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Introduction: The possibility of balancing career and family is meanwhile a central concern for most physicians when choosing a job. The aim of this study was to identify current barriers and opportunities for physician education and career planning. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted as an online survey between 11/2021 and 02/2022 and targeted physicians at all career levels in Germany who were members of a clinical professional association. Alternative and consent questions were used to assess experiences/attitudes toward various aspects of life and career planning, as well as alternative work and parental leave models, depending on gender, specialty, and hierarchical level. Results: The majority of the 2060 participants were female (69%) and had children (66%). Many childless residents reported that they felt they had to choose between children and a career. The majority of female residents, specialists and attending physicians (Ø 55.5%) stated that they had experienced career losses as a result of taking parental leave, while most men did not share this experience (Ø 53.7%). 92% of all participants agreed with the statement that men and women have different career opportunities. Job-sharing models were considered feasible at all levels of the hierarchy by an average of 55.6% of all medical executives. Conclusion: Parenthood and the use of parental leave and part-time work appear to have a significant impact on the career paths of those surveyed. Although the majority of directors of medical training programs are open to job-sharing models, further measures are needed in order to equalize career opportunities for men and women.

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BACKGROUND: Absenteeism is consistently higher in public than in private organizations, as is the use of part-time employment. The aim of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship between part-time work and sickness absence at the organizational level. METHODS: The data is a six-year panel for the full population of Norwegian municipalities (N = 422), linking objective register data on both part-time employment and sickness absence. Using OLS regression with fixed effects for municipality and time, we estimate the statistical effects of the municipalities' use of part-time work on sickness absence. RESULTS: The bivariate correlation between percentage position at the municipal level and percentage sickness absence is positive and significant (Pearson's r = .25, sig LE 0.01). When controlling for fixed effects for municipality and time, as well as municipality economy, municipality size, ratio of female employees in the municipality and characteristics of the general population, the multivariate regression coefficient is still positive but insignificant (coefficient = 1.56, robust standard error = 1.31). CONCLUSIONS: The main findings are that the organizations' use of part-time work is unrelated to sickness absence indicating that organizations with extensive use of part-time work do not experience higher levels of absenteeism than those having less extensive use of part-time employees.

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In 2022, every second employed woman in Austria worked part-time, while only 12.6 percent of men did so. In more affluent countries, part-time work has evolved from a special form of employment to a gendered norm in the past six decades, whereas in state-socialist and post-state-socialist Europe, this model of women's employment played a much less pronounced role historically. Albeit contested, part-time work has been a concern of women trade unionists since the 1950s. This article examines the emergence and evolution of an important trend in the history of women's work from a multi-level perspective. It explores how women activists in the ICFTU, the ILO and in Austria dealt with part-time work as a method of harmonizing women's unpaid and paid work. Collaboration with the ILO played an important role in Austrian developments, and Austrian activists aimed to impact on international decision-making. Furthermore, the article shows the rather hidden role women civil servants played in generating knowledge on the topic. This analysis of the evolution of the gendered norm of part-time work and its contestation contributes to recent research on shifts in reproductive arrangements and gender relations in the second half of the twentieth century.

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PURPOSE: Female urologists are distinctly underrepresented in leading positions. The reasons behind this inequity remain unclear, with some suggesting factors such as family responsibilities, part-time work and insufficient mentorship. This study aimed to explore and characterize the working conditions of female urologists in Germany, with a focus on factors influencing the working time model. METHODS: A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 1343 female members of the German Society of Urology between February and March 2022. The survey consisted of 43 questions covering the categories demographics, occupation situation, satisfaction at work, family situation, career aspects and research activity. RESULTS: Of the 487 female German urologists who participated in the survey, 167 (34.3%) worked part-time. Doctors in training were significantly less likely to work part-time than colleagues who had completed their specialist training (p < 0.001). Only 10% of female doctors in training reported working part-time. Similarly, having children (p < 0.001) and engaging in scientific activities (p = 0.03) were independent factors influencing part-time work, with children increasing the likelihood of working part-time as expected, while scientifically active female urologists were more likely to work full-time. CONCLUSION: This study provides the largest survey on the situation of female urologists in German-speaking countries to date. Part-time work during specialist training is rare, while more than 50% of female urologists with children work part-time. With the projected decline in the number of practicing physicians and the increasing demand for medical attention, it is crucial to find ways to retain and support healthcare professionals, particularly female urologists.

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About two-thirds of Canadian COVID-19 related deaths occurred in long-term care homes (LTCHs). Multiple jobholding and excessive part-time work among staff have been discussed as vectors of transmission. Using an administrative census of registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) in the Canadian province of Ontario, this paper contrasts the prevalence of multiple jobholding, part-time/casual work, and other job and worker characteristics across health sectors in 2019 and 2020 to establish whether the LTCH sector deviates from the norms in Ontario healthcare. Prior to COVID-19, about 19% of RNs and 21% of RPNs in LTCHs held multiple jobs. For RPNs, this was almost identical to the RPN provincial average, while for RNs this was 2.5 percentage points above the RN provincial average. In 2020, multiple jobholding fell significantly in LTCHs after the province passed a single site order to reduce COVD-19 transmission. Although there are many similarities across sectors, nurses, especially RNs, in LTCHs differ on some dimensions. They are more likely to be internationally educated and, together with nurses in hospitals, those who work part- time/casual are more likely to prefer full-time hours (involuntary part-time/casual). Overall, while multiple jobholding and part-time work among nurses are problematic for infection prevention and control, these employment practices in LTCHs did not substantially deviate from the norms in the rest of healthcare in Ontario.

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Job burnout affects countless workers and constitutes a major issue in working life. Prevention strategies such as offering part-time options and shorter working weeks have been widely advocated to address this issue. However, the relationship between shorter work regimes and burnout risk has not yet been investigated across diverse working populations applying validated measures and frameworks for job burnout. Building on the most recent operationalisation of job burnout and the seminal job demands-resources theory, the purpose of the current study is to investigate whether shorter work regimes are associated with lower burnout risk and whether the job demands-resources explain this association. To this end, a heterogenous sample of 1006 employees representative for age and gender completed the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) and Workplace Stressors Assessment Questionnaire (WSAQ). Our mediation analyses yield a very small but significant indirect association between work regimes and burnout risk through job demands, but no significant total or direct association between work regimes and burnout risk. Our result suggests that employees in shorter work regimes experience slightly fewer job demands, but are equally prone to developing burnout as their full-time counterparts. The latter finding raises concerns about the sustainability of burnout prevention that focuses on mere work regimes instead of the root causes of burnout.

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PURPOSE: This study aimed to find out more about factors that hinder physicians' careers, especially with regard to gender differences, and which future working conditions they would prefer. METHODS: In an online survey, members of the professional societies of Hematology and Oncology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were asked to rate factors that might hinder or facilitate their professional career. Data analysis included χ2-tests, t tests and analyses of variance. RESULTS: 469 physicians participated (61% female, response rate 9.1%). 40% of the participants experience a lack of compatibility between family life and career. Female physicians with children living in their household especially feel restricted in their professional development. The most preferred conditions for improving compatibility were flexible working hours (72%), opportunities to work in home office (71%), better opportunities for specialist training (51%) and enabling managerial activities on a part-time basis (73%). Both female and male physicians would like fathers to be encouraged to take parental leave to the same extent as mothers (50%). They would, e.g., like to see more flexible drop-off and pickup times for children (71%) and more childcare options offered by their employer (61%). CONCLUSION: Results suggest various options for promoting compatibility of family life and work, e.g., by family-friendly working time models and part-time offers breaking with traditional role models. Managerial positions might be offered on a regular part-time basis. Structured qualification programs could enable the compatibility of clinical work, research and family life. Childcare services should preferably be provided in line with existing needs.

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Part-time work is a common work arrangement in the United States that can be precarious, insecure, and lacking opportunities for advancement. In turn, part-time work, especially involuntary part-time work, tends to be associated with worse health outcomes. Although prior research documents heterogeneity in the health consequences of precarious work across countries, we do not know whether state-level institutional contexts shape the association between part-time work and self-rated health in the United States. Using data from the Current Population Survey (2009-2019; n = 813,077), the present study examined whether linkages between part-time work and self-rated health are moderated by state-level social policies and contexts. At the population level, we document differences in the prevalence of fair/poor health among part-time workers across states. For instance, 21% of involuntary part-time workers reported fair/poor health in West Virginia compared to 7% of involuntary part-time workers in Massachusetts. Findings also provide evidence that voluntary (ß =.51) and involuntary (ß=.57) part-time work is associated with greater odds of fair/poor health among individuals. Moreover, the association between voluntary part-time work and self-rated health is weaker for individuals living in states with higher amounts for maximum unemployment insurance, higher minimum wage, and lower income inequality. State-level policies did not moderate the association between involuntary part-time work and health. The present study points to the need to mitigate the health consequences of part-time work with social policies that enhance the health of workers.

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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the factors associated with mortality by suicide among working women focusing on work-related factors. METHODS: The study population consisted in all Swiss residents recorded in the 1990 and/or the 2000 compulsory national censuses and were linked to emigration and mortality registers. We selected all women aged 18-65 and at work at the official census dates. Following work-related variables were available: socio-economic status, weekly hours of work, the sector of activity and the job title coded according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). The risk of suicide was modelled using negative binomial regression. RESULTS: The cohort comprised 1,771,940 women and 2526 deaths by suicide corresponding to 24.9 million person-years. The most significant non-occupational predictors of suicide were age, period, civil status, religion, nationality and geographical regions. Adjusted on these factors, part-time work was associated with increased suicide rates. According to job codes, health and social activities, in particular care-worker had the highest suicide risks. CONCLUSION: Suicide among working women depended on work-related factors even taking into account other socio-demographic factors.

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This study aimed to confirm the relationships between part-time work experience, mental health, and suicidal behavior in adolescents. The impact of part-time work in this population is a controversial topic, perhaps because of the sociocultural background-related inconsistencies in previous results. In this cross-sectional study, which involved a secondary analysis of data from the 11th-13th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Surveys, conducted among 800 middle and high schools by the Korean government, we used propensity score matching analysis to minimize the impact of individual backgrounds on the findings concerning the relationships in question. Overall, part-time experience was significantly related to mental health problems and suicidal behavior even after eliminating background differences. Adolescents with part-time work experience had higher overall stress levels (odds ratio = 1.148; 95% confidence interval = 1.094, 1.205) than those without such experience, and more suicidal thoughts (odds ratio = 1.355; 95% confidence interval = 1.266, 1.450), suicide planning (odds ratio = 1.717; 95% confidence interval = 1.527, 1.929), and suicide attempts (odds ratio = 1.852; 95% confidence interval = 1.595, 2.151). Thus, it is important to pay increased attention to mental health and suicide-related issues in South Korean adolescents with part-time jobs.

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We propose an institutionalization of part-time work model to account for the cross-national variation in workers' perceptions of insecurity in their jobs and in the labor market, arguing that part-time work is institutionalized as high quality or marginal employment depending on the extent to which it is voluntary, gendered, and legally protected. Using heterogeneous choice models on 2005 ISSP data linked to country-level characteristics, we find that the relationship between part-time work and insecurity is gendered and contingent upon the type of insecurity (cognitive job insecurity, labor market insecurity, or affective job insecurity) and whether or not one works part-time on a voluntary basis. At the individual level, working in a part-time job is associated with greater cognitive job insecurity but lower labor market and affective job insecurity. At the national level, the expected negative association between the part-time work rate and insecurity is most consistent for affective job insecurity. The findings also indicate that the strength of the association between working in a part-time job and insecurity varies by the national institutional context of part-time work, including the degree of gender segregation of part-time work and legal protections for part-time workers. Overall, the results from this study provide support for our institutionalization of part-time work perspective. Part-time work is not inherently secure or insecure employment. The amount of insecurity associated with this type of non-standard work is contingent upon the prevailing local myths or scripts that structure the ways that the state, employers, and workers view part-time work.

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PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate recent trends in work-style reform and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) among board-certified diagnostic radiologists in Japan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted online questionnaire surveys of board-certified radiologists of the Japan Radiological Society (JRS) and registered training institutions. Completed surveys were obtained from 1192 radiologists and 275 training institutions (response rates of 25.5% and 38.1%, respectively). Respondents were assured of confidentiality. RESULTS: 13.5% (134/991) of full-time radiologists and 56.7% (89/157) of part-time radiologists had shifted some of their work to teleradiology at home. In addition, 52.9% (83/157) of part-time radiologists and 27.3% (12/44) of board-certified individuals who had stopped working as radiologists responded that they would consider starting full-time work in hospitals, if teleradiology at home was permitted as part of full-time work. Furthermore, 16.7% of training institutions (46/275) had introduced teleradiology systems for radiologists, and 47.2% (108/229) of the remaining training institutions wanted to introduce teleradiology systems in the future. CONCLUSION: Teleradiology using ICT is already a part of Japanese radiologists' workload. Work-style reform may progress with the use of ICT, such as part-time radiologists, and board-certified individuals who stop working as radiologists, becoming full-time radiologists.

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OBJECTIVES: Fractional (part-time) appointments are becoming more commonplace in many professions, including medicine. With respect to the contemporary oncological landscape, this highlights a critical moment in the optimisation of employment conditions to enable high-quality service provision given growing patient numbers and treatment volume intensification. Data are drawn from a broader study which aimed to better understand the workforce experiences of medical oncologists in Australia. This paper specifically aims to examine a group of clinicians' views on the consequences of fractional work in oncology. DESIGN: Qualitative, one-on-one semistructured interviews. Interview transcripts were digitally audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were subject to thematic analysis supported by the framework approach and informed by sociological methods and theory. SETTING: New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Medical oncologists (n=22), including 9 female and 13 male participants, at a range of career stages. RESULTS: Four key themes were derived from the analysis: (1) increasing fractional employment relative to opportunities for full-time positions and uncertainty about future opportunities; (2) tightening in role diversity, including reducing time available for research, mentoring, professional development and administration; (3) emerging flexibility of medical oncology as a specialty and (4) impact of fractional-as-norm on workforce sustainability and quality of care. CONCLUSION: Fractional appointments are viewed as increasing in oncology and the broader consequences of this major shift in medical labour remain unexamined. Such appointments offer potential for flexible work to better suit the needs of contemporary oncologists; however, fractional work also presents challenges for personal and professional identity and vocational engagement. Fractional appointments are viewed as having a range of consequences related to job satisfaction, burnout and service delivery. Further research is needed to provide a critical examination of the multiple impacts of workforce trends within and beyond oncology.

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In response to the rising number of individuals who have to combine work and home responsibilities, organizations increasingly offer work-home practices. These are HR-practices such as telework and part-time work that can help employees to combine work and home roles. However, extant research on the relationship between work-home practice use and both work-to-home conflict (i.e., work interfering with private life) and home-to-work conflict (i.e., private life interfering with work) shows inconsistent results. In this study, we posit that employees' work-home conflict does not so much depend on whether or not they use a specific work-home practice, but rather on (1) the degree to which their (non-)use of this practice is in line with their preference (i.e., volition) and (2) the pressure they experience from the work and/or the home environment to act in another way than they prefer (i.e., perceived work pressure and perceived home pressure). Hypotheses are tested for two specific work-home practices (i.e., home-based telework and part-time work) in both a field study and an experimental between-subject vignette study. Results show that work-home conflict is affected by volition, perceived work pressure and perceived home pressure; yet, some differences were found between the two types of work-home conflict (i.e., work-to-home and home-to-work conflict) and between the two types of work-home practices. Our results nuance the dichotomy between users and non-users of work-home practices that has been dominantly used in the work-home practice literature to date and point to similar predictors of work-home conflict among both the group of users and the group of non-users. These findings may encourage researchers to examine characteristics of employees' work-home practice use (e.g., volition, perceived pressure) in addition to the mere use of these practices when studying their effectiveness.

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This study investigates how flexibility in working hours affects retirement timing. It tests the assumption that decreasing weekly working hours delays retirement and extends working life. Using data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we analyze whether a shift from full-time to part-time work delays retirement. Results show that older workers who reduce their working hours retire earlier than those who stay in full-time employment. The effect is stronger in Central and Eastern Europe than in Scandinavian countries. No interaction effects for gender and work strain are found. We conclude that part-time work at the end of the career, as a means to extend working life, should be reevaluated.

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This study examined factors associated with being paid for sick leave after implementation of the New York City (NYC) paid sick leave law. A random sample of NYC residents was surveyed by telephone multiple times over a 2-year period. Participants (n = 1195) reported socio-demographics, awareness of the law, income, work hours per week, and payment for sick time off work. In the year after implementation of the law, part-time workers were significantly more likely to attend work while sick than full-time workers (relative risk = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.1, 1.4). Seventy percent of workers who missed work due to illness (n = 249) were paid for sick leave. Part-time workers, respondents not aware of the benefit (30% of workers), and workers without a college degree were the least likely to be paid for sick days. More than one third (37%) of persons not paid for sick leave worked in retail, food service, or health care. Although 70% of respondents were paid for sick leave after implementation of the law, part-time workers and workers with low education were least likely to access the benefit and more likely to work while sick. The disparity in paid sick leave may have public health consequences as many persons not paid for sick leave had occupations that carry a high risk of disease transmission to others.

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BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is essential for physicians' well-being and patient care. The work ethic of long days and hard work that has been advocated for decades is acknowledged as a threat for physicians' job satisfaction, well-being, and patient safety. Our aim was to determine the actual and preferred job size of physicians and to investigate how these and the differences between them influence physicians' job satisfaction. METHOD: Data were retrieved from a larger, longitudinal study among physicians starting medical training at Groningen University in 1982/83/92/93 (N = 597). Data from 506 participants (85%) were available for this study. We used regression analysis to investigate the influence of job size on physicians' job satisfaction (13 aspects) and ANOVA to examine differences in job satisfaction between physicians wishing to retain, reduce or increase job size. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents (57%) had an actual job size less than 1.0 FTE. More than 80% of all respondents preferred not to work full-time in the future. Respondents' average actual and preferred job sizes were .85 FTE and .81 FTE, respectively. On average, respondents who wished to work less (35% of respondents) preferred a job size reduction of 0.18 FTE and those who wished to work more (12%) preferred an increase in job size of 0.16 FTE. Job size influenced satisfaction with balance work-private hours most (ß = -.351). Physicians who preferred larger job sizes were - compared to the other groups of physicians - least satisfied with professional accomplishments. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable group of physicians reported a gap between actual and preferred job size. Realizing physicians' preferences as to job size will hardly affect total workforce, but may greatly benefit individual physicians as well as their patients and society. Therefore, it seems time for a shift in work ethic.

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Following healthcare reforms in Turkey, inpatient and outpatient care provided in public hospitals more than doubled from 2003 to 2006. An important component of the reforms has been a shift from a salary based physician compensation scheme to one where fee-for-service component is dominant. The change did not only incentivize physicians to provide a higher volume of services but also encouraged them to practice full-time, rather than dual-time, in public hospitals. Lacking figures on full-time equivalent figures at hospital level, earlier research used head-counts for physician workforce and found technological change and scale economies to be important determinants. We employ data envelopment analysis and find that, under plausible scenarios regarding the number of dual vs full-time physician numbers, most of the change in hospital services may be explained only by the shift to full-time practice. Our estimations find the change in technology and scale economies to play a relatively minor role.

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This study examined the longitudinal relationships between functional health in later years and three types of productive activities: volunteering, full-time, and part-time work. Using the data from five waves (2000-2008) of the Health and Retirement Study, we applied multivariate latent growth curve modeling to examine the longitudinal relationships among individuals 50 or over. Functional health was measured by limitations in activities of daily living. Individuals who volunteered, worked either full time or part time exhibited a slower decline in functional health than nonparticipants. Significant associations were also found between initial functional health and longitudinal changes in productive activity participation. This study provides additional support for the benefits of productive activities later in life; engagement in volunteering and employment are indeed associated with better functional health in middle and old age.

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: With the introduction of a new occupational classification at the end of 2011, employment characteristics are reported by employees to social insurance agencies in Germany in more detail than in previous years. In addition to other changes, the new classification allows a distinction between full- and part-time work to be made. This provided a reason to consider the health-related aspects of part-time work on the basis of data from a statutory health insurance scheme. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our analysis is based on the data of 3.8 million employees insured with the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), a statutory health insurance scheme, in 2012. In addition to daily information on employment situations, details of periods and diagnoses of sick leave and the drugs prescribed were available. RESULTS: Although approximately 50 % of women of middle to higher working age worked part-time in 2012, the corresponding percentage of men employed in part-time work was less than 10 %. Overall, part-time employees were on sick leave for fewer days than full-time employees, but among men, sick leave due to mental disorders was longer for part-time employees than for full-time employees, whereas women working part time were affected to a lesser extent by corresponding periods of absence than those working full time. DISCUSSION: The results provide indications for the assertion that men in gender-specifically atypical employment situations are more frequently affected by mental disorders. Further evidence supports this assertion. With the long-term availability of these new employment characteristics, longitudinal analyses could help to clarify this cause-effect relationship.

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