Table 2 Themes relating to time for life... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Themes relating to time for life

Theme	Illustrative quotation
Able to spend time with family and friends	“Your Friday afternoon, you get your whole Saturday, your Saturday night, and you get your Sunday. You can achieve so much in those days, too. I take the kids to the playground every Saturday. My daughter wakes up and, generally, first I ask, ‘What do you want for breakfast?’ She wants pancakes, yeah, we'll make pancakes, no dramas. I think that helps with trying to build core memories with the kids as well and having that time rather than … ‘Dad's at work”
Able to manage life activities/household chores	“It's good that I can get that [work around the house] out of the way [on Saturday] and have at least one day a week to myself with my wife and go for a drive down the coast, whatever you want to do. It's good psychologically”
Opportunity to rest and recover	“I love it, because when you work six days a week, on Sunday you don't turn off. You still think about, so we work in your mind on Sunday as well. So when you have two days, you just turn off Friday, when I leave work. I stop thinking about work. And then I want to enjoy my weekend, I can hang out with friends, go out for a coffee so I can turn off. You have a better life, a better quality of life”
Concern about going back to “normal” schedule	“I've worked on maybe four different jobs previously, and all of them have been five days. But for a couple of years there I was working 60-h weeks, just in five days. … I would never do six days again; I would just find a different job. My reflection is that it’s necessary for me, and that it’s a really positive thing, that you need to enjoy work, you need time, like enough time away”
Impact on earnings minimal and “worth it”	“[on previous jobs] we used to finish up at 5 o'clock and now we're finishing up at 6. You usually did 6 h on a Saturday, so really you're actually gaining 5 h Monday to Friday from the 6 h that you've lost for Saturday, so you're dropping an hour. If I left here at 5 o'clock every day I'll drop $225 per week because the majority of it is tax. So for me the 225 doesn't matter for the quality of life that I will have”
Flexible work options can be role- dependent	It's quite dependent on your role in the project and how much your workload really requests from you. So like some people do work from home a couple of days a week, some people come in late, some people go early, and I think some of the roles support that quite easily and they've all had great success with [working flexibly]. There are other roles that I think it doesn't work”
Positive impact on productivity	“Reduce that fatigue, so less stress. Just more time to recover from the week and more time to enjoy things outside of work would probably be the main ones … you'd be more refreshed and you probably perform better in your role if you had more time off and more time to yourself”
Positive impact on recruitment	“I just previously come off of another major project and where I was supervisor, and I was just worked into the ground. So, when it came to moving on … I basically had four options. And this one appealed to me the most because I would have time back for myself. Instead of working 70, 80, 90 h a week, they were saying it would be capped at 55 a week. I'd have my weekends, my rostered days off. Basically, a life again. So, that did entice me to this project”

Theme	Illustrative quotation
Able to spend time with family and friends	“Your Friday afternoon, you get your whole Saturday, your Saturday night, and you get your Sunday. You can achieve so much in those days, too. I take the kids to the playground every Saturday. My daughter wakes up and, generally, first I ask, ‘What do you want for breakfast?’ She wants pancakes, yeah, we'll make pancakes, no dramas. I think that helps with trying to build core memories with the kids as well and having that time rather than … ‘Dad's at work”
Able to manage life activities/household chores	“It's good that I can get that [work around the house] out of the way [on Saturday] and have at least one day a week to myself with my wife and go for a drive down the coast, whatever you want to do. It's good psychologically”
Opportunity to rest and recover	“I love it, because when you work six days a week, on Sunday you don't turn off. You still think about, so we work in your mind on Sunday as well. So when you have two days, you just turn off Friday, when I leave work. I stop thinking about work. And then I want to enjoy my weekend, I can hang out with friends, go out for a coffee so I can turn off. You have a better life, a better quality of life”
Concern about going back to “normal” schedule	“I've worked on maybe four different jobs previously, and all of them have been five days. But for a couple of years there I was working 60-h weeks, just in five days. … I would never do six days again; I would just find a different job. My reflection is that it’s necessary for me, and that it’s a really positive thing, that you need to enjoy work, you need time, like enough time away”
Impact on earnings minimal and “worth it”	“[on previous jobs] we used to finish up at 5 o'clock and now we're finishing up at 6. You usually did 6 h on a Saturday, so really you're actually gaining 5 h Monday to Friday from the 6 h that you've lost for Saturday, so you're dropping an hour. If I left here at 5 o'clock every day I'll drop $225 per week because the majority of it is tax. So for me the 225 doesn't matter for the quality of life that I will have”
Flexible work options can be role- dependent	It's quite dependent on your role in the project and how much your workload really requests from you. So like some people do work from home a couple of days a week, some people come in late, some people go early, and I think some of the roles support that quite easily and they've all had great success with [working flexibly]. There are other roles that I think it doesn't work”
Positive impact on productivity	“Reduce that fatigue, so less stress. Just more time to recover from the week and more time to enjoy things outside of work would probably be the main ones … you'd be more refreshed and you probably perform better in your role if you had more time off and more time to yourself”
Positive impact on recruitment	“I just previously come off of another major project and where I was supervisor, and I was just worked into the ground. So, when it came to moving on … I basically had four options. And this one appealed to me the most because I would have time back for myself. Instead of working 70, 80, 90 h a week, they were saying it would be capped at 55 a week. I'd have my weekends, my rostered days off. Basically, a life again. So, that did entice me to this project”