The Perceived Value of Time

Abstract

A burgeoning shiftworking population is placing increased demands on employee's time. This study aimed to determine if shiftworkers and non-shiftworkers valued time differently. Participants were matched on age, gender, parenting and marital status. For each of four time matrices (work, social, leisure and family time), participants were required to value each hour across the days of the week on a scale from 0 to 10. Data were averaged across groups to produce mean and standard deviation matrices. The results suggest that employees need an incentive to work when personal preferences indicate otherwise. Money to date has been a way of achieving satisfaction; however, alternatives for employees may be to work at self-selected times or to increase their involvement in roster determination.