CIS - Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas

Time is an essential dimension of power relations. The ability to organize and decide over our time depends on the ability to force others' time to be subordinated to our own. Hence, time is the subject of constant conflict. These have worsened in recent decades due to the transformations experienced in two key areas of the social order. First, in the workplace. Labor deregulation, the resulting increase in corporate power over the salaried class, and the intensification of competition have led companies to reduce labor costs by eliminating work during periods of lower production intensity. This process has been accentuated by the growth of the service sector, where there is competition for customers by offering longer hours and faster customer service. Under these conditions, atypical workdays, precarious and part-time contracts, fragmented schedules, overtime, flexible working hours, and the requirement that employees subordinate their time to business needs have multiplied.

Second, in gender relations. Women are increasingly less likely to abandon wage labor when they marry and have children, dedicating themselves exclusively to reproductive work. But this work is poorly embraced by men, giving rise to the problems of the female "double shift" and the struggle to balance family and work life. The conjunction of both transformations accentuates the tension between the temporalities of work and those of other social activities, multiplying conflicts in the work and family spheres over time.