Work scheduling and the construction of family disruption

Abstract

Using a unique paired sample we compare two types of non-traditional work scheduling with "standard" work scheduling (approximately eight hours a day during daylight. five or six days a week), In order to evaluate their perceived disruptive effects on family life. We find that one  spouse’s perception of the disruptiveness of work scheduling is the strongest predictor of the other spouse's disruptiveness of work schedule, far stronger than many of the structural variables that might be thought to mitigate the· effects of alternative work scheduling, and far stronger than even the schedule itself. The findings provided strong. Statistical and conceptual evidence that work scheduling itself is less important than how. The marital partners interpret that scheduling, and lend credence to theoretical approaches that the family as a microscopic social system where increasingly members must negotiate or construct the rules and roles that define behaviors.