Impossible Choices: How Workers Manage Unpredictable Scheduling Practices

Abstract

A total of 16 percent of hourly workers and 36 percent of workers paid on some other basis experience unstable work schedules due to irregular, on-call, rotating, or split shifts, which negatively impact workers’ ability to manage family responsibilities, finances, and health. Primarily drawing on data from in-depth interviews conducted in Oregon in 2016, this study expands research on how workers navigate through “bad jobs” by exploring the ways in which they respond in an attempt to manage the individual impacts of precarious work arrangements. We found that workers respond to unpredictable scheduling in four ways: they acquiesce, self-advocate, quit, or directly oppose employers. Our findings highlight the “impossible choices” workers face as they negotiate prevalent, unpredictable work conditions, juggle work-life obligations, and struggle to remain employed. We conclude with fair week, work policy recommendations.

At Work in a Pandemic: Black Workers’ Experiences of Safety on the Job

“…For example, survey analyses show that Black workers are disproportionately at risk of unstable scheduling practices, compared to white workers, and more likely to hold temporary positions ( Boushey and Ansel 2016 ; Howe 1986 ). When this occurs, it is often left to the individual worker to find ways to manage the impact of these unstable work arrangements ( Alvarez et al 2020 ). Still, much more research is needed to unpack the connections between precarious work and race.…”

No Choice but to Be Essential: Expanding Dimensions of Precarity During COVID-19

“…Precarious low-wage workers in the neoliberal capitalist economy experience limited access to affordable health care, childcare, and stable income, in addition to unpredictable hours and schedules. In these conditions, workers make impossible choices as they navigate the uncertainties of precarious work (Alvarez et al 2019). Deemed essential during a pandemic that sent many others home to labor remotely, these workers faced increased and sometimes new conditions of precarity within work, family, and health.…”

“…As low-wage workers living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make ends meet, they need their jobs; their employment is essential and to them irreplaceable. As we discovered, they tolerate increased risks to their physical safety because they cannot afford the cost of losing their jobs altogether, adding another element to the impossible choices that low-wage workers face (Alvarez et al 2019). Workers feel sacrificial and disposable, something scholars have identified as common to precarity.…”

Emerging Technologies at Work: Policy Ideas to Address Negative Consequences for Work, Workers, and Society

“…Military personnel carrying out remote drone operations in foreign lands from military bases in the United States may suffer emotional and mental anguish as they consider the morality of their work, switching within the course of each working day from the hard realities of warfare to the everyday domesticity of family home life (Rauch and Ansari 2022). Workers in industries such as hospitality, retail, and food services may find they experience more stress and family conflict when they work according to hours determined by automated scheduling software; moreover, the schedules they receive make it difficult for them to seek medical treatment because they cannot make and keep appointments (Golden 2015; Alvarez, Loustaunau, Petrucci, and Scott 2020). Although the idea that the introduction of new workplace technologies may spawn new concerns for workers’ health and safety is not novel, the variety, pervasiveness, and distinctiveness of these new concerns warrant their inclusion on this list.…”