This presentation introduces a new tool for studying the content and the experience of jobs. It relies on random time sampling and the data is collected via smartphones. Following a randomly timed “notification” the respondent are “walked through” a short menu of questions about their activities for 60 minutes prior to the notification. They record their subjective feelings about them. There is insufficient detail about any individual to expose them to self-incrimination but the method does provide accurate aggregate information on the typical situation of employees in that occupation. This talk will present preliminary findings from two professions, revealing how many hours employees devoted to their jobs, what days of the week and what times a day they do their jobs, as well as the extent to which they feel under time pressure, have manageable job demands and how secure they feel in their jobs. Originally developed in response to a request from workers in the Humanities and Social Sciences in a sandstone university, this technique reveal surprising intensification of academic labour among contemporary Australian academics.

About Professor Bittman

Michael Bittman, is an Emeritus Professor at UNE working the discipline of Sociology. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and an internationally recognised expert on time use data. He has published on the sexual division of labour, intra-household bargaining, work-family balance, ICTs, children’s activities, and reliability and validity of time diaries.