Time perspective in the context of the unguaranteed work

The paper examines features of employees' time perspective in the conditions of the unguaranteed work. Proceeding from the studies revealing time perspective distortion in the unemployed, the hypothesis states that similar effects can be characteristic for the unguaranteed work. The analysis of research on time perspective suggests that little attention has been devoted to studying this issue. However, a person experiences the uncertainty of the present and the future in a situation of the unguaranteed work; this involves a change in time perspective. Depression as a indicator of subjective trouble is another important consequence of the experience of the unguaranteed work. The empirical study involved employees of various organizations of a large industrial city in the central part of Russia (n = 104). On the basis of subjective parameters of the unguaranteed work, the sample was split into two subsamples: (a) the respondents perceiving their work as unguaranteed (44 employees); (b) the respondents perceiving their work as relatively guaranteed (60 employees). Next, the rates of time perspective and the level of depression were compared in these two subgroups. The findings revealed statistically significant differences between temporal orientations and the level of depression. The scores of the orientation towards the negative past and the fatalistic present, as well as the level of depression were higher in the group of employees perceiving their work as unguaranteed. The correlation analysis of the unguaranteed work parameters, time perspective scores, and the level of depression indirectly confirmed the differences between two subsamples. Variance analysis showed that changes in time perspective and subjective perceiving work as unguaranteed contributed to increasing depression among employees perceiving their own work as unguaranteed. In its turn, increasing depression may heighten the perception of their own working status as insecure.