Time and work: work intensity (report)

Work intensity is on the increase in Europe. From 1995 to 2000, employees experienced an intensification of their jobs. This report, based on analysis of the results of the Third European Survey on Working Conditions carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, quantifies and describes the impact of this trend on the workers exposed to it. The pace of work is subject to different constraints which can be grouped into two categories. Industrial constraints are related to a desire to standardise productive activity: production targets, speeds of automatic machine, automatic moving of products. Market constraints on the other hand arise from a concern to adapt to customer demand in the broadest sense. An increase in the pace of work can result in a deterioration of working conditions if it is not compensated by an increase in workers’ autonomy.