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Little is known about how work schedules affect social connectedness beyond family relationships. The authors use detailed time diary data from 12,140 respondents in the 2008 through 2010 American Time Use Surveys to examine how work schedules affect six forms of community involvement. Results show that night and evening shift work reduces community involvement, but only on weekdays. Daytime shifts reduce community involvement when they are very short, when they involve working from 8 to 5 instead of from 7 to 4, and when they are on weekends. These results call into question tacit assumptions about how shift work affects workers' social lives.

This paper examines the effect on absenteeism of two forms of flexible work scheduling: a "true flextime" schedule in which workers could vary their hours on a daily basis, and "staggered fixed time" under which individual workers could vary their schedule on a quarterly basis. With the effect of demographic variables controlled, no reduction in absenteeism was found among the true flextime group. Rather, groups working under staggered fixed time showed lower rates of absenteeism.

The empirical research literature of the past 25 years which is thought to be intellectually useful for public managers is summarized for these three titled areas. The article concludes with a discussion of topics from theory and practice which seem propitious for further research.

The flexibility of work schedule affects the number of commute trips made per week and the number of hours spent at work, which can influence congestion and transportation emission levels. Understanding the linkages between the flexibility of work schedule and travel behavior will provide insights for policies targeted at transportation and parking demand management. This study uses the University of California (UC) Berkeley campus as a study site. UC Berkeley is one of the largest employers in the San Francisco Bay Area with over 11,000 employees, leading to a wide range of employment type, job characteristics, and varying levels of work schedule flexibility. A total of 86 one-on-one interviews were conducted with UC Berkeley employees. This study explores common factors that contribute to UC Berkeley employees' parking preferences and considers how academic discipline or employment type could affect work schedule, which in turn influences travel behavior. Driving is the most popular choice across employment type and job categories. However, not all employees who drive alone have the same parking location preferences. The flexibility of work schedule is one of the key factors that influences parking preferences at the workplace, especially when there are alternative parking locations.

Thirteen investigations were carried out as a part of an 8-year program of research on the performance effects of various work/rest schedules during confinement to a simulated aeorspace vehicle crew compartment. A total of 139 subjects were tested using a standard battery of performance tasks. The synthetic work approach used provided a reliable, face-valid, and sensitive technique for assessing complex operator performance. It was found that a man can work 12 hours per day on a 4-hours work/4-hours rest schedule for periods of at least 30 days. For shorter periods, a man can work 16 hours per day on a 4/2 schedule but at a significant cost to his reserves for meeting emergencies such as sleep loss. Circadian periodicities are found in psycho-physiological functions paralleled by similar periodicities in performance functions, the latter being subject to modification by special motivational instructions.

More than 27% of the U.S. workforce now reports having an ability to alter their daily starting and ending times of work. Yet, provision of flexibility in the timing of work is not keeping pace with demand. Moreover, there is much disparity in access to schedule flexibility by workers' demographic, work, and job characteristics. Probit estimation finds that the probability that a worker has such flexibility is reduced by being female, non-White, and less educated. The likelihood is increased by being self-employed, in college, married, part-time, in certain occupations and industries, and working 50 or more hours per week. Flexibility is reduced for those working a standard day shift or 40-hour workweek. Workers thus sacrifice either leisure time or income to gain better access to flexibility in the scheduling of work, or they endure the costs of job mobility. Public policy should focus on delivering more flexible schedules to the excluded 73%.