Future of work vs Mental health and Job quality

Digitalisation is making working time more ‘atomised’ and ‘punctuated’, alerts new study

New research – conducted by the ETUI for the EU27 and using the European Job Quality Index – sheds new light on the risks to workers’ health and wellbeing associated with the digitalisation of their workplaces. The analysis shows that the impact of computerised systems on work includes more unpredictable, hectic and intense work rhythms, as well as the encroachment of paid work beyond its boundaries, longer working hours and a poorer work-life balance. It also explores the differences in terms of job demands and resources between digitalised and non-digitalised work environments in similar jobs.

Digitalisation is one of the main drivers of change in today’s labour markets in developed societies, as digital technologies increasingly permeate jobs across the spectrum of sectors and occupations. There is a growing consensus about its transformative effects on the structure of employment. But what has been the impact of digitalisation on the quality of jobs and workers’ experiences at work? The digital revolution tends to be associated with various positive processes, such as the upgrading of workers’ skills or freeing them from mundane, dangerous or unpleasant tasks, yet this newly released research shows another face of the revolution.

‘The results reveal the disruptive impact of digitalisation on many elements of work organisation, most importantly on working time,’ explains Agnieszka Piasna, Senior Researcher at the ETUI and author of the study. ‘As computerised systems increasingly influence what people do at work, working time becomes more “atomised” and “punctuated”, which means it is more unpredictable, hectic and intense. This enables employers to reduce the number of paid hours worked and tightly link workloads to staffing levels, all of which drives down workers’ wages. Workers fall in line and ensure the reliability of labour supply by extending their availability. In other words, workers dedicate more time to work than they are being paid for.’

The findings challenge the view that digitalisation generally leads to greater worker autonomy and show that any increase in workers’ discretion is the result of compositional factors rather than the direct impact of technology on their work. It is particularly worrying that freelancers, considered to be a relatively vulnerable group in terms of having few protections and limited access to workers’ rights, and who are particularly exposed to working with new technologies, are actually suffering losses of autonomy as a consequence of digitalisation. This resonates with what is observed in the platform economy and online gig work.

The study also shows a complex relationship between the penetration of computerised systems in the workplace and workers’ resources and bargaining power. For example, digitalisation is associated with greater income security (measured as the predictability of earnings) and better career prospects but, at the same time, with less job security.

Background

This new ETUI study is based on cross-country comparative data for all EU27 Member States (from the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey, EWCTS) to identify and measure the impact of digitalisation on working time, work intensity and job demands and resources.

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