The Process of Structuring Time

Abstract

Previous studies of unemployment have suggested that when work disappears, knowing what to do with yourself becomes progressively more difficult, inactivity settling in after the initial reaction, bringing with it boredom, demoralisation and further inactivity. The studies suggested that it had become a major problem within the six‐month period that most of these men had been unemployed. One explanation given was that, particularly for blue collar workers, the problem derived from having too little experience of leisure, another that to have to rely exclusively one's own initiative for all structure and purposeful activity, as the unemployed do, might be just too demanding psychologically. The first would suggest that people could learn to use time themselves, the second that some kind of outside organisation is necessary. Hence, the question arose as to whether a sample of white collar managers and professional workers in 1980 coped with the problem differently or better.

Citation

(1981), "The Process of Structuring Time", Employee Relations, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 8-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054969