Work-life balance/imbalance: The dominance of the middle class and the neglect of the working class

Warren, Tracey

Abstract

© 2015 London School of Economics and Political Science. The paper was stimulated by the relative absence of the working class from work-life debates. The common conclusion from work-life studies is that work-life imbalance is largely a middle-class problem. It is argued here that this classed assertion is a direct outcome of a particular and narrow interpretation of work-life imbalance in which time is seen to be the major cause of difficulty. Labour market time, and too much of it, dominates the conceptualization of work-life and its measurement too. This heavy focus on too much labour market time has rendered largely invisible from dominant work-life discourses the types of imbalance that are more likely to impact the working class. The paper's analysis of large UK data-sets demonstrates a reduction in hours worked by working-class men, more part-time employment in working-class occupations, and a substantial growth in levels of reported financial insecurity amongst the working classes after the 2008-9 recession. It shows too that economic-based work-life imbalance is associated with lower levels of life satisfaction than is temporal imbalance. The paper concludes that the dominant conceptualization of work-life disregards the major work-life challenge experienced by the working class: economic precarity. The work-life balance debate needs to more fully incorporate economic-based work-life imbalance if it is to better represent class inequalities.

Citation

Warren, T. (2015). Work-life balance/imbalance: The dominance of the middle class and the neglect of the working class. British Journal of Sociology, 66(4), 691-717. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12160

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Oct 21, 2015
• Publication Date: Dec 16, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 6, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 6, 2015
• Journal: British Journal of Sociology
• Print ISSN: 0007-1315
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-4446
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 691-717
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12160
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/763414
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12160/abstract
• Additional Information: This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Warren, T. (2015), Work–life balance/imbalance: the dominance of the middle class and the neglect of the working class. The British Journal of Sociology. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.12160, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12160/abstract. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.