Introduction: Temporal Dimensions of Employment Relations

For these workers, the distinction between work and nonwork is not always clear and, like the agricultural workers of preindustrial times, there is never really a time when one is not at work. [...]the salaried form of remuneration makes it difficult to determine precisely the economic value of one's work time. [...]these workers are more apt to have difficulty balancing their work and family lives and to face stress with its associated negative physical and mental reactions. [...]they use panel data to examine the interplay throughout time between couples' preferences for a particular number of working hours and how many hours they actually work, thereby addressing the question of whether people work more because they want to or because they must meet employers' demands. Among full-timers, nonmanual employees have more variable start and finish times. [...]most unsocial work schedules accumulate in dual-employed manual households, whereas professional couples have more autonomy and higher income.