El trabajador de fin de semana en la sociedad del ocio. Tiempo de trabajo y calidad de vida en el sector servicios

Abstract

This article presents the results coming from a qualitative research carried out to reveal the emergent consequences that weekend work has on the life style and quality of life of workers. Until now, the sociology of work, and also political and social agents, has paid very little attention to weekend work, if any. On the contrary, there are many more studies on evenings and nights shifts. Weekend work is very relevant because it implies a radical interchange between leisure time and work time. While weekend workers are working, the rest of the people are enjoying their free or leisure time. On the contrary, when the weekend worker has his free time, the rest of the people are working. In fact, this asynchrony of his social time explains the most part of the negative consequences which come from weekend work. Weekend work reveals what we could name as the labor paradox of leisure society. In this society it is impossible that everybody enjoys free time simultaneously. Leisure society is a myth that masks a radical social inequality Characteristic of postmodern societies.