Working time and work-life balance around the world

This report provides a comprehensive review of both main aspects of working time - working hours and working time arrangements (also called work schedules) - and their effects on workers' work-life balance. The report reviews hours of work from several different perspectives, highlighting that, globally, over one-third of all workers are regularly working more than 48 hours per week, while a fifth of the global workforce is at the opposite end of the spectrum working short (part-time) hours less than 35 per week. It also analyses actual hours of work compared with workers' preferred number of hours, finding that, in particular, working longer hours than desired has negative effects on workers' reported work-life balance. Finally, the report provides an overview of working time-related crisis response measures deployed by governments and enterprises during [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic, such as work sharing or short-time work and home-based telework, which helped to keep organizations functioning and workers employed. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings of the entire report, which suggest the need to promote reduced hours of work and offer flexible working time arrangements, such as flexitime and telework, more widely; these types of policies would help to improve work-life balance and thereby benefit both workers and employers.

Edited summary from publisher's website. Show less