MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
TÖÖ- JA PEREELU ÜHITAMINE REC<strong>ON</strong>CILING WORK AND FAMILY LIFE<br />
from families belonging to the first quartile attended a hobby group, the respective percentage for<br />
the fourth quartile was nearly 20%. In case of households belonging to the fourth quartile, more<br />
children were taken care of by relatives or acquaintances living outside of the household. A<br />
higher use of the help of relatives and acquaintances by households belonging to the fourth<br />
quartile may indicate that these parents may be more occupied with work which makes them<br />
look for additional childcare facilities. At the same time, parents with higher income have more<br />
opportunities for developing their children in hobby groups. (Table 2)<br />
Use of services provided by kindergartens or other childcare facilities enables to make decisions<br />
regarding reconciliation of work and family life from a longer perspective as the agreements for<br />
the use of the services of childcare facilities are mostly made for a longer term. Illness of children<br />
often places parents in a complicated situation. Parents need to take days off from work when<br />
their child is ill which may intensify relations with the employer (Kraav 2006). Vainu et al. (2009)<br />
have pointed out that staying at home with a sick child is much more complicated for men than for<br />
women. However, employers consider such absence easier to arrange than a longer leave a man<br />
might take during the period when parental benefit is paid or during parental leave. This is also<br />
supported by the figures on the proportion of men among the recipients of certificates for care<br />
leave which has steadily grown and reached 23% in 2008 (Eesti Haigekassa 2008).<br />
The data displayed in Table 3 still allow us to assume that the household member who stayed at<br />
home with a sick child was most likely the mother. (Table 3)<br />
Different options for childcare were used during illnesses and organising childcare often entailed<br />
combining several kinds of childcare. The used ways of childcare depended on the age of child,<br />
too. Household members with children aged 3–6 were those who most often had to take<br />
temporary leave from work, change or reduce their working hours. Household members who<br />
were the least affected were those with children 7–14 years of age. It is noteworthy that a half of<br />
the children aged 7–14 were able to take care of themselves during an illness.<br />
Working time flexibility<br />
Working time flexibility has several dimensions. Time flexibility includes opportunities to regulate<br />
working hours a week, shorten a working day or take days off if required and working part-time.<br />
Time flexibility can serve the interests of both employees and employers. With both parties, the<br />
attitudes related to time flexibility may differ depending on the occupation, field of activity and<br />
personal preferences. The interest of employers in flexible organisation of work may, for example,<br />
arise from the seasonality of the work or periods when the workload is excessive and the<br />
employer requires the employees to make extra hours (Tijdens 2003).<br />
Wolff (2000) has stated that employees would rather prefer standard employment contracts with<br />
fixed working hours. This helps better plan the time spent with their family. At the same time,<br />
working time flexibility is expected in cases of unexpected events, incl. family-related events,<br />
such as illnesses, etc. (Wolff 2000). Consequently, working time flexibility is largely related to<br />
compromises made by both employees and employers.<br />
Working part-time<br />
Working part-time is one of the most analysed indicators of time flexibility (Wallace 2003).<br />
Part-time employees are defined as the employed who work less than 35 hours per week.<br />
Exceptions include occupations where the law prescribes short-time working.<br />
According to Krillo (2007), working part-time helps companies flexibly adapt to economic cycles:<br />
in the conditions of economic growth, increasing of the number of employees who work part-time<br />
enables to avoid (or mitigate) problems arising from labour shortage; in the conditions of<br />
economic recession, it is possible to reduce working hours for all (or some of the) employees and<br />
thus implement part-time work to save labour costs while retaining employees who know the<br />
specifics of the company. On the other hand, part-time work enables flexible reconciliation of<br />
work and family life for those individuals who do not want to or cannot participate in the labour<br />
78<br />
<strong>MEHE</strong> <strong>KODU</strong> <strong>ON</strong> <strong>MAAILM</strong>, <strong>NAISE</strong> <strong>MAAILM</strong> <strong>ON</strong> <strong>KODU</strong>? MAN'S HOME IS THE WORLD, WOMAN'S WORLD IS HER HOME?