Juggling Two Jobs (and a family): Working Time and Work-Life Balance

In recent decades, the working world has changed dramatically and the coordination of personal and professional life becomes more difficult. One of these changes is the substantially increase of atypical forms of employment in the labor market; one such form is holding more than one job. Multiple job holders must coordinate demands from two separate work roles and demands of personal life. Additionally, holding a second job in addition to a fulltime employment often results in long working hours - especially for those who hold a qualified or highly qualified job. Research has shown that long working hours negatively affect individuals’ work-life balance. In contrast, working time autonomy has shown to have positive effects on employees’ work-life balance. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the extent of working hours and work time control on the work-life balance of employees with and without a second job. Based on data from the BAuA-Working Time Survey a representative sample of 17 921 employees in Germany constituted this study’s sample. Participants were 50 % female, aged 16 to 65 years (Ø 46 years), and 47 % had higher education. Six percent of the participants held more than one job. As predicted, results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the extent of weekly working hours had a negative effect on work-life balance while work time control had a positive effect. Holding a second job had no direct effect on work-life balance. However, it moderated the effect of the extent of working hours on work-life balance: Multiple job holders with long working hours are less satisfied with their work-life-balance compared to employees with one job and long working hours. The results point to the challenge of balancing personal and professional life in the modern working world especially for multiple job holders.