Office workers’representations of the normal daily working hours, overtime and boundaries between them

Abstract

The article is based on the results of a social study aimed at exploring the labor norms, in particular normal workday length, overtime and the boundaries between them as viewed by the white-collar workers. The data of 22 semistructured interviews with the office workers are used in the study. The analysis reveals a discrepancy between the way the workers define their overtime and the way they arrange their everyday practices. Formal excess of work hours is not perceived in fact as overtime by the workers; the author finds out that what is important for the workers is the balance between their professional and personal life as well as the degree of fatigue. The author concludes that workers’ age, sex, family status and how they prioritize work in the list of life priorities shape the way how they delimit work and overtime. Types of overtime are distinguished: formal, informal, involuntary and voluntary.