1. Objectifs

Intentions :
L’article brosse un portrait des personnes qui travaillent dans le secteur de la vente au détail et de leur organisation entre vie personnelle et travail. «A team composed of ergonomists and legal scholars attempted to find out: 1) what aspects of the work-scheduling process and the work schedules were problematic for workers; 2) whether these difficulties were associated with family responsibilities of workers; and 3) whether it would be feasible to include employee schedule preferences in the software scheduling process.» (p. 172)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’étude est basée sur la participation de 71 travailleurs syndiqués et de 5 gérants de magasin. L’ensemble des participants provenait de deux magasins de vente au détail.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«We note that the proportion of workers with family responsibilities is much lower in this company than in the general working population. […] Probably [because] it is difficult for people with family responsibilities to work for this retail chain, because of low salaries and family-unfriendly scheduling. It is surprising that the employer, who complained of the costs of an 80 percent annual staff turnover, did not appear to be gravely concerned by the issue of work-family balancing. [One participant] pointed out a paradox that can apply to other workers in her situation: the need to work more hours to feed the family but to work fewer hours to take care of other family needs. In couples, it is theoretically possible to solve this problem by having one, better-paid member (usually the male) work longer hours and the other (usually female) taking care of other family needs. In fact, men with family responsibilities did work longer hours and women did appear more to feel the pull of family responsibilities.» (p. 188-189)