Policymakers are struggling to meet the objective of raising employment rates through integrating more women and retaining older workers in the labour market. There is also a need to reconcile employment and care responsibilities in light of the disappearance of the male breadwinner model of family life and current trends towards dualearner and single parent families. So how does society set about rethinking work and personal life scenarios in the context of the Lisbon strategy of achieving full employment and making Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledgebased economy in the world by 2010? The main objective of the Foundation Forum is to contribute to this pertinent debate. High-level practitioners, politicians and experts from different EU Member States convene in Dublin on 3 and 4 November to discuss the different facets of the work life balance issue and exchange experiences.

3 Adapting life to changing work and time patterns In today s world, the definition of working time is increasingly blurred. Working time arrangements are shifting and the traditional eight-hour working day is no longer the norm. The growth of the service economy requires people to be available outside the traditional 9-5 working period, triggering a reorganisation of working time and a flexibilisation of the labour market. In response to this, companies have introduced annual hours contracts and new shift patterns, enabling them to take advantage of seasonal sales and irregular surges in demand. The growth of a female time culture is increasingly evident with a greater number of women in the labour force. The traditional division of labour in households is being challenged. Women working full time in the labour market find it increasingly difficult to juggle paid employment and domestic and child-rearing tasks. More women in paid employment also means less women available to care for the elderly, highlighting a clear need for better support in the area of family care. The individualisation of lifestyles more unmarried, divorced and separated persons and single parents calls into question the present, largely traditional support system which is based mainly on the extended family, as well as contributing to the growing pressure for more free time options. The ageing of the European population highlights the need to keep older workers in employment and to introduce policies that reverse their early exit from the labour market. Today just 40% of the 55+ age group are still in the labour market in the former EU15. The ageing of the population also highlights the need for improvements in the care of older dependent people. Nowadays work is becoming less reliant on physical materials and location which implies that leaving the workplace does not mean leaving work. The prevalence of ICT reinforces this aspect as mobile phones, computers, electronic organisers, etc, tend to accompany people home. Thus the frontiers between work and non-work are increasingly blurred. The content of work is also changing. Workers need to be adaptable and multi-skilled in order to cope with the diversity of complex and overlapping tasks. Work is thus becoming more intensive and dense, resulting in workers struggling to perform more tasks in a compressed working time. A different work model is emerging. The work life path is evolving from the traditional one of education, job ( for life ), retirement. New orientations include lifelong learning throughout working life, work periods 2

4 interspersed with non-work and combined with studies or other activities. Collective work reductions are still being achieved, but often in exchange for increased flexibility. However, some countries have recently signed collective agreements on increased weekly hours to meet the challenges of the global economy. Many employers provide flexible working arrangements to allow workers adjust to a better work life balance. These include parental leave, job sharing, flexitime, term-time working; working from home; parttime work; nursery provisions or help with childcare costs; and emergency time off. Studies have shown there is a business case for offering flexible working arrangements with employees showing greater loyalty to such companies, particularly in the private sector. Urban living brings with it particular problems in terms of work life balance and space. When planning and designing a city, there is a need to reflect and consider the needs of the citizen. Commuting time in larger cities today, for example, is on average more than two hours a day, amounting to an additional day away from home over a weekly period. The 24-hour society is now also a reality in many larger cities. The need for wider access to services, both public and private, at other hours than 9 to 5 is increasingly evident. Flexible services can sometimes be achieved via technology (i.e. internet banking), but in other cases such as childcare technical solutions are impossible. Impact of changes on daily life In 2000, the most common model of dual household in the former EU15, except the Netherlands, is one where both partners work full time (defined as over 30 hours). The proportion of households working full time is lower among households with children than among those with no children. However, in Belgium, Greece, Italy and Spain the difference was small and in Portugal the proportion was higher for those with children. More women work full time in the new Member States except in Malta and Cyprus and overall weekly hours are longer there than in the former EU15. Working hours About 22% of European citizens report that their working hours fit poorly or not at all with family and other commitments. Women and men working full time are more likely to consider their working hours to be incompatible with family life and other responsibilities than people with shorter working times or working part time. Just over 20% of persons in the former EU15 and 30% 3

5 in the new Member States say they are too tired after work to do household tasks and also find it hard to fulfil their family responsibilities. Very long working hours are also found to have detrimental effects on family-related activities and tasks. Family and fertility How work is scheduled may be seen to have a direct impact on an individual s free time and family responsibilities. Today, one in four men and one in three women works outside normal working hours. Work schedules that spill over into the evening, night and weekends can be considered disruptive to family life insofar as they present difficulties in coordinating the various daily activities associated with raising children and enjoying shared family time. On the other hand, such schedules may offer flexible, alternative opportunities for the combining of employment with family life. Today Europe has a natural population growth of just 200,000 births per year. Patterns of low fertility are found in all EU Member States, and in two candidate countries, Bulgaria and Romania. Both the rapidly ageing workforce and population decline present a major challenge for European policymakers in the light of the Lisbon strategy. Care and the elderly One obvious effect of the declining birth rates is that there is a gap between the growing number of elderly people who need care and the shrinking pool of children or grandchildren available to provide care within families and private households. As a result, there is growing demand in Europe for formal care services. However, tight budget constraints are increasingly imposing limits on the expansion of public services. Around 25% of the respondents to the Foundation s European Quality of Life survey in the new Member States are engaged in some form of regular help on behalf of others, while the corresponding figure in the former EU15 is 21%. Middle-aged and older persons are most likely to be engaged in informal care activities. The level of support is almost as high among those who work as among the retired and the unemployed. In this case, the fact that some people are outside the workforce does not lower the burden for working people who frequently have to juggle between work and caring roles. This puts individual care-givers under heavy strain and also contributes to diminished productivity as people with heavy care responsibilities are prone to higher absenteeism and more fragmented employment careers. 4

6 Generation gap Another issue is the likelihood of a growing generation gap. Will the future see a decline in mutual support between generations? Research findings indicate that European societies increasingly depend on family support for the provision of care for the elderly. Some studies point to a trend of decreasing support in this respect as lifestyles become more individualised. On the other hand, Foundation research results reveal a high degree of solidarity between generations and a realistic view concerning the burden of sharing the costs of care and extended family responsibilities. Tomorrow s work life balance Improved work life balance is an increasingly important issue across Europe. It will have a direct influence on labour participation, natural population growth, family formation and quality of life. Issues such as employment, working conditions, lifelong learning and public sector provisions such as childcare and the pension system, all play a part in shaping appropriate solutions for fostering a better work life balance for all European citizens. How can we encourage investment by all stakeholders in shaping a better work life balance for all? 5

7 Questions for the debate rooms Anticipating future scenarios Do we need to work longer? Time over the life course 1. The debate on the reduction of working time is ongoing. Will the demands of the global economy force us to change the trend towards reduced working hours in favour of increased working hours per week, per year, or over a life time? 2. Should we develop personalised work schedules over the life course or develop policies to support an increase in lifelong working hours? 3. How can we shape work organisation to make work more attractive and prolong the individual s working career? 4. How can we sustain the individual s ability to work well and productively throughout their entire working life? 5. How can we develop an integrated policy approach to work life balance, i.e., covering a positive interaction of economic, employment and social initiatives? 6

8 Work and flexibility: How working time can reconcile work life issues Investing in work-life balance a win-win situation? 1. What are the responsibilities of companies and the role of the economy regarding the reconciliation of work and life issues? 2. Are we happy to respond to changing trends by adapting our daily lives to new work patterns? 3. How can we ensure flexible arrangements of working time for both the employee and the company? 4. How can the female working-time pattern be best supported? Is it by supporting women in full-time or other flexible employment or by promoting a more equal distribution (work, family and domestic work) between women and men. What are the implications of either choice? 5. Fixed time work contracts are evolving: How can society and the social partners best support flexicurity, i.e. a high level of labour flexibility combined with good social security? 6. How can we find a balance between individual and work requirements? Will this come about mainly through changes in employment and working conditions policies? 1. What are the main drivers that motivate organisations to adopt work life friendly policies? 2. What are the challenges to an improved work life balance in the city in terms of space and time for working and living? 3. Can all employers big and small offer flexible working arrangements or other work-life friendly policies to their employees? 4. How can we introduce work life friendly policies for men and in predominantly male workplaces? 5. What integrated work life models are available and what are the pros and con of the different models (employee assistance services, work/life services, equality plans, gender mainstreaming, etc.)? 6. Is business performance influenced by the implementation of work life policies and their success or otherwise? 7. How do we calculate the return on the investment/cost effectiveness of work life balance programmes seen from the perspective of the individual, company, social partners and society? 7

9 Work and care: Payback to the elderly or investment in the next generation? 1. At a time of shrinking economic resources and with the objective of full employment, how can we achieve the best balance between work and the care of elderly and other dependent persons and the need to support families to have and bring up children? 2. Who is going to provide care in the future? Is the extended family still an option in view of the way European society is evolving? 3. How do we ensure that people who work also have time for care? How do we have time to have children? 4. What structure of family support is needed to encourage families to have children? 5. How to fund care? What measures are needed to support care of the sick and elderly and how to support childcare? Should we use private or public resources? 6. How can the social partners support work and care-giving? 7. What can be done to improve the present situation? And what is done in practice? 8

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