Wednesday, 5 October 2022

Can We Change the Overwork Culture? The Role of Workplaces in Challenging Conventional Definitions of ‘Ideal Workers’

WZB Distinguished Lecture in Social Sciences by Youngjoo Cha, Indiana University Bloomington - Attendance Event

Moderated by Lena Hipp

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 presented 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.

The lecture is part of the WZB Distinguished Lectures in Social Sciences.

Childcare
WZB provides childcare during the event. If you are interested, please e-mail friederike.theilen-kosch [at] wzb.eu by September 21, 2022 at the latest.

The current Corona pandemic rules at WZB can be found here.

The data protection notice on photo and film recordings can be found here.

Our event location is wheelchair-accessible. If you need support, please let Friederike Theilen-Kosch know (friederike.theilen-kosch [at] wzb.eu).