With unstable work, social supports become more important—and harder to find.

Many service workers juggle unstable schedules—they find out about a shift a day or even just hours before it starts, leaving them scrambling to find childcare, access transportation, and arrive at the job on time (in many cases, they’ll be penalized if they’re late.) Other times, workers may secure childcare and transportation in advance, then have that shift abruptly cancelled without pay. 

Workers often can’t risk turning down a last-minute shift, since they don’t know when the next will come. But they may not be able to tend to the relationships that might ease the impact of erratic schedules—getting to know neighbors who could watch a child last-minute, or keeping up with a friend who could lend a car when the bus has broken down.   

In their recent paper in Sociological Science, “The Double Bind of Precarious Work: Creating Need and Undermining Support,” Daniel Schneider and his co-authors explore the relationship between precarious work and social supports, finding that unstable work both erodes social networks and makes more necessary.  

Why does unstable work harm social supports? 

Unstable work hours make it hard to build relationships both on and off the job. Workers may be required to cancel plans with friends or family if they’re called in suddenly to work, or they may fear making those plans at all, knowing they may have to cancel. And unstable schedules also make it hard for workers to connect with one another, since they’re left with little time to socialize. 

What’s the relationship between social supports and unstable work? 

Precarious, unstable work can take a toll on workers’ well-being. It’s associated with poorer sleep, reduced happiness, and psychological distress, but Schneider and his co-authors find that social support can “buffer” workers against the negative effects of those unstable schedules. Using statistical analysis of a survey of more than 37,000 workers in the U.S. service sector, the researchers determined that social support is often behind the connection between unstable work and well-being, playing a role in that reduced happiness, poorer sleep, and psychological distress alike. 

Unfortunately, workers with unstable schedules are also less likely to feel they have access to social support. The authors call this the “double bind” of precarious work—unstable schedules lessen workers’ social support networks while, at the same time, making that support all the more necessary. 

“This vicious cycle,” the authors write, “is likely to act as a poverty trap that impedes day-to-day-coping as well as upward mobility for millions of low-wage workers and has immediate and longer-term repercussions for worker well-being.”