Pretesting of special module on ICT at work, working conditions & learning digital skills (English Version)

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The pretesting study assessed the last item of this item battery in more detail (“The amount of irregular working hours (night, weekend, shift work)”). For this item, most of the respondents indicated that the usage of computers, laptops, smartphones, or other computerised equipment at work brought no relevant change with regard to the irregularity of working hours (British respondents: 72.22 percent, German respondents: 81.63 percent). Only 11.11 percent of the British respondents and 12.24 percent of the German respondent answered that the amount of irregular working hours increased and 16.67 of the British respondents and 6.12 of the German respondents reported that the number of irregular hours decreased.

All respondents that chose the answer category “Increase” or “Decrease” at item 10i) received a category selection probe that encouraged respondents to explain their answer a little further and to provide reasons for their answer selection. Depending on the previous answer selection the introductory sentence of the probe was adapted to the answer selection for item 10i) (e.g., respondents that chose “decrease” at item 10i) received the introductory sentence: “You answered that the usage of computers etc. decreased the amount if irregular working hours.”). Given the filter condition in this questionnaire and the respondents’ answer selection at item 10i), only a small subset of all respondents received this probe (15 British respondents and 9 German respondents).

In total, 12 respondents (6 British respondents and 6 German respondents) chose the answer value “increase” for question 10i) and, thus, the probe inquired for the reason for an increase of irregular working hours. All German respondents and one British respondent pointed to an increase of their workload. For example respondent 91 explained that there was a “greater workload as a result of more tasks” and respondent 340 clarified that “there have been a lot of projects recently that required more overtime than usual and, due to worse staffing, fewer employees had to cope with the tasks which arose.” Half of the British respondents remarked that the amount of irregular working hours increased because the usage of computers led to more flexibility of the working hours and constant accessibility, e.g., through the possibility “to work from home in the evenings and weekends” (British respondent, ID 162). One British respondent (ID 108) also pointed to the pressure to work efficiently: “If we don't use computer properly then the working hours will increase.”

Besides respondents who provided reasons for an increase of irregular working hours, some respondents (9 British respondents, 3 German respondents) selected the answer option “Decrease” at item 10i). As a consequence, these respondents were asked for the reasons for a decrease of irregular working hours due to the usage of computers and similar devices. Two British and three German respondents mentioned the aspects of an increased flexibility and independence due to an automatization of processes that helped to switch from irregular to regular working hours. Here are two examples that fall in this category:

• “With the ability to schedule things to happen automatically without you having to be woken to set them off mean that my working hours became more normal.” (British respondent, ID 377)
• “Because I know exactly when I begin and exactly when I stop and I don't have to do overtime, as I can estimate precisely when I will have completed what.” (German respondent, ID 328)

Two British respondents also remarked that the usage of computers led to an increased productivity. For example, respondent 368 explained that she “was more productive so [I] didn't have to spend longer than needed on work.” Further reasons that were mentioned (by one respondent each) were the change to tasks that are not computer related and a decreasing workload. One response was unusable and one British respondent provided a “Don’t know” response.

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