Arja Tyrkkö and Lena Karlqvist - Gender Differences in Time Pressure and Health Among Journalists

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Article

Gender differences intime pressure andhealth among journalists

Arja TyrkkoDepartment for Social and Psychological Studies, Karlstad

University, Karlstad, Sweden

Lena KarlqvistDepartment of Health Sciences, Lulea University of

Technology, Lulea, Sweden

Abstract

The aim was to examine how different aspects of time pressure are associated

with health and gender. The study is based on data collected by cross-sectional

questionnaire from 153 female and 167 male journalists at three editorial offices

in Sweden. Spearman correlation coefficients by gender were analysed between

six different time pressure variables and seven health measures. For women

three health indicators correlated significantly with time pressure expressed as

‘‘short of time for reflection’’. For men, health as expressed by four indicators

was primarily related to ‘‘lack of efficiency’’. Severe time pressure correlated

especially highly with stress but only to an almost negligible degree with neck

and shoulder symptoms. Our analysis showed that the relation between time

pressure and health differs between women and men and that time pressure can

be interpreted in several different ways.

Keywords

Deadlines, gender, health, journalist, stress, time pressure

Time & Society

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DOI: 10.1177/0961463X15587831

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Corresponding author:

Arja Tyrkko, Department for Social and Psychological Studies, Karlstad University, SE-65188

Karlstad, Sweden.

Email: [email protected]

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Introduction

Time pressure

Time pressure is linked to changes in working life, with longer work hoursand faster work pace. In empirical studies, individuals’ perceptions of timepressure are measured in different ways. Few scholars have examined dif-ferent aspects of time pressure (Boisard et al., 2005; Roxburgh, 2004;Szollos, 2009). Southerton and Tomlinson (2005) have argued that it isnecessary to move beyond one-dimensional interpretations of the ‘‘timesqueeze’’ when investigating ‘‘hurriedness’’. They identify three mechanismsto explain senses of feeling pressed for time. Time pressure can be expressedalternatively as (1) insufficient time available to complete all the tasksrequired for the worker; (2) demands by employers that overrun the timeframe traditionally allotted to work; and (3) job requirements that overlapin time, creating conflict.

The perception of time scarcity in working life, as well as in life generally,is widely held (Boisard et al., 2005; Fourth European Working ConditionsSurvey 2005; Robinson and Godbey, 1997; Roxburgh, 2004). People todayfeel pressured to meet increasingly intense demands at work, with constantreorganisations and demands for efficiency (Boisard et al., 2005;Harenstam and the MOA Research Group, 2005). A gradual increaseover the last decades in the percentage of persons who experience timepressure is reported in Sweden and in many other countries (Burchellet al., 2007; Lehto and Sutela, 1999). In the EU12 countries the perceivedintensity of work, as measured by speed of work and tight deadlines, hascontinued to increase for both men and women, although the rate ofincrease differs (Burchell et al., 2007). In the period 1991–2000, the inten-sity of women’s jobs increased faster than the intensity of men’s jobs.However, during 2000–2005, men have shown the greatest increase in theproportion of those working at fast pace more than 50% of the time. Thispattern of increasing work intensity for men during 2000–2005 is furtherunderlined in relation to how often they work to tight deadlines.

The Work Environment reports show that time pressure is one of themost frequently reported working environment risks for both men andwomen in Sweden (SCB and SWEA, 2001, 2006; SWEA, 2008). The per-centage of employed persons who say they have too much to do rose sharplyfrom 1991 to 1999 (from 48% to 60%) and subsequently declined in 2005 toa level of about 50%. While the burden for women has been rising againsince 2005, being 58% 2007, the proportion of men who agree that they havetoo much to do is unchanged (about 50% in 2007) (SWEA, 2008).

The general factors of increased and expanded tasks are the reasonsgiven for the increased pace of work. Some studies show little difference

2 Time & Society 0(0)




between women and men in general (Boisard et al., 2005). However, whenstudied from a gender perspective (Lehto, 1998; Lehto and Sutela, 1999; cf.Lilleaas and Widerberg, 2001; Widerberg, 2006), women and men describeddifferent reasons for their increased pace. Women highlighted the lack ofhuman resources, while men emphasized higher production goals andincreased competition.

Well-being

Work intensity has been increasing in most countries, but its effect on well-being varies. According to a report by the European Union it has a negativeeffect on self-reported health and on work–life compatibility. Paradoxically,it has a positive effect on satisfaction with working conditions (Burchellet al., 2007). Although the subjective experience of time pressure is a sig-nificant work-related stress factor, little research has focused on how dif-ferent forms of the experienced time pressure in working life are related todifferent aspects of health. According to some studies, time pressure hashigh explanatory power in relation to mental ill-health. Roxburgh’s (2004)results indicate that experience of time pressure is positively associated withdepression among both women and men. In addition, the subjective experi-ence of time pressure seems to be an important mechanism which mightexplain higher depression rates among employed women compared withemployed men. A Swedish population study shows that the lack of timepressure is one of the predicting factors for good long term health in work-ing life (Aronsson and Lindh, 2004; cf. Boisard et al., 2005). Time pressurewas measured by determining if workers were forced to cut down on lunch-time, to work over time or to take the job home. It seems that there was asignificant difference in the health advantage of sufficient resources andexperience of good quality for men and women. The women gained moreadvantages of these factors than men. These differences indicate that timepressure has gendered effect (Sirianni and Negrey, 2000).

According to Devereux et al. (2004) those reporting exposure to psycho-social work risk factors (i.e. extrinsic and intrinsic effort) had the greatestlikelihood of reporting high perceived job stress. Extrinsic effort concernsjob demands such as constant time pressure, interruptions and disturbancesat work, job responsibility, pressure to work overtime and increasingdemands on the job. Intrinsic effort refers to an individual coping patterncharacterised by being overwhelmed by time pressures, inability to relaxand switch off after work and sacrificing too much for the job. Bernardet al. (1994) studied 1050 newspaper reporters and found a positive relationbetween experienced work load as a consequence of work with deadline andpain in the neck–shoulder region.

Tyrkko and Karlqvist 3




Different models have been developed to explain work place stress. Thedemand, control, social support model (Karasek and Theorell, 1990) sug-gested that support may act as a buffer in high demand situations (Cooperet al., 2001). The stress-energy model used to measure mental strain and tostudy individual’s reactions of work situation from psychological or med-ical view point is another useful method (Kjellberg and Wadman, 2002)based on a two-dimensional model for mood (Sjoberg et al., 1979).

Knowledge production organisations

Much debate has been devoted to the question of time pressure in know-ledge production organisations and what features of the work environmentaffect knowledge workers. Some studies indicate very high level of timepressure and stress among journalists. Studies both from the UnitedStates (State of the News Media, 2005) and from Germany(Weischenberg et al., 2006) show that journalists rank time pressure highamong the list of negative aspects of the journalistic profession. A broadstudy carried out in Sweden analysed changes in journalism from 1989 to2005 (Asp, 2007; Djerf-Pierre, 2001).1 The proportion of those feelingstressed had not increased from 1989 despite extensive changes in themedia industry. However, when journalists were asked about changes asso-ciated with their job in the past 5–10 years, most reported that their workbecame more stressful.

Gender segregation

The gender segregation is fundamental for the understanding of the condi-tions which shape women’s and men’s opportunities in the work organiza-tion. A gender segregation, which is based upon the distribution of worktasks and positions between women and men in the organizations, contrib-utes to a social order which leads to different conditions for women andmen. When it comes to working hours, there are so strong gender specificpatterns on the Swedish labour market that researchers are talking about athird dimension of segregation – the gender segregated time (see SOU,1998). Burchell (1996), who has studied some gender balanced professionalgroups’ internal segregation argue that the working time is an additionalfactor that is important for understanding of the mixed professions’ internalsegregation.

Segregation has been shown to be very stable. However, higher educa-tion is contributing to desegregation processes in the labour market wherehigher educating women are entering into male dominated high qualifiedjobs (Bettio and Verashchagina, 2009). As profession journalism has for





long been male dominated, but is now one of the few professions withbalanced gender division in terms of equal distribution of women andmen. Our objectives are interesting from this background: Have workingconditions, in terms of time pressure, for women and men been influencedby the integration of the sexes that has taken place in journalist profession,and how these conditions are related to health. Gender segregation is a wideconcept (Bettio and Verashchagina, 2009). Instead of studying relationsbetween women and men, the interest in this article is in comparing them.

Objectives

In order to investigate the patterns of time pressure and health amongjournalists in daily newspaper industry the following questions were asked:

1. How frequently do female and male journalists report six differentaspects of time pressure and seven different measures of health onthree editorial offices in Sweden?

2. How are different time pressure indicators related to each other?3. What are the relationships between various health indicators?4. What health indicators are related to time pressure for female and male

journalists?

The study is exploratory in nature and therefore descriptive statistics areused to explore associations between different aspects of time pressure andself-reported health.

In addition to work condition family conditions and private circum-stances could add workload and stress (Larsson, 2007; Sirianni andNegrey, 2000; SOU, 2002). It is important to link these spheres together,and examine the total time pressure. However, in this article, we havechosen to focus on the association between time pressure and health onthe basis of conditions in paid work.

Materials and methods

We have used case study as a research strategy. One large sized, onemedium sized and one small sized daily newspaper were included in thestudy. They were studied holistically in a frame of a larger research projectby including quantitative and qualitative sources of evidences (Tyrkko andKarlqvist, 2005). The project followed an interactive research approachaiming to contribute to development of the physical and psychosocialwork environment. This article presents results from a questionnairestudy which was a part of this project.





Material

There are about 160 newspapers published in Sweden in 2010. The threeeditorial offices investigated in this study were a small office, a medium sizedoffice (both located in the middle of Sweden) and a large sized office(located in the south-west of Sweden). They belong to two differentgroups of newspapers of different size and location. The large sized officebelongs to a group of daily morning paper published in the three main citiesin Sweden. This type of publication represents about 25% of total news-paper circulation. The two others belong to the group of regional and localnewspapers which are published at least three times a week. The averagecirculation amounts to about 35,000 copies, representing about 45% oftotal circulation (European Journalism Centre, 2010).

The population studied consisted of journalists (92%) and some otheroffice staff groups (8%) at these three editorial offices. We refer to ourstudy group as ‘‘journalists’’. The medium-sized editorial office had 70journalists and the small sized office had 27 journalists. The large sizedoffice had 314 journalists. Jobs in the editorial offices included in ourstudy were writers, editors, bureau chiefs, photographers, archivists andadministrators, while receptionists, salespeople and computer technicianswere excluded.

Methods

Questionnaire. Information was collected by a self-administrated ques-tionnaire sent to all journalists in October 2000 (large sized) or December2001 (other offices).2 Response rate was 78% (320 respondents) varyinglittle among the offices. Among the journalists at the small sized office theresponse rate was 80%, at the medium sized office 81%, and at the largesized office 77%. The main reasons given for not participating were parentalleave and sickness absence. The questions were adapted from the question-naires from a study by Kjellberg and Wadman (2002) and from an unpub-lished study (Kjellberg et al., 2002) of the large sized office included in thisarticle. The questionnaire covered several areas such as working conditions,work load, physical and psychosocial conditions, education, salary, aspectsof physical and mental health and work–family interface. The respondentswere asked about a variety of time-related experiences, including forms oftime pressure and their frequency.

Measures. In this study the time pressure is considered as an aspect ofindividuals’ psychosocial working conditions (Dapkus, 1985; Roxburgh,2004). Health was measured with questions on general health (Steiner





and Norman, 1989) and several different aspects of health related symp-toms. We used answers from six questions in the questionnaire that repre-sent time pressure and seven questions that represent health (seeAppendices A and B). These indicators were assessed with the samescales as in the previous research (Tyrkko and Karlqvist, 2002; Kjellbergand Wadman, 2002). Job title and years of experience were used as controlvariables.

Time pressure was assessed using six indicators. Responses underdrawnin Appendix A were considered as cases having time pressure.

1. Tight deadlines2. Short of time in relation to good results3. Difficult to think because of frantic work environment4. Short of time for reflection5. Forced to cut down on lunchtime, to work overtime or to take job home.

This question was not included in the questionnaire used in data collec-tion at the small and medium sized offices.

6. Lack of efficiency

Health was measured by using seven indicators (see Appendix B forfurther details):

1. Self-reported general health. Responses underdrawn in Appendix B wereconsidered as cases being unhealthy.

2. The following six indicators were constructed as indexes (seeAppendix B).

3. Neck and arm symptoms4. Psychosomatic symptoms5. Stress. In the questionnaire, some responses are in opposite order. In the

index the items are recoded in the same direction. Respondents wereconsidered to have stress symptoms if the total score divided by sixwas greater than 2.4, as recommended as the zero point in the stress-energy model (Kjellberg and Wadman, 2002).

6. Tiredness7. Negative emotions8. Short of energy. In the questionnaire, some responses are in

opposite order. In the index the items are recoded in the samedirection. Respondents were considered to be short of energy ifthe total score divided by six was greater than 2.7, as recommendedas the zero point in the stress-energy model (Kjellberg and Wadman,2002).





Control variables were:

1. Job title: ‘‘What is your job title?’’ Five alternatives: writer and editor,photographer administrator, bureau chief and the others.

2. Years of experience: ‘‘How long have you been working at this news-paper office?’’

Statistical analysis

The gender difference in exposure frequency and prevalence of symptomswas expressed as a difference between proportions with 95% confidenceintervals (Gardner and Altman, 1989). The association between time pres-sure and health was investigated by correlations and index construction.Spearman’s rank order (Spearman’s rho) was used to compute measures ofassociations between time pressure and health variables, respectively. Theassociations between time pressure and health variables were calculated byusing partial correlation analysis by taking into consideration the effects ofjob title and years of experience. Significance levels were 0.001, 0.01 and0.05. The statistical package used for the analysis was Statistical Packagefor the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0.

Results

Different aspects of time pressure and health: How common arethey?

Table 1 indicates the frequency with which female and male journalists atthe three editorial offices felt time pressure and the different healthsymptoms.

The table gives mixed grades when it comes to time pressure relatedfactors. There were no statistically significant differences between femaleand male journalists. A little less than 50% of them seemed to have shortof time in relation to good results at least a couple of times a week. About25% stated that they perform their work under pressure of deadlines at leasta couple times a week. Many journalists reported lack of efficiency.

As shown, Table 1, the greatest gender difference was found in neck/shoulder symptoms. As many as 51% of the women reported these symp-toms and only 27% of the men, difference: 24% (95% CI: 14–34). Morethan 80% of the journalists showed signs of stress as measured by the stress-energy model (Kjellberg and Wadman, 2002). On the other hand, theyshowed much of high engagement (either under press or without press) in





their work and only 6% reported that they were short of energy (bored).Their general health was reported very good or good by 62%.

Correlations between different time pressure aspects

The relations between time pressure indicators were explored. Not surpris-ingly, all six indicators correlated positively, although the correlations were

Table 1. The relative frequency (%) of women and men with time pressure related

and health related factors; difference between the percentage of women and men with

95% confidence intervals (CI).

Women

N¼ 153

Men

N¼ 167

W/M diff

(95% CI)

Time pressure related factors % %

Tight deadlines (n¼ 312) 29 25 4 (�5–14)

Short of time in relation to good results

(n¼ 310)

43 46 �3 (�14–8)

Difficult to think because of frantic

work environment (n¼ 313)

14 13 1 (�7–8)

Short of time for reflection (n¼ 317) 16 12 4 (�4–11)

Forced to cut down on lunchtime, to

work over time or to take job home

(n¼ 184)a (90 women, 94 men)

45a 54a�9 (�23–6)

Lack of efficiency (n¼ 311) 40 38 2 (�9–13)

Health related factors % %

Neck and arm symptoms (n¼ 314) 51 b 27 b 24 (14–34)

Psychosomatic symptoms (n¼ 314) 19 16 3 (�6–15)

Stress (n¼ 309) 87 81 6 (�2–14)

Tiredness (n¼ 315) 50 49 1 (�10–12)

Negative emotions (n¼ 305) 50 42 8 (�3–19)

Short of energy (n¼ 306) 4 7 �3 (�8–2)

Self-reported general health (n¼ 309)

Very good 22 18 4 (�5–13)

Good 41 43 �2 (�13–9)

Either good or bad 29 30 �1 (�11–9)

Bad 7 9 �2 (�8–4)

Very bad 0 0 0

aThis aspect of time pressure could only be explored at the large editorial office (see ‘‘Methods’’

section).bItalic indicates significant differences between women and men.





of different strength. In general, the correlations seemed to be higher amongwomen than among men (Table 2). The highest correlated forms of timepressure for men were those based on short of time for reflection and lack ofefficiency (0.460). For women the highest correlated forms of time pressurewere based on short of time in relation to good results and tight deadlines(0.564). These two time pressure variables were rather strongly correlated tothe length of workday, measured by forced to cut down lunchtime, to workovertime or to take job home, among women (0.467 and 0.496,

Table 2. Correlation coefficients between different time pressure variables among

men and women at three editorial offices.

Tight

deadlines

Short of

time in

relation

to good

results

Difficult

to think

because of

frantic work

environment

Short of

time for

reflection

Forced

to cut

down

on lunch

time, etc.

Men

Short of time in relation

to good results

0.434**

Difficult to think because

of frantic work

environment

0.309** 0.395**

Short of time for

reflection

0.236** 0.406** 0.336**

Forced to cut down on

lunch time, etc.

0.149 0.213* 0.207* 0.105

Lack of efficiency 0.156* 0.382** 0.436** 0.460** 0.165

Women


to good results

0.564**


of frantic work

environment

0.326** 0.392**

Short of time for

reflection

0.236** 0.300** 0.207*


lunch time, etc.

0.496** 0.467** 0.227** 0.123

Lack of efficiency 0.419** 0.456** 0.442** 0.311** 0.423**

*p< 0.05; **p< 0.01.





respectively). For men the correlations between these variables were con-siderably lower (0.213 and 0.149).

For several factors, correlations were about 0.4–0.5 (moderate correl-ation, see Williams, 1968). Thus, these factors showed moderate correl-ations with each other and were included simultaneously in the cominganalyses with health aspects. The most closely related variables were notthe same among men and women.

Correlations between different health symptoms

In the second analysis, the relations among health symptom indicators wereexplored. The highest correlated forms of health symptoms for both menand women were those based on tiredness and negative emotions (Table 3).For men the correlation was 0.659 (substantial relationship, Williams, 1968)

Table 3. Correlation coefficients between different health symptom variables among

men and women at three editorial offices.

General

health

Neck

and arm

symptoms

Psycho-somatic

symptoms Stress Tiredness

Short of

energy

Men

Neck and arm

symptoms

0.295**

Psycho-somatic

symptoms

0.336** 0.273**

Stress 0.262** 0.198* 0.454**

Tiredness 0.323** 0.264** 0.599** 0.607**

Short of energy 0.152 0.066 0.154 0.141 0.162*

Negative emotions 0.443** 0.413** 0.568** 0.490** 0.659** 0.224**

Women

Neck and arm

symptoms

0.403**

Psycho-somatic

symptoms

0.482** 0.349**

Stress 0.215** 0.170* 0.474**

Tiredness 0.323** 0.263** 0.628** 0.640**

Short of energy �0.016 �0.058 0.098 0.034 0.052

Negative emotions 0.443** 0.364** 0.612** 0.479** 0.712** 0.151

*p< 0.05; **p< 0.01.





and for women 0.712 (marked relationship, Williams, 1968). Tiredness cor-related also with stress and psychosomatic symptoms for both men (0.607and 0.599) and for women (0.640 and 0.628). Short of energy only corre-lated weakly with tiredness among men and not at all among women.

For several factors, correlations were about 0.4–0.7. Throughout, mostcorrelations were of higher strength for the women than for the men. Thus,these factors show rather high correlations with each other, and wereincluded simultaneously in the coming analyses with time pressure.

General health correlated with all symptoms with exception of short ofenergy among both men and women, but the correlations were rather weak(range 0.262–0.443 among men and 0.215–0.482 among women).

Correlations between time pressure and health

To assess the different dimensions of time pressure on reported health out-comes, we based the analyses on all variables, e.g. six questions on timepressure and seven questions on health. The correlations between time pres-sure and health variables were calculated holding constant the externalinfluences of job title and years of experience. To start with, each variablewas analysed separately (Table 4).

There were gender differences in the associations between health andaspects of time pressure (Table 4). Stress was associated with almost alltime pressure factors in women and men. The strongest association withstress symptoms in women occurred with the item ‘‘forced to cut down onlunchtime, to work over time or to take job home because of the amount ofwork’’ (0.511). ‘‘Short of time for reflection’’ also showed a substantialrelationship to stress (0.417). In men, stress was most connected with a‘‘frantic and messy working situation’’ (0.450). Tiredness was associatedwith only one time pressure factor in women, ‘‘forced to cut down onlunchtime, to work over time or to take job home’’ (0.385). Among themen, tiredness was associated most strongly with ‘‘lack of efficiency’’(0.300).

One interesting finding was that few associations existed between timepressure factors and neck and shoulder symptoms. The female journalistsreported more musculoskeletal symptoms but these seemed not to be con-nected to time pressure at all. On the other hand, there were positive rela-tionships between neck–shoulder symptoms and ‘‘tight deadlines’’, ‘‘shortof time in relation to good results’’ and ‘‘forced to cut down on lunchtime,to work over time or to take job home’’ for the men.

‘‘General health’’ seemed not to be connected to time pressure at all formen. ‘‘Short of time for reflexion’’ correlated significantly (p< 0.01) with‘‘general health’’ for women.





Discussion

The study aimed to shed light on the relationship between time pressure andhealth among journalists from a gender perspective.

The main findings are summarized below.

1. How frequently do female and male journalists report six differentaspects of time pressure and seven different measures of health onthree editorial offices in Sweden?

Table 4. Correlation coefficients between different time pressure variables and differ-

ent health symptom variables among men and women at three editorial offices, con-

trolled for job titles and years of experience.

General

health

Neck

and arm

symptoms

Psycho-

somatic

symptom Stress Tiredness

Short of

energy

Negative

emotions

Men

Tight deadlines �0.152 0.262* 0.010 0.264* �0.050 �0.170 0.108


to good results

0.034 0.251* 0.131 0.369** 0.223* �0.213 0.272*


of frantic work

environment

�0.061 0.095 0.079 0.450*** 0.103 �0.018 0.173

Short of time for

reflection

�0.093 0.146 0.054 0.184* 0.000 0.096 0.134


lunch time, etc.

0.030 0.221* 0.183 0.157 0.297** �0.088 0.215

Lack of efficiency 0.169 0.062 0.315** 0.303** 0.300** �0.005 0.288**

Women

Tight deadlines 0.115 �0.095 0.145 0.262** 0.193 �0.037 0.125


to good results

0.207 �0.008 0.151 0.368** 0.143 �0.067 0.146


of frantic work

environment

0.224 �0.116 0.271* 0.266* 0.222 �0.055 0.195

Short of time for

reflection

0.346** 0.072 0.227 0.417*** 0.190 �0.068 0.313**


lunch time, etc.

0.035 �0.082 0.198 0.511*** 0.385** �0.091 0.110

Lack of efficiency 0.052 0.082 0.209 0.221 0.094 0.048 �0.017

*p< 0.05; **p< 0.01; ***p< 0.001.





A little less than 50% of female and male journalists seemed to haveshort of time in relation to good results at least a couple of times a week.As many as 45% of the women and 54% of men were forced to cut downon lunchtime, to work over time, or to take job home at the large edi-torial office. Of all, 29% of women and 25% of men stated that theyperform their work under pressure of deadlines at least a couple times aweek. Many journalists reported lack of efficiency.As many as 51% of the women and only 27% of the men reported neck/shoulder symptoms, which was a significant difference. More than 80%of the journalists showed signs of ‘‘stress’’ as measured by the stress-energy model (Kjellberg and Wadman, 2002). On the other hand, theyshowed much of high engagement in their work and only 6% reportedthat they were short of energy. Their general health was reported verygood or good by 62%.

2. How are different time pressure indicators related to each other?All six time pressure indicators correlated positively, although the cor-relations were of different strength. In general, the correlations seemed tobe higher among women than among men.

3. What are the relationships between various health indicators?The highest correlated forms of health symptoms for both men andwomen were those based on tiredness and negative emotions followedby stress.

4. What health indicators are related to time pressure for female and malejournalists?

There were gender differences in the associations between health andaspects of time pressure. Stress was associated with almost all time pres-sure factors in women and men. The strongest association with stresssymptoms in women occurred with the item ‘‘forced to cut down onlunchtime, to work over time or to take job home because of theamount of work’’.

In men, stress was most connected with a ‘‘frantic and messy workingsituation’’. The greatest difference between men and women concerningtime pressure variables influencing health variables were ‘‘lack of effi-ciency’’, where men showed statistically significant associations withhealth symptoms ascertained by all items except ‘‘general health’’, ‘‘neck/shoulder symptoms’’ and ‘‘short of energy’’. For this time pressure variablewomen showed no statistically significant health symptoms at all. On theother hand, women showed a larger number of associations between ‘‘shortof time for reflection’’ and health symptoms (three variables) than men (onevariable). When women felt they had ‘‘short of time for reflection’’ in theirjob and had to ‘‘cut down on lunchtime, to work over time or to take job





home’’ they reported stress, tiredness and negative emotions. When menthought their work situation ‘‘lacked efficiency’’, they reported many symp-tom variables, especially stress, tiredness, negative emotions and psycho-somatic symptoms.

Concept of time pressure

The time pressure indicators in our study are linked to different aspects oftime use and temporalities related with the psychosocial working condi-tions. ‘‘Tight deadlines’’ refers to the volume of time required to completesets of tasks in relation to an allocation of tasks within time (see Southertonand Tomlinson, 2005). The most common time mechanism in the journal-ists’ accounts of their work is scheduled time. They have to work accordingto externally imposed and controlled timetables, such as deadlines, ‘‘handover’s’’ between shifts, meetings and press conferences. Deadlines areencountered again and again and they make journalists aware of anddependent on the passing of time. Our results show that women moreoften than men had to meet tight deadlines. This difference, however, wasnot significant. For women tight deadlines was rather strongly correlated tothe length of workday. For men the correlation between these variables wasnot significant. For both women and men tight deadlines were highestcorrelated to the quality of job in form of good results.

We have read newspapers for several centuries, but according to Lash(2002) it makes a difference that the amount and speed of information insociety as a whole has increased drastically (e.g. Boczkowski, 2005). Thework leaves no space for a journalist to breathe, to be alone or to think. Onecould argue that the ‘‘‘basic human right’ to be slow’’ (Tella, 2000: 87), to bereflective is threatened. Looking at the results according to this aspect oftime pressure, we see that, in contrary to our expectations, there were not somany journalists lacking time to reflection. Women, more often than men,had short of time to reflection, but this difference was not significant.

Time pressure is often studied as an individual problem requiring indi-vidual coping strategies (Larsson, 2007; cf. Francis-Smythe and Robertson,1999). ‘‘Forced to cut down lunchtime, to work over time or to take jobhome’’ refers to a challenge of controlling time. It deals with extendedworking hours by reducing time spent in leisure and other activities, aswell as to allocation of tasks. It can be seen as a consequence of timepressure and as a strategy to mastering it. However, the ability to finishtasks within the assigned working hours, may not only depend on individ-ual aspects, but may also be related to how the work is organised. It indi-cates transcending the rigid time and space related boundaries of workingday and/or working place (Harenstam et al., 2005). The percentage of those





who have been forced to cut down on lunch time, to work overtime or totake work home in the whole workforce in Sweden has increased since 2003for both women and men, to about 40% among men and 35% amongwomen in 2007 (SCB, 2003; SWEA, 2008). Compared to these results thepercentages were higher in our study. Men used more often this strategy.There are, however, a number of interesting dimensions of how this variableis associated to other time pressure aspects and health conditions. Thesedifferent patterns of association could be due to different workload outsidethe workplace.

Efficiency is about being focused, organized and productive at work. Itmight be possible that time pressure stimulates performance (for example, interms of efficiency) through increasing the tempo in work. There might be athreshold for time pressure when it turns to have efficiency costs. On the otherhand, time pressure can also be an effect of lack of efficiency (e.g. due tofrequent interruptions in work, see Boisard et al., 2005). Lack of efficiencyseems to be a key factor for health consequences of time pressure for men inour study. For women the correlation between this variable and the otherforms of time pressure was significant but links to health were not as clear asamong men. For women longer work hours was a more important factor.

Concept of health

Seven different health indicators were used in this study. Some reflect fre-quency (musculoskeletal and psychosomatic symptoms, tiredness), someintensity (stress, energy and negative emotions) and one a subjective‘‘feeling’’ (general health). Self-reported general health: ‘‘How would youestimate your general health right now? Is it . . . very good, relatively good,neither good nor bad, relatively bad, very bad?’’ This question has beenshown to have good test–retest reliability and correlates strongly with otherdirect or indirect measures of health (Idler and Benyamini, 1997; Steinerand Norman, 1989). In this study only slightly more than 60% of the jour-nalists rated their general health very good or good compared to above 75%in other comparable studies. This variable correlated significantly, howeverlow, with all other health indicators, with exception of ‘‘short of energy’’,among both men and women. General health ratings are broad and seemednot to relate specific to time pressure variables. As shown in this study, thecombination of different time pressure factors and different health indica-tors has a more complicated association.

Neck–shoulder symptoms are common among employees within com-puter intensive jobs and musculoskeletal symptoms are more commonamong women (Karlqvist et al., 2002; Ortiz-Hernandez et al., 2003;Punnett and Herbert, 2000) as shown in our study of journalists. This





variable correlated significantly, however rather low, with three other healthindicators beside general health (negative emotions, psychosomatic symp-toms and tiredness). Psychosomatic symptoms correlated significantly withthree other health indicators (tiredness, negative emotions and stress).Stress symptoms, as measured in this study with the stress-energy model(Kjellberg and Wadman, 2002), correlated significantly with two otherhealth indicators (tiredness and negative emotions). Tiredness showed amarked relationship with negative emotions.

The stress-energy model has earlier been used, for example, amongassembly workers in car body factory and an electronic industry, employeesof a travel agency and journalists from a daily newspaper (Kjellberg andWadman, 2002). Among other things, they found hardly any journalists ortravel agency employees in the low energy group. The complaints reportedby the journalists and the travel agency employees were strongly correlatedto stress scores but not at all to energy scores. In our study we found amajority of the journalists in the high energy group and the same conclu-sions about complaints and energy can be drawn to our study.

Gender, time pressure and health

One starting point for the present study was that different indicators of timepressure were not completely interchangeable, even though they could meas-ure the same latent dimension to some extent (cf. Ballard and Seibold, 2004).But even though the indicators are interrelated and have common influenceson an individual’s health, there could also be some unique mechanism(s)that link each dimension to health. Furthermore, a specific time pressuremeasure may have varying impact on health for women and men.

While the level of time pressure was roughly equal across gender, theassociations between time pressure and health were stronger among womenthan men. The six dimensions seemed to be of varying importance amongfemale and male journalists studied due to the different aspects of theirhealth.

Our analyses show that time pressure factors to some extent reflect over-lapping time pressure in terms of short of time in relation to tasks to getdone. The variable ‘‘short of time in relation to good results’’ has shownhigh relation to high demands (Karasek, 1979) in the journalistic job(Tyrkko and Karlqvist, 2005). This relation has been validated byKjellberg and Wadman (2002). High pressure in time indicates highmental demands. Evaluations of stress levels in our study indicated co-variations with the level of demands in this respect. Earlier studies showthat severe time pressure does not only correlate with low well-being andmental health problems (Roxburgh, 2004) but it is often a central aspect in





life situations which generates mental problems (SOU, 2002). Psychosocialload is dominated by regularly working under time pressure (Boisard et al.,2005). We found different relations between the ill health symptoms causedby stress and the feelings of being under time pressure among men andwomen. The connection between stress, as well as tiredness, and time pres-sure was a rather general feature for the three editorial offices and mostblatantly for the women.

The results show the importance of the different time pressure and healthindicators. Health results are different for women and men: men in thisstudy tend to be in better health than women. Women in the three editorialoffices reported more musculoskeletal symptoms than men in almost allbody regions, especially neck and shoulders, which also are in line withearlier studies (Bernard et al., 1994; Nelson and Silverstein, 1998, Ortiz-Hernandez et al., 2003). Increased time pressure is also related to the occur-rence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (Bernard et al., 1994;Devereux et al., 2004; Karlqvist et al., 2002). In the study by Karlqvistet al. (2002), the ‘‘probability of meeting time limits and quality demands’’(time pressure) was shown to be associated with higher prevalence of mus-culoskeletal symptoms among female visual display unit (VDU) operatorsand lower prevalence of symptoms among male VDU operators. Kjellbergand Wadman (2002) showed that the variable ‘‘short of time in relation togood results’’ increased the risk of getting musculoskeletal symptoms.Contrary to what was expected, musculoskeletal symptoms were, to a lowextent, only associated with time pressure among the men in our study.

Job title refers to the different occupational positions of women and men.The work organization puts different demands on employees in differentpositions. These demands also intervene in the family life. By controlling forjob titles, we have controlled for the gender segregation based on organ-izational factors that has previously been shown to matter to working time(Bettio and Verashchagina, 2009; Djerf-Pierre, 2007). Thus, we could focuson time pressure and its association to health.

The character of the journalistic work

The working conditions are dependent of the profession carried out.Journalists, as well as employees in many other occupations, work undersevere time constrain (i.e. a rapid and jerky tempo, demanding alertness)(Deuze, 2005; Lofgren Nilsson, 1999; Sørensen and Grimsmo, 1993). Timecompetence (see Fuehrer, 2010; Kirner et al., 2004) means, among otherthings, that a journalist must be able to report quickly and accurately andthat he or she has to plan and organize his/her own work in relation to thecollective working process. Particularly distinguishing for the journalistic





work is the demand for time and quality to match each day (LofgrenNilsson, 1999: 207).

More than 80% of respondents in a Swedish study 2005 listed timepressure as one of the most distinguishing features of this job (LofgrenNilsson, 2007). Our results reinforce the findings on this earlier study:time pressure appears to be the prime contributing factor to high stresslevels faced by journalists today. The association between time pressureand health among men and women is different. The challenge for employeesis to effectively managing stress in journalistic work. The first step is toidentify the top sources of time pressure for women and men. The causesbehind time pressure in journalistic work at editorial offices are complex,relating to personal ambitions, newspapers’ market situation, staffing, thetechnical capability to transmit information and many other factors. Mostnewspapers today are working under economic pressure, which hasimpacted staff size and workload in the editorial offices. Long hours andchronic deadline pressure can be significantly negative factors among jour-nalists with ‘‘limitless’’ working conditions (Hansson, 2004; Harenstamet al., 2005). These are factors that contribute to stress. Our study wasfocused in factors inside the work places and did not look at these abovementioned factors. One might add that in many countries journalism is avery dangerous profession covering violence, accidents, trauma, crime andwar. These conditions are dangerous to health and life and certainly addmore stress in journalistic work but were not included in our study.

The general health among the journalists in this study was lower (62%very good or good) than comparable studies, which report above 75%among white collar workers (SCB, 2006). This might be a consequenceconsidering their work with many factors of time pressure. On the otherhand, we knew, based on results of our previous study (Tyrkko andKarlqvist, 2005) that men, who still worked at one of the editorial offices,where only those with good health. ‘‘Healthy worker effect’’ means thateither will those, from healthy aspects, most suitable be employed (primaryhealthy worker effect) or will those showing unhealthy symptoms leave theiremployment (secondary healthy worker effect) (Last, 1988). We could elim-inate some effects of ‘‘secondary healthy worker effect’’ by keeping the yearsof experience under control when studying the association between healthand time pressure.

Our earlier research of journalistic work (Tyrkko and Karlqvist, 2005)shows that a great majority of journalists report that they find their workvery rewarding. A strong commitment to work might explain why there wasa weak association between time pressure and short of energy. In a studywhere, among others, Norwegian journalists took part, Burke andFiskenbaum (2009) found less obsessive job behaviours, greater work





satisfactions and higher levels of psychological well-being among respond-ents scoring higher on ‘‘passion’’ in a ‘‘passion versus addiction’’ question-naire. Reinardy (2011) raises some serious issues about the future ofjournalism in his study of burnout among journalists, and their intentionsto leave the profession. He found that younger journalists (34 and younger)are more dissatisfied than older journalists, and indicate intentions to leave.The main reasons that create job dissatisfaction and exodus were money orsalary, hours or schedule, stress or burnout and family life.

It seems that time pressure do not affect everybody at editorial offices inthe same way. The organizational time is not monotemporal, but pluritem-poral, which means that different types of time exist in parallel and simul-taneously (Ballard and Seibold, 2004, cf. Butler, 1995). Different groups at aneditorial office (e.g. writers, editors and chiefs) have their own temporalitydepending on how time is organized in work practices. In many type ofjournalistic work there is a gender-based differentiation of positions andareas of coverage (Djerf-Pierre, 2007). As reported elsewhere (Tyrkko andKarlqvist, 2005) the job titles were partly different for women and men at thethree editorial offices in this study why this factor was included in our ana-lysis as a control variable. Job titles are partly task oriented and not onlybased on the organizational structure. Hence it is meaningful to make directcomparisons between men and women doing the same type of job. It wouldbe of interest to study how job descriptions are being formed and how thesedescriptions are reflected in occupational positions. This is an aspect of jour-nalistic work where we most likely will see major changes in the future(Boczkowski, 2005). However, it is outside the scope of this study.

Methodological considerations

Questionnaires for self-evaluation were used as methods to analyse timepressure and health. One large sized, one medium sized and one smallsized daily newspaper were included in the study. A total of 320 staff mem-bers answered the questionnaire. Since this is a cross-sectional and relativelysmall study, there is not enough material to draw far-reaching conclusions.

Opportunities to generalize from the results of the case studies are oftenbased on the existing theories the study is based on. Generalization to alarger population or other sectors is more difficult and less exact. Althoughthe history and culture of journalism might play a role in how the work atan editorial office is perceived by its staff, it does at the same time representa modern sector of society where information handling rather than materialprocessing is at the forefront. In this sense the conclusions from this casestudy would have relevance for working conditions from a gender perspec-tive in other professional areas.





Our aim was to contribute with additional facts and understanding ofgender differences in journalists’ work and health. Underlying our contri-bution to the discussion was that journalist jobs is a profession withbalanced gender division. Our detailed case study of association of timepressure and health within this occupation has hinted at ways in whichbreakdowns in occupational segregation have been replaced by otherforms of gender segregation. Our analyses question the usefulness of con-centration to the occupation level and therefore underestimate the genderdifferences even within balanced occupations.

The study of the relationship between time pressure and health poses anumber of methodological problems. There are several biases that tend toconceal any direct link between them (Boisard et al., 2005). Our earlierstudy among the same journalists showed that frequency of time pressurewas rather identical at the three working places in newspaper productionincluded in this article, irrespective of financial status, number of employeesand circulation. Pressure to produce quickly was as high for the slimmedorganisation of the big city newspaper, which was competing on a toughmedia market, as for the small newspaper that struggled for survival(Tyrkko and Karlqvist, 2005). To study members in the same occupationalgroup in the same media sector and by controlling for job titles and years ofexperience helped us to minimise some effects of biases associated withdifferent working conditions.

The aim of our study was essentially descriptive. We obtained informa-tion on the frequency of time pressure and its dimensions, but not on itsreasons. Even where high levels of time pressure and health problems arereported, circumstances other than the job are commonly involved(Larsson, 2007; Roxburgh, 2004). In addition to time pressure in workthere can also be time pressure in private life and, especially, related toactivities which combines these spheres (Larsson, 2007). For instance,women who are both working and raising families are more apt to reporthigher levels of stress (Roxburgh, 2004; Zuzanek, 2004). Separated anddivorced parents similarly report more stress and time–pressure problems(Zuzanek, 2004). Even though it is important to link these spheres together(see e.g. Tyrkko, 1999), and examine the total time pressure, we have chosento focus on the association between time pressure and health on the basis ofconditions in paid work.

Conclusions

The analysis of time pressure and health among journalists indicates asso-ciations with different strengths for women and men. Health problems arenot equally sensitive to time pressure. Stress and tiredness are particularly





associated with time pressure. Our data were not sufficient to analyse caus-ality relationships between time pressure and health.

Based on the results, we suggest some propositions and a series of dir-ections for future research:

Journalist profession is one of the few professions with balanced gender div-

ision. Although generalizability of our findings is limited, the results may

include several implications for future comparative research of time pressure

and health in gender segregated sectors of the labour market.

The time frame of the journalists is not only caused by terms of production,

but is related to private life. This study includes only paid work. Future

studies would take family related work in consideration when study time

pressure and health.

This study did not explore the pathway between time pressure and healththat has to be done in future studies.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public,commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

1. The respondents were members in The Union of Swedish Journalists, which has

about 18,000 members in 2000. The level of organization of Swedish journalists isalmost 100% (Swedish Association for Journalists, 2007).

2. The study at the large sized office was made by Kjellberg et al. (2002) at NationalInstitute for Working Life.

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Appendix A

Measures for time pressure factors

Questions Responses

Factors

considered related

How often do you have

deadlines which are hard

to keep?

Every day, a couple of times

a week, a couple of

times a month, more

infrequently

Tight deadlines

Underlined responses

(continued)



http://www.av.se/english

http://www.av.se/english

http://www.sjf.se

http://www.helsinki.fi/~tella/mep9.html

http://www.helsinki.fi/~tella/mep9.html



Appendix B

Measures for health factors

Continued.

Questions Responses

Factors

considered related

How often does it happen

that you have too little

time to get a good result?

As above Short of time in relation to

good results


Does it happen that it is so

frantic and messy at the

work place that it’s difficult

for you to think a clear

thought?

Almost never, rather

rarely, sometimes, quite

often, almost always

Difficult to think because of

frantic work environment


At my work, I have a good

opportunity to reflect on

what I’m doing.

Strongly disagree, disagree,

neutral, agree, strongly

agree

Short of time for reflection


Do you have so much to do

that you are forced to cut

down on lunchtime, to

work overtime or to take

your job home because of

the amount of work?

Every day, a couple of times

a week, a couple of

times a month, more

infrequently


lunchtime, to work over-

time or to take job home


Do you think that you in

general have a working

situation which allows you

to work efficiently?

Almost never, rather rarely,

sometimes quite often,

almost always

Lack of efficiency


Questions Responses Factors considered related

How would you estimate your

general health right now?

Very good, relatively good,

neither good nor bad, rela-

tively bad, very bad

Self-reported general health

How often during the last three

months have you had symp-

toms from: a) neck or upper

back, b) lower back, c) shoul-

ders or arms, d) wrists or

hands, e) hips, legs, knees

or feet?

Every day (5), twice a week

(4), one day per week (3),

twice a month (2), very

seldom or never (1) (at

least one day per week)

Neck and arm symptoms: Sum

of a) + c) with a total score

greater than 6

(continued)





Continued.

Questions Responses Factors considered related

How often during the last three

months have you had symp-

toms from: a) heartburn or

having a weak stomach, b)

being tired or listless, c) having

headache?

As above Psychosomatic symptoms: Sum

of a) + b) + c) with a total

score greater than 9 (at

least one day per week)

How do you in general feel

during work? a) relaxed, b)

tensed, c) stressed, d)

relieved, e) pressed,

f) calm?

A 6-grade scale for each

question: From not at all

(0) to extremely much (5)

Stress symptoms: Sum of

a) + b) + c) + d) + e) + f)

with a total score divided

by six greater than 2.4

Do you feel a) rested and

recovered when you start the

job in the morning, b) very

tired during the working day,

c) filled of energy during the

working day, d) exhausted

when coming home from

work, e) difficulty in relaxation

from thoughts about the job

when free, f) mentally fatigue

after the working day,

g) difficult to sleep depending

on thoughts on the job?


symptom: every day (5),

twice a week (4), one day

per week (3), twice a

month (2), very seldom or

never (1)

Tiredness: Sum of

a) + b) + c) + d) + e) + f) + g)

with a total score greater

than 18 (mean value)

How do you usually feel after a

working week:

a) unengaged, b) toiled, c) tight

muscles, d) eyes falling down,

e) numbness, f) used up, g)

drowsy, h) passive, i) stiff

joints, j) listless, k) yawn, l)

exhausted, m) sleepy, n) worn

out, o) pain, p) uninterested?



(0) to an extremely high

degree (6)

Negative emotions: Sum of a)

to p) with a total score

divided by six greater than

1.9 (mean value)

How do you in general feel

during work: a) active, b)

slack, c) energetic d) ineffi-

cient, e) sharp, f) passive?



(0) to extremely much (5)

Short of energy: Sum of

a) + b) + c) + d) + e) + f)

with a total score divided

by six greater than 2.7




Arja Tyrkkö and Lena Karlqvist - Gender Differences in Time Pressure and Health Among Journalists

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Transcript of Arja Tyrkkö and Lena Karlqvist - Gender Differences in Time Pressure and Health Among Journalists