The double myth of flexibilization - Trends in scattered work hours, and differences in time-sovereignty

Advocates of the flexibilization of working time argue that many people are already accustomed to working evenings, nights and weekends, and that flexibilization will improve people's control over time. In this article, these two assertions are put to trial. For this, the author relies on time-budget data that were gathered in The Netherlands between 1975 and 1995. The analyses indicate that even in 1995 most work is still being performed 'from 9 to 5'. As regards time-sovereignty, it appears that control over working time is related more to levels of education than to working atypical hours.