Study title

The annual survey studied employee opinion on the quality of working life in Finnish municipalities. Main themes were psychosocial working environment, job characteristics, pay systems, satisfaction with the job, employment security, training and development, capacity to work and discrimination at work. The year 2002 survey contained new questions on flexible working time and working outside normal hours. First, the respondents were asked how many years they had worked for the employer they were working for at the time, type of contract, number of persons at the workplace, what kind of changes there had been in staff numbers, working hours, contracts and organisational structure over the past 12 months, and whether people had been transferred to other units. Further questions covered team work, and whether there had been conflicts at the workplace, between what groups and whether the conflicts had decreased or increased over the past 12 months. Next set of questions covered autonomy and influence at work, overtime and its compensation, flexible working time options, working from home (telework), working outside office hours, and membership in a trade union or professional association. Changes over the past year in workload, physical or mental stress, in access to training were charted as well as pay systems and satisfaction with the workplace. One topic pertained to whether the respondents had presented any ideas to improve working conditions, products, services or working methods at the workplace and whether there had been other development initiatives. The respondents' participation in job-related training and development was investigated. They were asked how likely it was that they would be dismissed or laid off, or their tasks or working hours would be changed over the next year. Opinions were charted on employment situation in Finland and what kind of changes were happening in working life in, for instance, relating to management style, possibility to...