Eurobarometer 60.3 (Nov-Dec 2003)

This round of Eurobarometer surveys sought public opinion on issues of
time usage and product safety instructions.

Topics: Respondents were asked about their current employment status
and occupation, matters pertaining to work arrangements and leave
options such as teleworking, work schedule flexibility, and taking
sabbaticals, as well as activities that have an impact on their free
time. Respondents were asked about their satisfaction with respect to
various aspects of life including their job, health, and financial
situation. Respondents were queried on the number of hours they worked
per week, whether or not they intended to reduce their working hours
and for how long, and what they would do with their extra free time.
Respondents were also asked for their opinions about stress levels at
work, compensation, working conditions, and job security. They were
also asked at what age they would like to retire and at what age they
expected to retire, whether they would consider postponing retirement
for any reason, and what they would do with their extra time upon
retiring. Other questions were asked about professional training
completed by the respondents in the previous 12 months, whether they
took time off of work to complete the training, who should be
responsible for paying for such training and about their attitudes
towards lifelong learning. Respondents were asked how many children
under the age of 14 were living in their household and if the
children´s grandparents ever looked after them and with what frequency.
In addition, respondents with grandchildren were asked if they ever
looked after their grandchildren and whether or not they did so on a
regular basis. Respondents also were asked a series of questions
regarding product safety information with respect to ´Do-it-yourself´
(DIY) products. Respondents were shown different logos that had
appeared on DIY products and were asked if they were familiar with the
various logos and if they knew what the logos said about the product.
Respondents were asked if they took safety logos or other safety
information into account when purchasing DIY products, whether or not
they read instructions accompanying DIY products, whether they kept
instructions for future use, where they thought the best location for
instructions would be, whether they preferred safety instructions to be
conveyed by logos or text, and whether or not safety information for
DIY products was generally useful. Similarly, they were asked about
product safety information regarding toys and other products for
children. Respondents were also asked whether they took safety
information into account when buying toys or children´s products,
whether they read safety instructions, and whether they kept safety
instructions for future reference. Further, they were asked if they had
seen certain logos on toys or other products for children and whether
they knew what the logos said about the products. Respondents´ opinions
were sought regarding the most effective placement of safety
instructions, whether they preferred the risks of using a toy or
children´s product to be indicated by logos or symbols or by text, and
the usefulness of warnings appearing in text form. Finally, respondents
were asked to make judgments on the overall usefulness of safety
information for toys and children´s products.

Demography: Age, gender, marital status, nationality, left-right
political self-placement, age at completion of education, occupation,
household income group, type and size of locality, and region.