Making Working Hours more Flexible

1. Information on working hours and leisure time

2. Time budget for a week

Topics: 1. Oral survey: city size; residential status; number of rooms;
possession of durable economic goods; frequency of use of computers in
occupational as well as in private areas; frequency of contact with
friends outside of personal household; number of friends; club
membership; intensity of participation in club life; other memberships;
frequency of one-day excursions, short vacation trips and longer
vacation trips; frequency of vacation over 5 days and absence from home
during vacation time; time worked each week and number of overtime hours
per week; type of compensation for overtime; amount of overtime
supplement; actual number of hours each week; secondary occupation;
flextime; frequency of Saturday work as well as Sunday work; number of
successive work days and number of following days off; years of shift
work; company requirement or free decision for this form of working
hours; estimate of the necessity of shift work in one´s company; since
when shift work in the company; arrangement of shift work in two, three,
or four shift change; frequency of shift change.

The following additional questions were posed to self-employed: free
division of working hours; work in the evening and on weekends;
separation of work and personal life; employment of partner; time worked
each week and overtime of partner; weekend work as well as situation of
working hours of partner; shift work of partner; positive or negative
effects of one´s own working hours on various areas such as health,
course of the day, leisure activities, further education, vacation,
partner, child care, raising children and friends; school-age children
in household; effects of arrangement of working hours on the possibility
to go to government offices, shopping, trips to the doctor, attending
club events, libraries, sport facilities and movies; improvement
recommendations to reduce the disadvantages of one´s own arrangement
of working hours; general satisfaction with working hours; desired number
of hours each week; areas of life for which one wishes more time;
frequency of lack of time in the leisure area; regular firm appointments
in the leisure area; use of an appointment calendar or an electronic
appointment calendar, also outside of professional life; company size;
religiousness.

The following additional questions were posed to shift workers and
weekend workers: being on stand-by during free time; ability to plan
working hours in advance; extent of co-determination in establishing
working hours and time span for announcing individual working hours;
persons with whom working hours must be co-ordinated; satisfaction with
income considering additional burdens from shift or weekend work.

2. Time budget recording: recording of the time budget for seven
weekdays according to the categories personal area, employment,
household work, child care, leisure time at home as well as outside the
house and information on cooperation partner in these activities; the
information was recorded in quarter-hour rhythm.