Daniel Anthonipillai (40175288) 11/19/21

SOCI-310: Critical Review for an Article

Thesis

The article written by Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett deals with work schedule and well-

being of the worker. The issue the authors bring about is that precarious work leads to routine

instability in one’s work schedule. “The rise in precarious employment […] is widespread, but it

most dramatically affects workers in low-wage occupations. (Harknett & Schneider, p. 2, 2019)

Both authors define precarity as the uncertainty in the amount of work hours and low wages.

This main article focuses on inequality, employment, health, time, labour, and survey methods.

Schneider and Harknett both give a brief explanation of this topic in the abstract. “But the rise in

precarious work also involves a major shift in its temporal dimension, such that many workers

now experience routine instability in their work schedule.” (Harknett & Schneider, p.1, 2019)

The conclusion of the article, however, has a much longer restatement of the thesis. “Althugh

workers in higher paid occupations have more resources to buffer against routine uncertainty in

work schedules, the connections we trace between the temporal dimensions of precarious work

[…] give some reason to expect health and well-being consequences of the scheduling risk shift

to spread beyond the private sector.” (Harknett & Schneider p.28, 2019)

Both authors do a good job displaying and rephrasing the thesis in order to fit well with the

paper. Readers get an idea of what the paper is about in the abstract, but a more accurate

description in the introduction. The purpose has been properly announced. Harknett and

Schneider talk more about the temporal dimension that is affected by the increase in precarious

work, but that is something to be discussed later on in the article.

Theory

This article resembles a lot with the division of labor. However, it doesn’t focus on Durkheim’s

version of divisional labor due to his version being more about the coexistence of others. This

labor division is more in tune with Marx’s version of it because it leads to alienation. Marx’s

alienation of labor is represented by the purpose of precarious work having consequences

towards their health. Agreeably it creates a large shift of time where workers suffer from

schedule instability. However, it gets worse where workers are at the lowest of income

distribution, their families’ well-being, and the employment precarity affects the social life of

workers. Marx’s concept is displayed when one gets subjected to precarious labor. The worker

becomes alienated from the labor which affects his/her work schedule. And then he/she becomes

alienated from themselves and later the family. “…precarious work could play an important role

in the stratification process, inhibiting both intra- and inter-generational mobility.” (Harknett &

Schneider, p.3, 2019)

Readers continue to see that Marx’s division of labor in the authors’ hypotheses. According to

Harknett and Schneider (2019), the first hypothesis states precarious uncertainty will affect sleep

and increase both psychological and emotional negativity. The second hypothesis states that just

like wages, work schedules are heavily connected to health and well-being. The third hypothesis

states that any psychological and emotional functions would work using economic and temporal

pathways affecting both household economic insecurity and work-life conflict.

It’s also interesting to note that Durkheim’s theory of anomie is represented in the article.

Anomie is known as loss of common norms. Precarious labor destroys the norm of eight-hour

jobs, it also reduces the minimum wage. Instead of labor increasing the well-being of families, it
diminishes it. Instead of satisfaction being put into one’s work, it’s replaced with psychological

distress.

Methods

The authors gave reference to an experimental study where workers would find a job that

provides a weekly advanced notice for change in work schedules in exchange for 20% of their

wages. Interviews are also used to explain precarious wages in which hourly workers mention

that they’d trade higher pay in positions with irregular schedules and vice versa.

Most of the article focuses a lot on surveys. For example, workers with a lower or sufficient

income and those who reported income volatility, stated that the reason for their economic

insecurities is because they have an irregular work schedule. Prior research has indicated that

consequences of income volatility include sleep deprivation and food.

According to Harknett and Schneider, they used Facebook as their sampling frame, using

advertisements to get respondents, because it was needed for their survey methodology and it

didn’t rely on random digit dialing. After looking at prior research of how 81% of American

Facebook users are active from ages 18 and 50. This sampling frame has been concluded to be

on exact same level as telephone-based methods. In this context, Facebook takes in detailed data

about its users by using self-reports, user activities, and third-party vendors.

In order to mitigate bias, Harknett and Schneider mention that statisticians developed various

post-stratification and calibration methods usually needed for analyzing data not related to

probability. Post-stratification assumes that the sample is drawn randomly. This method allows

statisticians to address unobservables, bias that could be found in unobserved sample

characteristics.
Evidence

Both Harknett and Schneider state that there’s limited data in regards to routine uncertainty and

their consequences to the work schedule. To address the precarious schedules there have been

workplace experiments that were conducted in order to question work-family conflict, the

everyday life, well-being, and health of workers. As a result of these experiments, there was

strong evidence that when control over work time increases, work-family conflict, stress and

psychological distress decrease. But in regards to white-collar workers and other workers in

general, if workers are given more control over their work time, then this would allow workers to

take advantage of it at home.

Knowing that work schedules influence work-life conflict, Schneider and Harknett view a

study of 21 women’s clothing stores in the Midwest. In this study, readers learn that workers that

were given little advanced notices along with last-minute changes in their schedule would

experience increased levels of work-life conflict. Not only that, but another study not revolving

around these twenty-one stores showed strong evidence that there is a connection between work-

life conflict and poor health and well-being. A study done in 2017 showed that work-life conflict

plays a large role in connection with work schedules and worse mental health amongst workers.

Although the evidence has done its part in conveying the purpose of the article, it fails in

reaching out to the federal government because it does little to address the issues of precarious

labor, low wages, and unexpected work schedules. Little evidence was provided that scheduling

issues impact the health and well-being of workers. The evidence did, however, spread towards a

few cities and states leading to somewhat improved job qualities. These would include laws that

regulate paid family leaves, sick leaves, and more focus on minimum wage.
Discussion

Since the 1970s, there has been an increase in precarious employment for workers in the U.S.

This usually applies to workers with little education and a low socio-economic status. The

precarity of labor leads to small wages, last-minute changes in work schedules which would then

have a negative impact on the health and well-being of workers. The authors rephrase that there

is strong evidence in regards to poor scheduling practices associated with sleep deprivation,

depression, along with other psychological and emotional distresses. Readers see through the

research that even though the economic aspects are important, it is also required not to overlook

the necessity of time considering how inadequate the scheduling practices are. Speaking of

scheduling practices, with the consideration that earnings depend on hourly wages, workers

exposed to poor scheduling practices suffer a great deal of imbalance between their work lives

and personal lives. Harknett and Schneider repeat the fact that through targeted advertising from

Facebook, survey recruitment is heavily possible.

To conclude, the writers acknowledge the necessity of the temporal dimension of future

research in regards to precarious labor, along with the economic dimension. Harknett and

Schneider succeed in getting the purpose about the effect of precarious employment on health

and the well-being of labourers. However, the purpose failed at garnering the attention of larger

audiences such as the federal government. It succeeded in reaching out states and cities such as

San Francisco and California. With more research around various careers that handle precarious

employment and improved policymaking that displays the larger dimensions of both time, health,

and economy, maybe the issue of precarious employment would grab the attention of the federal

government and other places in the U.S.