Work and Well-being

This thesis presents the findings from three research projects exploring the relationship between work and well-being. Firstly, I contribute to the literature on the effects of the timing of work by analysing the extent to which weekend working impacts upon different measures of subjective well-being. Using two UK datasets (the Labour Force Survey and Understanding Society), I find that weekend working has a negative impact on happiness, psychological well-being and satisfaction with leisure time. Secondly, I explore the effects of occupation and job type on workers’ well-being, making a specific distinction between eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being. This analysis, based on the American Time Use Survey and the UK Annual Population Survey, shows that job type is a strong predictor of eudaimonic well-being with jobs that combine professional autonomy and social impact appearing to be most associated with subjective feelings of meaningfulness or purpose. Finally, I use the harmonised British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society data to investigate the extent to which well-being is affected by the unemployment of one’s partner, and how these spill-over effects vary between men and women. I find strong evidence of cross-partner effects of both male and female unemployment, but these impacts depend on the gender of the partner, how unemployment is defined and how well-being is measured.