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An unequal division of housework has been found to be often regarded as fair, which may explain why women still do most household labor. This study extends previous research by also investigating childcare—an increasingly important part of household labor, which is likely to have a different meaning than housework. It examines how perceptions of fairness for both housework and childcare are influenced by the division of housework, childcare, and paid labor, and whether patterns differ by gender. Data from the Netherlands (men: N = 462; women: N = 638) show that unequal divisions of housework, and especially childcare, are often perceived as fair. When it comes to how an increasingly unequal household labor division is related to unfairness, associations are stronger for women than for men. Fairness of the household labor division is evaluated in relation to total workload and not in isolation from other types of labor.

Objective: To investigate if divorced parents celebrate their children's birthdays with their respective ex-partner and current partner, and whether they do so "jointly" with both. Background: Family rituals like birthday celebrations are important and meaningful events in people's lives, but little is known about who partakes in these in contemporary postdivorce families. Method: We assessed whether divorced parents celebrated their child's birthday together with their ex-partner (i.e., the child’s other biological parent), current partner (i.e., the child’s stepparent), and jointly with both. Dutch Data (N=2,451) was analyzed using linear probability models. Results: Most parents celebrated the child's birthday without the ex-partner, but with the current partner. One quarter celebrated with both. The ex-partners' presence was more likely when parents' and their current partners' relationship with the ex-partner was good; and less likely when parents had repartnered and when the ex-partners had sole custody or additional biological or stepchildren. The presence of the current partner was more likely in case of coresidence with the biological parent and when the ex-partner had a new partner; and less likely when the ex-partners had sole custody and when parents' relationship with the ex-partners was good. Conclusion: Child-related family rituals mostly involve the "new" stepparent rather than both biological parents. The effects of relationship quality, co-residence, repartnering, and having additional biological or stepchildren highlight the importance of (step)parents' willingness to interact with each other, structural opportunities for parent-child interactions, and parents' shifting loyalties from their ex-partner to their new family. Fragestellung: Wir untersuchen, ob getrennte/geschiedene Eltern die Geburtstage ihrer biologischen Kinder mit ihren Ex-Partner*innen und ihren neuen Partner*innen feiern, und ob sie den Geburtstag zusammen zu dritt feiern. Hintergrund: Familienrituale wie Geburtstagsfeiern sind wiederkehrende, wichtige und bedeutungsvolle Ereignisse im Leben von Eltern und ihren Kindern. Es ist wenig darüber bekannt, wer nach einer Trennung oder Scheidung an solchen Ritualen teilnimmt. Methode: Wir untersuchten, ob getrennte/geschiedene Eltern den Geburtstag ihres Kindes gemeinsam mit ihren Ex-Partner*innen (d. h. dem anderen biologischen Elternteil des Kindes), ihren neuen Partner*innen (d. h. dem Stiefelternteil des Kindes) oder gemeinsam mit beiden (also zu dritt) feierten. Dazu analysierten wir Daten aus den Niederlanden (N=2.451) mit Hilfe von Linearen Wahrscheinlichkeitsmodellen. Ergebnisse: Die meisten Eltern feierten den Geburtstag des Kindes ohne die Ex-Partner*innen, dafür aber mit ihren neuen Partner*innen. Ein Viertel feierte mit beiden. Die Anwesenheit der Ex-Partner*innen war wahrscheinlicher, wenn die Beziehung der Eltern und der neuen Partner*innen zu den Ex-Partner*innen gut war, und weniger wahrscheinlich, wenn beide Elternteile wiederverpartnert waren und wenn die Ex-Partner*innen das alleinige Sorgerecht oder weitere biologische oder Stiefkinder hatten. Die Anwesenheit der neuen Partner*innen war wahrscheinlicher, wenn der biologische Elternteil mit ihm zusammenlebte und wenn die Ex-Partner*innen wiederverpartnert waren, und weniger wahrscheinlich, wenn die Ex-Partner*innen das alleinige Sorgerecht hatte und wenn die Beziehung der Eltern zu den Ex-Partner*innen gut war. Schlussfolgerung: An auf ein Kind bezogenen Familienritualen ist meist nur der neue Stiefelternteil beteiligt und nicht beide biologischen Elternteile. Die Effekte von Beziehungsqualität, des Zusammenwohnens, der Wiederverpartnerung und des Vorhandenseins zusätzlicher biologischer oder Stiefkinder verdeutlichen die Bedeutung der Bereitschaft der (Stief-)Eltern, miteinander zu interagieren, der strukturellen Möglichkeiten für Eltern-Kind-Interaktionen sowie der Verlagerung der Loyalität der Eltern von ihren Ex-Partner*innen zu ihrer neuen Familie.

Steeds meer werkgevers ontwikkelen beleid om werknemers te stimuleren gezond te eten en meer te bewegen. Dit geldt ook voor oudere werknemers: zij ondervinden dat de ouderdom met minder gebreken komt wanneer ze gebruik maken van vitaliteitsregelingen. Toch hebben oudere werknemers in Europa minder toegang tot dit beleid en maken zij er minder vaak gebruik van wanneer zij daar wel de mogelijkheid toe hebben.

Contains fulltext : 226702.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Against the backdrop of aging populations and policies to extend working lives, this study advances prior research by examining how job satisfaction of older workers is associated with not only own, but also coworkers' usage of 3 human resource (HR) policies: phasing out (i.e., lighter workload, additional leave, and semi-retirement), demotion, and training. Exploiting unique, linked organization-department-employee data from the European Sustainable Workforce Survey (ESWS), hypotheses derived from the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and relative deprivation theory are tested with 3-level regression analysis. The findings show that demotees are less satisfied with their job compared to older employees who were not demoted, whereas participation in phasing out arrangements is not related to older workers' job satisfaction. Older employees who received training are more satisfied with their job than those who did not. Moreover, in departments where coworkers participated in training, older employees who did not receive training are more satisfied than those in departments where training is unavailable or in which training is offered, but not used. Phasing out and demotion of colleagues are not associated with job satisfaction of older workers. These results are largely in line with the JD-R model, as demotion would decrease motivation and, in turn, job satisfaction, whereas training would increase job resources and motivation and, in turn, job satisfaction. This study concludes that providing training to older workers is a fruitful HR strategy for employers to stimulate job satisfaction among their older employees and facilitate longer working lives. 19 p.

There is growing evidence that couples in non-traditional relationships in which the woman attains higher status than her male partner experience more negative relationship outcomes than traditional couples. A possible reason is that non-traditional couples violate persisting gender stereotypes that prescribe men to be breadwinners and women to be caregivers of the family. In the current study (N = 2,748), we investigated whether a country’s gender-stereotypical culture predicts non-traditional men and women’s relationship and life outcomes. We used the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, which is conducted in nine European countries. Two indicators of countries’ gender-stereotypical culture are used: Gender Empowerment Measure and implicit gender stereotypes. We found that women’s income and -to a lesser extent- education degree relative to their male partner affected outcomes such as relationship quality, negative emotions, and experienced time pressure. Furthermore, men and women living in countries with a traditional gender-stereotypical culture (e.g., Netherlands, Hungary) reported lower relationship quality when women earned more than their partners. Relative income differences did not affect the relationship quality of participants living in egalitarian countries (e.g., Sweden, Finland). Also, couples in which the woman is more highly educated than the man reported higher relationship quality in egalitarian countries, but not in traditional countries. Our findings suggest that dominant beliefs and ideologies in society can hinder or facilitate couples in non-traditional relationships.

OBJECTIVE: To study whether workplace social relations explain use of worksite health promotion (WHP), by examining colleagues' and team managers' WHP encouragement of a healthy lifestyle, and colleague WHP uptake. METHODS: Multilevel data came from the second wave of the European Sustainable Workforce Survey (4345 employees of 402 team in 9 countries). Linear probability models were used to test use of two types of WHP: healthy menus and sport facilities. RESULTS: Employees are more likely to use healthy menus and sport facilities when more colleagues do so too and when colleagues encourage a healthy lifestyle. Surprisingly, encouragement by one's manager plays no role. CONCLUSIONS: Social contact among colleagues can facilitate WHP use, and WHP initiatives should pay attention to the influential role of colleagues.

Objective This study investigates the role of residence (including shared residence), repartnering (including LAT relationships), and additional children (step- and half-siblings) on parenting in postdivorce families, and whether patterns differ by gender and type of parenting behavior.Background Patterns of parenting are indicative of how parents redefine their roles and responsibilities after divorce and repartnering, but extant research has largely overlooked parenting across a full array of postdivorce families.Method The analyses were based on data from Wave 2 of the New Families in the Netherlands survey, which was conducted among a random sample of divorced or separated heterosexual parents with minor children (N = 2,778).Results Residence was highly relevant for parenting in regular care, leisure, irregular care, and influence in child-related decision-making. Repartnering and additional children had smaller effects and it mattered which type of parenting behavior was considered, but they were generally associated with lower parental engagement, except for decision-making influence. Gender differences were only found for decision-making influence, showing that variations in parenting across residence arrangements or between repartnered or single parents were more pronounced for mothers than fathers.Conclusion Residence was more strongly related to parenting than repartnering, and the strength and nature of associations varied between parenting behaviors. Influence in decision-making stood out as a distinct parenting behavior, and also the frequency and obligatory nature of parent-child activities mattered.

Contains fulltext : 231159.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The transition to parenthood is both a joyous and a challenging event in a relationship. Studies to date have found mostly negative effects of the birth of the first child on the parental relationship. We propose that partners' pre-pregnancy individual happiness may serve as a buffer against these negative effects. We predicted that parents who are happy prior to pregnancy fare better in terms of relationship commitment after childbirth than unhappy parents. To test our prediction, we used data of a 5-wave longitudinal study among 109 Dutch newlywed couples who had their first child during the study and a comparison group of 55 couples who remained childless. We found that the relationship commitment of fathers with higher pre-pregnancy happiness and fathers with a partner with higher pre-pregnancy happiness increased slightly in the years after childbirth, whereas the relationship commitment of fathers with lower pre-pregnancy happiness and fathers with a partner with lower pre-pregnancy happiness decreased. In addition, the relationship commitment of mothers with a happier partner prior to pregnancy decreased only slightly across the transition to parenthood but showed a steeper decline for mothers with a partner with average or lower pre-pregnancy happiness. In line with the idea that happiness acts as a resource when partners have to deal with relationship challenges, individual happiness predicted changes in relationship commitment for parents, but not for partners who remained childless. 10 p.

This article analyses old-age discrimination in managers’ hypothetical hiring decisions. We expect that older job candidates are less likely to be hired than equally qualified younger candidates. Statistical discrimination theory argues that when recruiters have more information about the candidate’s skills, age is less important for hiring decisions. Given inconclusive results of previous studies, we elaborate on the theory by focusing on the content rather than the amount of information. We argue that information is primarily influential if it debunks, rather than confirms, ageist stereotypes. To test this argument, a factorial survey was conducted among 482 managers in nine European countries. The findings show that older candidates indeed receive lower hireability scores, and this finding is robust across countries and sectors. However, we do not find that stereotype-rejecting information moderates age discrimination: it does not matter whether recruiters have information that debunks or confirms ageist stereotypes; age is equally important in both situations. Our findings suggest that for hiring decisions, the valuation of applicants’ skills and their age are largely independent.

Contains fulltext : 234368.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Objective: To identify subgroups of parents with distinct patterns of change in relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood and predict subgroup membership from prenatal levels of relational processes. Background: The average decline in relationship satisfaction that is generally found across the transition to parenthood masks the existence of subgroups of parents who show distinct patterns of change across the transition to parenthood. Method: Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was conducted using four waves of data from a Dutch sample of 440 first-time parents (210 couples; pregnancy to 1 year postpartum). Subgroups subsequently were examined to explore differences in prenatal relational processes. Results: More than half of parents reported no change in relationship satisfaction after childbirth, and only small subgroups of new parents experienced strong declines. Levels of one's own and one's partner's relationship maintenance behavior, perceived responsiveness, and accommodation during pregnancy predicted subgroup membership. Conclusion: The results underscore the importance of examining heterogeneity in relationship change across the transition to parenthood, and prenatal levels of relational processes are associated with differential relationship satisfaction trajectories. Implications The results imply that targeting the group of parents that are most at risk for relationship satisfaction decline after childbirth and starting relationship interventions during pregnancy may contribute to the effectiveness of interventions. 15 p.

In this chapter, the educational gradient in access to different organizational work-family policies is examined using unique multilevel survey data from the European Sustainable Workforce Survey covering nine European countries. A total of six different work-family policies are studied, representing working-time arrangements, leaves, and services. By combining information provided by the organization, the direct supervisor, and the employee we show that for all policies, access reported by employees is substantially lower than provision reported by the team managers, which in turn is lower than the provision reported by the HR managers. This points to complex processes in the distribution of information in organizations. Moreover, at the organizational as well as the employee level, higher skilled employees have more access to working-time arrangements. We conclude that the skill gaps in the access to organizational work-family policies identified in this chapter form an important dimension of social inequality in today’s labor market.

Research on cooperation and care has largely overlooked the informal care for adults. Informal care is the care for those who experience (mental or physical) health issues. In this contribution we aim to explain the provision of informal care from a transaction cost approach. We do so by investigating the role of coordination problems and trust problems in the supply of informal care from the perspective of the care giver. We also investigate the role of the social embeddedness of the relationship between the care giver and receiver. Using information from 7,166 care givers and non-care givers collected by the Dutch Institute for Social Research and the Central Bureau of Statistics, multivariate analyses are used to test our hypotheses. Results show that less hours of informal care are provided when the complexity of needs is higher. However, unexpectedly, those with more general skills spend less rather than more time of informal care. Our results also suggest that care givers prefer to give informal care to the ones they know and have a close relationship with. Although the findings are mixed, we conclude that informal care provided by the care giver can be viewed upon as a transaction, and give suggestions for further research.

Objective: To study to what extent the work environment influences the use of worksite health promotion (WHP). Methods: Data came from the European Sustainable Workforce survey, with data from employees and managers in 259 organizations. We analyze use of three types of WHP (healthy menus, sports facilities, and health checks) using multilevel logistic models. Results: Employees are more likely to use each type of WHP when a larger share of their direct colleagues do so. Use of healthy menus is more likely among employees who work more hours, have more autonomy, and work in organizations with less work-oriented culture. Autonomy is also associated with more use of sports facilities, while work-oriented culture is negatively related to use of health checks. Conclusions: Our results suggest the work environment should be included when studying WHP use.

It is well-documented that higher educated employees have better health than the lower educated. The workplace has been put forward as a contributor to this inequality. We extend previous work on workplace characteristics that could influence employee health by asking to what extent workplace health promotion (WHP) can account for the relation between education and health. Two ways in which WHP may relate to health inequalities are addressed: higher educated employees may be more likely to use WHP than lower educated employees and the effect of WHP on health may be stronger for higher educated than for lower educated employees. Using data from the European Sustainable Workforce Survey which contains information on over 11000 employees in 259 organisations, we test whether three types of WHP mediate or moderate the relation between education and health: healthy menus, sports facilities and health checks. We find that higher educated employees are in better health and that use of WHP positively relates to health. Use of healthy menus and sports facilities in the workplace can contribute to increasing health inequalities, as lower educated employees are less likely to make use of these. Health checks could contribute to diminishing health inequalities, as lower educated employees are more likely to use them compared to higher educated employees. The effect of WHP is not contingent on education. We advise stimulating lower educated employees to make more use of WHP, which can contribute to decreasing health inequalities.

To cope with an increased proportion of older workers, organisations develop old-age adaptation policies. Two strategies underlie these policies: phasing out and activating. Although the existence of these strategies is widely recognised, the reasons for their presence have rarely been explored. We identify three arguments that explain the extent to which these strategies are present: profit, principles and pressures. We hypothesise that the intensity of the phasing out strategy is higher when it is profitable and easy to replace older workers, when employer's age norms support the principle of treating older workers differently, and when external pressures are high. We also hypothesise that the intensity of the activating strategy is higher when it is profitable but hard to replace older workers, when the employer's age norms reject the principle of treating older workers differently, and when external pressures are high. We use pooled regression analysis to study imputed managerial data from 5,410 organisations in seven European countries. Results confirm the importance of external pressures for the adaptation of both strategies, and of principles for activating. Although policy feasibility is important for the adaption of both strategies, the other profit variables showed mixed results. Net benefits of older workers to the organisation are only important for phasing out, and substitutability only for activating. This paper discusses the wider implications of the study.

The extent to which organizations supplement statutory work-life arrangements varies systematically between countries. Empirical evidence on how organizations’ approaches to work-life arrangements relate to the national context is, however, mixed. This study aims to elucidate this complex relationship by focusing on how top managers’ considerations about whether or not to provide work-life arrangements are related to the national context. Semi-structured interviews were held with 78 top managers in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK. This study finds that top managers’ relate their considerations whether to provide work-life arrangements to the extensiveness of national legislation: only in the context of few state work-life policies top managers saw it as a business issue. Top managers also take into consideration what they believe is expected of them by employees and society at large, which can work either in favor or against the provision of work-life arrangements. Perceiving the provision of work-life arrangements as a social responsibility seems more apparent for top managers in Slovenia and Finland. By leaving the social responsibility argument out of the central framework of most studies, the existing literature appears to tell the story mainly from an Anglo-Saxon perspective placing business oriented arguments central.

What happens to human capital accumulation if there is no ‘organization’ to invest in the worker? This study examines whether and how human capital investments differ between solo self-employed workers and employees, and how training is associated with individuals’ work engagement and their self-assessed prospects for career advancement. We analyze data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (2015). The results show that whereas employees on temporary contracts relatively often report that they are in need of further training, solo self-employed workers have the skills to deal with more demanding duties. Although solo self-employed workers more frequently participate in substantial self-financed training, in general, both the solo self-employed and employees on temporary contracts stay significantly behind in their participation in training activities compared to employees with permanent contracts. We conclude that for workers with permanent contracts training has a positive relationship with both work engagement and their perceived prospects for career advancement. For those on temporary contracts and the solo self-employed, human capital investments seem to have more of a ‘transactional’ function and to contribute, mainly, to how they assess their prospects.

Globalization, economic fluctuations, the aging population, technological advances, and rapidly changing social structures pose new challenges to creating a sustainable workforce in Europe. While few would question the centrality of organizations in nurturing a productive and flourishing workforce, sociologists of work have long refrained from engaging with their role. This book responds to a growing chorus in research that we must ‘bring the organization back in.’ It has the following aims: To provide insight from an international comparative perspective into the availability of organizational policies for a sustainable workforce and their use by employees in different sectors across Europe. To analyze the consequences of the availability and use of investments in engendering productive and satisfied employees and cohesive and profitable workplaces in different sectors across Europe. To introduce and integrate the meso (organizational) level into research on the micro and macro levels of employment. This first chapter introduces the structure of the book and its chapters. The chapters are organized into three parts. In Part I, we provide a description of the data we gathered and the institutional background of the selected countries. In Part II, we analyze the organizational availability of various policies and how employees use them, highlighting barriers to investing in workforce sustainability at different levels. Finally, in Part III, we discuss the consequences of organizational policies for employees.

Item does not contain fulltext Organizations and national governments are increasingly making work-family policies available to help working parents combine their careers with childcare. Nonetheless, many people who could benefit from these policies do not use them, and little is known about why people do or do not use work-family policies. Some studies have suggested that organizations restrain or encourage people's use of these policies, yet no large-scale quantitative studies exist. This chapter examines how organizations relate to the utilization of a specific work-family policy: parental leave. We combine two ways of looking at organizations: the family-supportiveness of the organizational culture and by treating them as actors that make strategic choices to invest in policies, which are influenced by organizational characteristics such as size, public ownership, or the proportion of women employed. The results indicate that organizations play a less important role than expected - only the size of an organization was shown to relate to parental leave use. Rather, national differences explain most variations in parental leave use. Organizations do, however, play a role in the utilization decisions of men, but not women, suggesting that while women are expected to use parental leave, men base the extent of their involvement at home partly on pressures from the workplace organizational context.

This final chapter synthesizes and discusses the results of the previous chapters, identifies future challenges, and makes suggestions for future research. It shows which employees use different types of organizational investments and what the consequences are for a range of outcomes. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of studying the organizational level in addition to the employee and country level. The chapter concludes by identifying future challenges for a sustainable workforce, such as the future of work, analyzing the family and community in addition to the organization, the socioeconomic divide in workplaces, and inequality between countries.

Item does not contain fulltext Given the abundance of literature on collective memory practices, there is relatively little empirical research on the socialization processes explaining the transmission of such practices. This article examines to what extent war-specific communication and parental exemplar behaviour function as a link between the collected memories of individuals and society's collective memory. Utilizing data from an online survey conducted in 2014, we focus on participation in the activities organized on Remembrance Day and Liberation Day in the Netherlands in remembrance of the Second World War. We distinguish between public and private practices. Our findings highlight that different forms of socialization substitute for one another. Whereas communication with non-relatives is particularly relevant for those communicating less frequently with parents about past war experiences, parental exemplar behaviour, such as participating in the two-minute silence on Remembrance Day, plays a bigger role amongst those with lower levels of communication with either relatives or non-relatives. 24 p.

Current labor market entrants face an increasingly challenging job search process. Effective guidance of job seekers requires identification of relevant job search skills. Self-control (i.e., the ability to control one's thoughts, actions, and response tendencies in view of a long-term goal, such as finding employment) is assumed to be one such relevant job search skill. The current study is the first to empirically assess the importance of self-control in the job search process. This is compared to the role of motivation, which is generally considered a crucial predictor of job searching. Based on a sample of 403 Dutch prospective vocational training graduates, we found that higher levels of self-control were related to higher levels of preparatory job search behavior and job search intentions half a year later, shortly before labor market entrance. Self-control was a significantly stronger predictor of job searching than work motivation. Moreover, relations between self-control and job searching were largely independent of motivation, which may suggest that job-seekers benefit from self-control through adaptive habits and routines that are unaffected by motivation. We propose that job search interventions, which traditionally focus on strengthening motivation, may benefit from a stronger focus on improving self-control skills.

The aim of this contribution is to refine explanations for inequalities in the amount of time men and women spend in paid work and housework by breaking down institutional conditions into economic circumstances, policy conditions, and cultural influences. We indicate our expectations for these macro indicators as well as for their interaction with micro level indicators. We expect, for example, that the negative effect on paid work for married women becomes stronger in more masculine countries. Using the Multinational Time Use Archive, we analysed 17 countries in the 1965–1998 period. Multilevel analyses show the importance of institutional conditions for paid work: men and women in highly developed economies and in countries with high rates of child-care facilities do more paid work, although they spend less time on paid work after having children. With respect to the influence of culture, it appears that highly educated and married women in masculine cultures do less paid work, and that married women also do more housework, than their counterparts in more feminine cultures.

Dit artikel beschrijft de ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse arbeidssociologie in de periode 1984-2009 vanuit drie perspectieven. Het eerste perspectief is hoe de arbeidssociologie zich als vakgebied en academische discipline heeft ontwikkeld en wat de belangrijkste determinanten van die ontwikkeling zijn geweest. Het tweede perspectief is dat van thema’s en de hypothesen. Aan de hand van de thema’s kwaliteit van de arbeid, de flexibilisering van de arbeidsmarkt en het werk van vrouwen wordt geïllustreerd welke vooruitgang in kennis er de afgelopen 25 jaar is geboekt, en hoe de discussies zijn verlopen. Het derde perspectief is de microfundering van de arbeidssociologie, die als een belangrijke, fundamentele discussie als een rode draad door de ontwikkeling van het vak loopt. Het artikel besluit met een pleidooi voor een arbeidssociologie die zich richt op het onderzoek naar de vraag hoe werk kan bijdragen aan de vergroting van de kwaliteit van leven.

Part-time work, flexible working hours, and home-based teleworking are HR instruments which are used to facilitate reconciliation of work and family life. It can be questioned, however, whether these arrangements really enhance work-life balance. This paper examines whether time-spatial flexibility reduces negative work-home interference, and if so, whether this also holds true for the category of ‘New Employees’ working under so-called ‘New Working Conditions’ which are characterised by professional job autonomy, team working by project, management by objectives, and strict deadlines. Employing survey data collected in 2003 among 807 Dutch employees, it is concluded that time-spatial flexibility does affect the work-life balance of workers positively, also under New Working Conditions. Generally, employees holding a smaller part-time job (12-24 contractual working hours per week) experienced a better work-life balance. In particular, female workers gained from more control over the temporal location of their work. Home-based teleworkers and employees holding larger part-time jobs (25-35 hours per week) did not experience a better work-life balance. In the concluding section, the results of the study are discussed in the context of contemporary Dutch labour market developments.