Well-being and coping of graduate engineers and architects
In their initiative to the TEK Council in early 1999, the Young TEK Members Group expressed their concern over the young TEK-members’ overall well being at work and in other spheres of life. This survey report focuses on the well-being and coping of those TEK members who are under 40 years of age. What are the factors contributing to the well-being and coping of our young graduate engineer and architect membership? Can people successfully combine work, family life, and leisure? Can they find the time for everything that they experience as necessary?
This survey clearly indicates that TEK members under 40 years of age are satisfied with their living standard and living conditions. Respondents regard their incomes as sufficient, have control over their debts and mortgages, and are happy with their housing conditions and place of residence. In addition, their labour market position seems stable, with 85% of the respondents having full-time employment contracts valid until further notice. However, it must be taken into account that, for men, temporary employment is only a gateway to working life, whereas a portion of the female members face this as a permanent arrangement. While the temporarily employed men receive permanent employment after a few years of work, 15% of the women stay temporarily employed on a permanent basis.
People experience their work as significant, interesting and challenging. Regarding the criteria of meaningful work, people mention the nature of their job tasks, an independent position, and flexible working hours. Contrary to this, regular working hours are not regarded as significant. Regarding temporary employment in special tasks, the opportunity for specialisation is considered motivating. The higher a person’s position in the employment hierarchy, the more significant the role of related external factors. People see development at work and career advancement as two clearly different things: meaningful work does not mean equal advancement opportunities in the vertical direction for all people.
The rules of working life, or personal well being, are not experienced as problematic when entering working life. Instead, women, and those engaged in temporary employment, see their vague professional identity and insecure employment as impeding factors when entering working life. With the progress of their careers, temporarily employed people continue to regard their vague professional identity as a problem – men, still, more frequently than women. With the advancement of their careers, people experience increasing problems due to lack of time and personal insufficiency. Married people with children experience problems in combining work and family life:
• More than half (51%) of the married women with children would prefer part-time employment.
• Almost half (42%) of the married people with children consider that they have given up international employment because of their families or life-partners.
• More than a third (39%) of the female graduate engineers and architects say that they have postponed having children for the sake of their jobs.
• Almost a fifth (17%) of the married people with children say that they have given up potential promotions or complementary training because of their families or life-partners.
On the whole, the respondents make, on average, more work-related compromises than other salary earners undergoing otherwise identical stages of life. Only a marginal portion of them have given up their jobs or had part-time employment because of their families or life-partners. The respondents were satisfied with the amount of time spent on work. Leisure-time working hours indicate an extreme statistical correlation with people’s idea of ideal working hours: those who work during their leisure also say that their ideal working hours are longer. Top and middle management, in particular, work more overtime than the specialists.
In their use of time, people see work as the first priority, which was also corroborated by this survey: the more time people spend on work, the more often they experience insufficiency in other spheres of life. The feeling of insufficiency increases in direct proportion to the number of overtime hours spent. Regarding respondents who worked more than 6 hours overtime per week:
• Almost three out of five (56%) feel that they spend too little of their leisure time with their lifepartners.
• Almost half (45 %) frequently feel that they do not have enough time for their hobbies and interests.
• Almost half (45 %) feel that they spend too little of their leisure time with their families.
• Almost a third (30 %) frequently feel that they are too busy at work for further training or cultural activities.
• A tenth (10 %) frequently experience that their overtime work adversely effects the development of their children, or causes the children to be estranged from the breadwinner.
What is especially worrying is that the feeling of insufficiency tends to concentrate on people’s free-time hobbies and interests, self-development, and the time people spend with their families and life-partners. However, the respondents were strongly convinced that their life-partners also support their work. More than two out of three people living as couples feel that their lifepartners provide them with significant mental support. Nevertheless, people’s lives are not entirely free of conflicts since 42% assume that they work too much, in their life-partner’s opinion. Of those who work more than 11 hours overtime per week, almost 80% assume their life-partners experience this as excessive. Tolerance towards the life-partner’s work was found to be higher since only a quarter feel that their life-partners work too much.
More than two thirds of the respondents actively engage in physical exercise, at least once a week. However, more than half of the respondents consider that they do not keep themselves physically fit. With respondents’ increasing age and growing families, their activity in hobbies and interests decreases significantly. The frequency of visiting restaurants and entertainment occasions is considerably higher with single people, compared to people with families. People with fixedperiod employment contracts were found to be more active in self-development and study than the permanently employed, with extremely high statistical significance.
Summary of the book "Well-being and coping of graduate engineers and architects" by Jarna Savolainen. TEK 2000
