Well-being, productivity and employment: Squaring the working time policy circle

Working time is both a key element of workers’ lives and a production factor. Understanding how working time policy relates to well-being and economic outcomes is thus crucial to design measures balancing welfare and efficiency concerns. Evidence so far has largely focused on the use of maximum hours’ regulation to prevent detrimental effects on workers’ health, and the effect of normal hours reductions on employment levels. This chapter brings two new perspectives: first, it accounts for the fact that workers’ well-being is an increasingly central societal objective of working time policies, and therefore considers well-being effects alongside productivity and employment effects. Second, it accounts for the use of flexible hours and the development of teleworking in the aftermath of the COVID‑19 crisis and considers their impact on well-being, productivity and employment. Building on these analyses, the chapter discusses the potential of various working time policies to enhance non-material aspects of workers’ well-being such as health, work-life balance and life satisfaction while preserving employment or productivity.