Despite the pressure on work-family polices arising from the increase in nonstandard working times in various sectors, only a few studies have addressed managerial practices in relation to nonstandard working hours. This paper investigates the challenges managers face in meeting the various tensions stemming from nonstandard working hours. We were especially interested in possible challenges relating to work shift planning and informal work-family practices. We focus on two typical 24/7 work contexts: hospitality and retail industries and day and night childcare. The data comprise focus group interviews with managers (N=20) working in hotels, stores and service stations with restaurants and shopping facilities and survey data on directors (N=34) of day- and night-care centers. While in both contexts work takes place around the clock, day and night care center management is further complicated by the fact that the clients (parents, children) also have nonstandard work and care schedules. The results show that managers in both sectors are faced with unpredictability in employee working times and variation in service demand. However, whereas in the hospitality and retail industries the tension is between the cost-effectiveness of services and employee wellbeing, the day and night care center director has to take into account the viewpoints of not only the service provider and employees, but also parents and children. Successful management thus requires understanding of multiple perspectives and family diversity as well as the ability to cope with constant change.

Gender inequality in many societies is driven by the unequal distribution of paid work between men and women, in particular after the birth of a child. The majority of research on women’s return to the labour market post childbearing, however, has exclusively examined the characteristics of the women themselves. We argue that labour market decisions are taken with regard to the situation of the couple, and the characteristics of the male partner also need to be taken into account. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel and employing discrete event-history analysis, we examine how quickly women return to the labour market and their subsequent hours of employment using two indicators of the male partner’s employment flexibility as central predictors. We find that after experiencing the transition to parenthood, a father’s employment situation influences a mother’s employment behaviour, specifically, that lower working hours and higher levels of flexibility in a father’s employment schedule facilitates a mother’s return to the labour market. We propose that more employment flexibility allows him to share childcare responsibilities, which give her the opportunity to be employed. This association, however, is found to be mediated by household income, reflecting the traditional gender division of paid work and family responsibilities in Germany.

Background: It is relatively common in Western Australia for men to commute long distances and work away from home for extended periods of time in the mining industry. These fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers are thought to be especially vulnerable to psychological disturbances and relationship problems that affect them and their partners. To date there is little research on the health and wellbeing of FIFO workers and their families. This study aimed to compare the psychological and social characteristics of pregnant women and their FIFO partners with pregnant women and their partners who were not FIFO workers.

Methods: Data from a pregnancy cohort study conducted in a single region of Western Australia were analysed (n = 394 families). Married couples completed questionnaires about quality of life, anxiety, depression, stress, couple adjustment, family functioning, job satisfaction, financial crisis, and problematic use of drugs or alcohol. Comparisons were made between three groups for both women and their partner: FIFO workers, non-FIFO regular schedule workers, and non-FIFO irregular schedule workers.

Results and Conclusions: While the differences in levels of mental health and relationship difficulties between FIFO couples and non-FIFO couples were not statistically significant, these differences show a trend of pregnant women whose partners were FIFO workers experiencing increased levels of stress and decreased satisfaction with family functioning compared to their non-FIFO counterparts. Although FIFO workers accepted the benefits of higher financial rewards, they were more likely to be dissatisfied with work schedule flexibility than non-FIFO workers were.

Family daycare, as to be understood as paid care for children within the care provider’s household, represents a specific interconnection between work and family, which hasn’t been closely focused on yet. In this setting the cared for children participate in the normal daily routine of the care provider’s family. Therefore the care provider is not only working at home, but the content of work is family life.

Compatibility of family and work has been widely debated in several sociological sub-disciplines. One central aspect is the increasing dissolution of traditional boundaries between these domains. Consequently, families are confronted with the challenge to actively draw up new borders themselves to create the family sphere.

In my presentation I focus on the group of family daycare providers. From a perspective of family sociology I will address the following questions: In which respect becomes managing boundaries between family and work important in the context of family daycare? How do family daycare providers cope with doing care as an activity of work and family at the same time?

In my dissertation project I explore these questions through semistructured transcribed interviews and by participant observation. The sample contains 10 interviews with family daycare providers and 10 with parents of the cared for children. At current stage of research 5 interviews with daycare providers have been realised. Following the analytical approach of objective hermeneutics, I use sequence analysis for interpretation. As preliminary results strategies of boundary management on spatial, temporal, emotional and social level could be identified.