Stable Scheduling Study: Health Outcomes Report

Older Workers With Unpredictable Schedules: Implications for Well-Being and Job Retention

“…Consistent with younger ages in our sample and with prior research on adults of all ages ( Harknett & Schneider, 2020 ; Schneider & Harknett, 2019a ; Williams et al, 2019 ), unpredictable schedules were negatively associated with a broad range of outcomes in older workers. The updated Job Strain Model dictates that work is detrimental to health when it entails a combination of high work demands (e.g., long hours, pressure to be available at any time) with low job control (e.g., low schedule flexibility and predictability; Lovejoy et al, 2021 ).…”

“…While these policies do not target workers by age, our results indicate the potential of improved schedule regulations to benefit older workers. There is also a business case for such policies, as improvements in the consistency and predictability of workers’ hours have been shown to increase store sales and generate a high return on investment ( Williams et al, 2018 ). Accommodating employee scheduling is associated with significantly lower turnover, which translates to more productive and less error-prone employees ( Ben-Ishai, 2014 ; Choper et al, 2021 ).…”

“…These practices are enabled by algorithms and thus have become more common as part of a larger technological shift in the workplace ( Kellogg et al, 2020 ). Previous research has shown that financial and temporal aspects of unpredictable and unstable schedules are associated with job dissatisfaction, turnover, financial stress, poor sleep quality, and psychological distress ( Choper et al, 2021 ; Harknett & Schneider, 2020 ; Schneider & Harknett, 2019a ; Williams et al, 2019 ). An intervention to increase scheduling predictability at Gap Inc. resulted in significant improvements in sleep quality and reductions in stress for subgroups such as parents and second-job holders ( Williams et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Chronic disease, chronic pain, frailty, cognitive decline, and other aspects of worsening health associated with increasing age may make older workers sensitive to the effects of unpredictable schedules on physical and mental well-being. While much of the research on family outcomes related to precarious schedules has focused on those raising young children ( Dunifon et al, 2013 ; Morsy & Rothstein, 2015 ; Schneider & Harknett, 2022 ; Williams et al, 2019 ), older workers may also experience conflicts between work schedules and family obligations given rising rates of caregiving ( Abramson, 2015 ; Butrica & Karamcheva, 2018 ). There have been explicit calls to expand research on work–family conflicts into late life as the U.S. plans for a rapidly aging workforce ( Bianchi & Milkie, 2010 ).…”

How Do Employer Practices Affect Economic Mobility?

“…Both voluntary and mandated changes in employers' scheduling practices can be pursued. Reforming scheduling practices can reduce turnover, as demonstrated in group-randomized field experiments in Gap Inc. retail stores where an intervention promoted more stable schedules (Williams et al 2018;Kesavan, Lambert, Williams, and Pendem 2022) and in a white-collar organization where an initiative increased professionals' control over work schedules and location (Moen et al 2017;Kelly and Moen 2020). Public policies that require more stable schedules, advance notice of schedules, and/or commitments to minimum hours are common in many countries and are emerging in the United States (Berg, Bosch, and Charest 2014;Harknett, Schneider, and Irwin 2021); these working-time regulations may foster economic security and mobility.…”