In American workplaces, there is a prevailing conception that ideal workers put work before other commitments, working long hours and making themselves available for work 24/7. This traditional way of defining ideal workers has shown to lead to negative consequences for employee’s health and family life. Can this change? Can flexible work policies (e.g., time-off, flextime, telecommuting) be an answer? The study I will present examines whether and under what organizational conditions flexible work policies can help to redefine the “ideal worker” norm.

Youngjoo Cha is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University-Bloomington and this year’s Karl W. Deutsch Visiting Professor at the WZB. Her research interests include gender, work, family, occupations and organizations.
Lena Hipp is head of the Research Group “Work and Care” at the WZB.